Yes. He’s a strong believer in the leitmotivs. So he makes a good use of them.
Pricklepants: True, but here it feels like the same “surf spy” style is used bring back the theme most of the time, whereas in Up or Ratatouille, the theme is played in a lot of different ways. Of course, this is only based on a bunch of 30 second samples. 
Having listened through the samples a couple of more times, these are my favorite tracks so far:
-Turbo Transmission
-Tarmac the Magnificent
-Porto Corsa
-The Other Shoot
Well, there’s also one instance where it’s played with country instruments. And there are some more electronic variations.
i like how mikey uses the same theme in several different ways. btw, some of those tracks are really short…for the entire movie? im sensing a cast/crew cd…
my favs so far, after listening to it hundred times today:
Turbo Transmission
It’s Finn McMissile
Cranking up the Heat
History’s biggest loser cars
Mater’s Getaway
Going to the Backup Plan
then again, i’ve only heard 30 seconds but, i like what i’ve heard in those 30 secs…
AHHH DAMET!!! WHY CAN;T THIS SOUNDTRACK RELEASE THIS WEEK!!! the more and more i listen to each track, it makes me wanna listen to the full thing.
Btw, if it’s down to me (of course it’s not), then I’ll not pick Polyrhythm, but choose this song instead:
youtube.com/watch?v=fhseD2tRLUY
It has everything!! Catchy tune, check! Sung in Japanese, check! But more than everything else, the name of the song is, wait for it, Mr. Taxi!! I mean CMON!! That would have been PERFECT for the movie + its car-related puns-laden.
SNSD fanboy rant over
Hi all…
Thanks for the link of the track samples at Amazon UK (interesting how they’re up on Amazon UK before Amazon US).
It was interesting to read everyone’s comments, including those of the person on the other blog who reviewed the soundtrack. He said outright that even the original Cars wasn’t one of his favorites, and it sounded like he was simply comparing it to The Incredibles… but you can’t do that. Cars 2 and The Incredibles are two completely different films. I’m glad Amazon UK had clips up for people to hear parts of the various tracks, but for what it’s worth, let me give one small piece of advice that I’ve given before: wait until the film comes out and see the film first before forming your opinions on the soundtrack. I have made this mistake in the past before myself, which is why I feel so strongly about this. In cases where I work on a film it’s different (because I see the visuals that the music accompanies so I know what it’s like together), but there have been cases with myself in the past where I’ve bought and listened to soundtracks before ever seeing the film (sometimes months before seeing the film if it was a foreign film) and in a nutshell, doing so has always spoiled the magic for me. You hear the music but have no idea what it’s tied to – and critique the music before having any idea what the big picture is. So I myself have stopped doing that, and if I get a soundtrack before seeing the film, I let it sit there until after I’ve watched the film. So whether you wind up loving it or hating it, even if you order the CD beforehand, why not wait to actually watch the movie first before opening it up and listening to its music? Remember, there’s only one “first time” of experiencing any movie. Enjoy it. 
Pop songs: yes, I guess you can’t escape them. To tell you the truth, I didn’t even listen to the small clips of those yet (since they’re all new to me, I’ll wait and be totally surprised with them when I see the film). Styles: yes… though the cool surf-guitar spy style permeates throughout the film, there are also different styles depending on the scenes, as you’ve heard (for instance, some great country fiddling, or evil villain music, etc). Also, as many of you pointed out, these are only 30 second clips – and I’ll tell you that there’s a lot more music in the movie than there is on this CD. So again, my advice (learned myself the hard way) is to watch the movie with everything together first.
Some misc things: Endrizzi94: sorry, I don’t post spoilers. Spirit of Adventure: Regarding Super 8, I hate comparing composers with each other (besides, shouldn’t a movie composer be able to compose in a style that fits the movie – and can mask who they are?) But the score’s excellent. As with my advice for Cars 2 (and for any movie), wait until you can experience the music with the movie together. I’m actually going to go see Super 8 this weekend (a week before it comes out), so I’ll finally get to see everything together in proper order. I’m looking forward to it (as I am with Cars 2). I’ve worked on other movies for the summer as well, but these are the two I’m looking forward to seeing in finished form.
CD Cover Artwork: I’m wondering if the art for the Cars 2 CD on Amazon UK (or Amazon US) is incorrect, or if the cover art will be different for the European CD vs the American CD. And for what it’s worth, for those of you in Southern California who are interested, Cars 2 will be playing at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood (as is usually the case with Pixar films). I walked by there the other day and picked up the glossy brochure. Besides the movie, they’ll have the “Cars 2 World Grand Prix Attraction.” “Over 3 1/2 hours of fun” (I assume including the movie). “Put the Pedal to the Metal at our All New Interactive Attraction Featuring Games of Skill and Loads or Excitement: -Time Trial Race Track, -Mission McMissile’s Spy Game, -Wall O’Tires Climbing Wall, -Eiffel Tower Bungee Jump -Tokyo Tower Slide… and much much more.” I don’t know if it’s on their website yet, but it’s elcapitantickets.com. Probably more geared towards younger kids. My personal observation: good thing it’s just the “Tokyo Tower Slide” and not the “Tokyo Sky Tree Slide” (do a wiki lookup).
That’s great, but the comparison doesn’t come from me, but from the filmmakers (including J.J. Abrams himself) who describe the project as an homage to early Spielberg movies. Most enthusiasts have theorized that the score would be also an homage, so don’t get offended.
I even read an old Giacchino interview where he talked about how much John Williams influenced his style, so my question has a basis.
I’m not sure if the music on the Super 8 site is actually from the score, but if it is, it’s very promising:
super8-movie.com/
Spirit of Adventure: Oh, I’m not offended at all, and it’s a fair question… but I’d just rather not answer it, because I don’t like comparing composers or scores. So… I’ll leave it up to all of you to decide.
But I did go to see Super 8 today (there was a screening for the crew at the studio), and… it was great
By the way, for all you Giacchino fans, Michael actually has a cameo in the movie (I won’t give it away)… but if you miss it, you can see his name in the CAST list at the end…
As far as whether or not the music on Super 8’s website is from the movie… yup, if you click on STORY or GALLERY and just listen, you can hear a bit of the movie’s main theme – though the online clip is unfortunately just a short snippet, and doesn’t do the theme justice when you finally hear it full and grandiose.
Guess there’s a little longer wait to see Cars 2, but at least it won’t be too long now. I’m surprised Amazon US still doesn’t have track samples up for the CD (only Amazon UK). Oh well. By the way, has anyone heard if there will be any midnight shows for it on the 23rd?
ha thats cool he has a lil cameo in super 8. and ya i find it odd that amazon us or itunes store hasn’t added samples for cars 2 yet. i also find it odd that the super 8 soundtrack releases on the 28th, while the movie comes out this friday…why is that?!
anyways im already in love with cars 2 theme. it sounds great so far. i also love the dark mysterious villainous themes.
when i work at pixar, hopefully after college, and eventually direct my own movies, i will always have mikey conduct my musical scores. i love the way he works.
only 18 more days until cars 2, and only 8 more days until the cars 2 soundtrack comes out
we are only a few days to listen to the complete Cars 2 soundtrack, it will be such a glorious day
itunes has the cars 2 soundtrack up.
^ really, my God 
, I’m gonna check it out later when I arrive home
look at what I found in youtube:
youtube.com/watch?v=AN1uVkcVBzA
now that “You might think” has premiered, I wonder know when will the other tracks will leak, we are just 13 days away from the release of the film
Hi everyone.
First of all, thanks bryanbmp for those links… very good clips of Michael talking about the scoring process.
Well, the Cars 2 Soundtrack is out now… I picked up a copy for myself the other day. I can confirm that for the US, it’s the artwork shown on the US Amazon site (though it seems that Amazon France, Amazon UK and Amazon Germany feature different artwork, so it’s likely the European version has a different cover). Thankfully though, the US cover art looks much better on the CD itself than it does online.
I won’t comment on the music because I haven’t listened to the CD yet for the reason that I mentioned earlier: that I always try to watch the completed movie first before listening to the music separately by itself (even though I worked on it).
However, I will comment on the presentation. The CD itself has a nice grey-black chex pattern with not too much printed on it besides the Cars 2 Logo, Giacchino’s name, and Walt Disney/Pixar. The brochure is a nice, full-color 16 page one that includes the lyrics to most of the songs (including both French and English lyrics for one of them) – though no lyrics or transliterations are included for Polyrhythm’s Japanese song. However on a personal note, one thing that’s sadly missing from the brochure are the names of the people who actually performed the score. Though having the list certainly isn’t mandatory, over the past couple of years it’s become more common to do so, especially since we musicians never get our names listed on the film itself (even though everyone else – from van drivers to caterers to babies born during production, have their names up in the credits now). Looking at my Wall-E CD, I see our names listed… likewise for Star Trek… Ratatouille… etc. It’s just kind of disappointing that they couldn’t have just set aside one part of a page to list our names.
There are 26 tracks in all, with a total running time of 63:34. The first 5 tracks are pop songs, with the rest (tracks 6-26) being score. It appears that there’s bonus content on the CD, for on the cover it says “BONUS CONTENT: Please insert CD into your computer to access bonus content. Internet connection required”, though I don’t know what it is, as I haven’t tried it out yet (if anyone else has, let us know what the bonus content is like).
Well, the movie will be out in a couple days. Hope everyone enjoys it!
I got my copy via Amazon MP3. Hopefully I didn’t miss out on anything too major. I don’t normally buy digital DLs for that reason, but… I had 10$ worth of Amazon credit from Swagbucks and yeeeeah. Sounds like a nice physical case too. Oh well. 8(
Anyways, without spoilers here…
It’s neat to see a different composer (and one we’re already familiar with) show their take on how Radiator Springs should sound. It’s very different from Mr. Newman. Softer and more string-filled I think.
I think his best stuff is when he gets into the overarching-spy riff that shows up in several tracks. That sounds awesome. I keep listening to “Turbo Transmission for it.”
My one major bummer is that a track isn’t on it that I would have really liked! I don’t even recall if it appeared in the final film, but it was the espionage thing with a young sounding chorus? You can hear it on the front page of the Cars official website. Buh bah duh bub bub… I really wanted that track.
There always seems to be that one track I really like missing! With WALL-E it was the scene right after they escaped the infirmary.
But I digress. Also, it seems to be a bit of a love/hate thing from comments I’ve been seeing, but I like “You Might Think” a lot.
that track that you hear on the official website, isnt from giacchino…its a song, but i don’t know what its called. you could probably get it somewhere. isnt in the trailer?
anyways, the theme for cars 2 is very catchy. after seeing the movie, i kept humming the theme, not realizing what i was doing. it was just instant. thats how catchy it is.
also there is probably a cast/crew soundtrack because there was quite a few tracks that aren’t on the soundtrack…
for example the scene where rod torque is in the bathroom.
I haven’t seen the movie and yet can’t help but humming the tone. Just like The Incredibles main theme.
But I still think I love the Ratatouille and Up scores a bit more.
I’ll get that. Someday 