ROTTEN TOMATOES: Peter Gabriel Working on WALL-E Soundtrack Comments

Peter Gabriel Working on WALL-E Soundtrack

by Jeff Giles | February 15, 2008

Summary

In the past, Pixar has demonstrated an ability to score with kids and parents alike -- but its next release, WALL-E, looks like it might be their ticket in with the elusive "aging prog nerd" demographic. Back to Article

(1-29 of 29 posts) | Reply

Gimy writes:
on Feb 15 2008 06:57 AM

i am, NOT AT ALL, sold on this. especially since i thought Pixar's last film was completely overrated, and barely above average. the numerous trailers i've seen about this just makes it look like a poor rip off of an animated Short Circuit. i hope i'm wrong but, it just looks so blah.

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Crenshaw writes:
on Feb 15 2008 07:16 AM

Gimy, you are wrong on so many levels. Anyway, the addition of Peter Gabriel makes me even more excited about this film.

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Slipperypick writes:
on Feb 15 2008 08:37 AM

I'm skeptical about Wall-e, but then again I've been skeptical about every Pixar feature film prior to release, and I've been proven incalculably wrong every time. Is it just me or do all the Pixar trailers seem to leave the viewers with the uneasy sense that perhaps "this time, they're gonna fail."
In that sense, I'm not excited about Wall-e.
However, this news about Peter Gabriel doing the soundtrack has got me as intrigued as I've ever been about Pixar's stuff... And have I mentioned that I think Pixar is making just about the finest films these days?
Peter Gabriel... I'm looking forward to this.

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ManofStee1 writes:
on Feb 15 2008 09:13 AM

Sounds like the most bizzare Pixar film yet... maybe they'll play Shock the Monkey over the closing credits.

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minderbinder writes:
on Feb 15 2008 10:22 AM

Is he doing the full soundtrack, or just a couple things with someone else doing the score?

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Xavier Telouran writes:
on Feb 15 2008 10:24 AM

I'm not exactly tempted to hold up a Wall*E outside my girlfriend's house right now... but still, it's an interesting combination.

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Reel Nerds writes:
on Feb 15 2008 10:28 AM

I bet it will be more "Nursery Cryme" than "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway."

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bethehero7404 writes:
on Feb 15 2008 11:24 AM

Big fan of Pixar AND Peter Gabriel. I think the reaction to Wall-E is the fact that the film is going to be 80% pantomime. Not a lot of dialogue and there is going to be an actual human in the movie. So the direction theyre are taking is throwing people for a loop because it isn't the regular Pixar film. They have to change it up because if they keep releasing the same thing, it will get repetitive even though there have been some failures (ex: Bug's Life made a lot but was least favorite amongst a lot of people) and HUGE successes (FAVORITE of minue is THE INCREDIBLES).

Love it...It is better than Randy Newman AGAIN.

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RottenRob writes:
on Feb 15 2008 11:31 AM

Mr. Gabriel is notorious for taking about 10 years to do about a year's worth of work, so I hope Pixar's got people lurking around his studio with hot pokers at the ready. (I say this with great affection as a big old fan of his.)

Should be great!

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~*Admiral Snowstorm*~ writes:
on Feb 15 2008 01:24 PM

In response to a certain post above: Pixar excels at everything they do...except making trailers. Their trailers are always very vague, none too interesting, and not that good overall. Like most people, I'll just see any new movie that Pixar puts out, and they're lucky that they have that name recognition, because not a lot of people would see Pixar movies based solely on their trailers.

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SPfan79 writes:
on Feb 15 2008 01:54 PM

Slipperypick,
I've felt the same way ever since Toy Story 2. The Pixar trailers just don't do it for me, I get that same sense you described about the next film failing whenever I see them. But of course, I'm always wrong on that one. Pixar's never failed to entertain and impress me.

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harrismonkey writes:
on Feb 15 2008 02:47 PM

I watched the video blog a month ago (I'm a huge Gabriel fan). He's not terribly specific on what he's doing- but there was nothing that made me think this would be anything other than a new song. (and this was straight from the man's mouth)

Unless there's something else kicking around in the way of press on this, I think we're probably jumping the gun to assuming he's doing much here besides a song.

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Lyman Ward writes:
on Feb 15 2008 03:48 PM

I'm pretty sure Thomas Newman did an orginal score for WALL-E so at least they've got one talented Newman on the project.

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rt_hire_me writes:
on Feb 15 2008 04:12 PM

This is for the scene where wall-e seranades a fat blob by holding up a cassette player in the rain.

The album So is an all-time great, there is no greater. But since then: ? . You might as well have Sting, Elton John, Phil Collins, or Paul Simon making the song/soundtrack. These guys just aren't hungry anymore. The music is going to be safe, mildly catchy, and lame. Or some kind of transcendental world music, which is fine if you like that kind of thing.

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Basilides in Alexandria writes:
on Feb 15 2008 06:24 PM

Let me just add that Peter Gabriel has composed, in my opinion, three of the best and most original film scores ever: Alan Parker's "Birdy", Phillip Noyce's "Rabbit Proof Fence", and Martin Scorsese's "Last Temptation Of Christ" (which is one of the most imitated scores ever)...

I hope he'll do the whole score to Wall-E because Gabriel is a crazy musical genius!

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Pilgermann writes:
on Feb 15 2008 06:37 PM

Oh son of a *****, now I know for sure that this movie will make me cry like a baby.

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sliknik27 writes:
on Feb 15 2008 07:48 PM

I'm very excited for this film and I think Gabriel will serve it well.

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vaodsi writes:
on Feb 15 2008 10:16 PM

This is awesome. SWEET SWEEET SWEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!
my ticket is sold! plus, it's different. congrats to pixar for being BRAVE(new world?)
i luv pixar. and even if the public finds this too wierd and are dissapointed, it will become a classic anyway like Fantasia)

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harrismonkey writes:
on Feb 15 2008 10:21 PM

In reply to this comment (#1577570)
I happen to think Sting used to be great (but not for a while).

But that aside, Gabriel's only done two studio albums (not including soundtracks) since So. Sure US bears some resemblance to (good) Sting- but have you heard UP?!?!

There's NOTHING SAFE about that record. The opening track alternates between beatiful piano and bone crunching noise heavier than much of NIN's catalogue. He went back to experiemnting with the dissonant works of his early records without forgetting the lessons learned on his biggest hit records.

As of the last effort (who knows what to expect next), he was still pushing himself creatively as hard as he ever did. It's just that most of his best work has never been very radio friendly, so if you aren't looking you're not going to know what he's doing.

If you want to see why Gabriel's still great since SO try these songs- Darkness, Signal to Noise, I Grieve, In the Sun (if you can find it), Come talk to me.

The man is a musical genius, and I don't use that term lightly. There are plenty of artists with a couple great records, but very few have a carreer length discography like he does. Rant over.

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N720MF writes:
on Feb 15 2008 11:19 PM

For Ratatouille, It wasn't groundbreaking (besides the always improving CGI and animation), but BY GOD, everything in it was top notch. It had a lot of heart, and you can tell how much effort the creators put into making it pitch perfect.

WALL-E looks something a bit more innovative; when was the last time you saw a movie with little to no talking for a good part of it? Pixar's record is damn close to immaculate.

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rt_hire_me writes:
on Feb 16 2008 09:39 AM

"when was the last time you saw a movie with little to no talking for a good part of it?"

It was called The Bear, and it wasn't good. Came out in the late 80's.

A valid rebuke, harrismonkey. Shouldn't assume that an artist's radio play represents the body of his work. I wasn't thrilled with Collins' work on Tarzan and I got a chuckle over the extra features on Emperor's New Groove explaining how almost all of Sting's contribution had to be abandoned. And as for Paul Simon, I like world music too, but it's popified world music, which is supposed to make it more digestible but just ends up like flavorless pulp. And as for E John, didn't we all feel the love tonight, that was good stuff. But if I have to hear the Norma Jean song one more time then I'm going to shock the monkey. I just feel really skeptical over making these 70's-80's pop titans your go-to guy. Wouldn't having to work in the shadow of past glory make anyone cautious? Find a new voice.

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rooster9 writes:
on Feb 16 2008 11:19 AM

Peter may not have been releasing much music in the last 15 years (2 solo albums, 2 scores, several soundtrack singles and one live album), but he has been recording and producing quite a bit. Rumor is that he's got a backlog of 100 tracks that need to be "cleaned up" or "polished" before they can be released, but his civil rights work, musical experimentation, and discovery of new artists has been getting in the way. In fact, he recently completed the 12 year-old song "Whole Thing" for The Big Blue Ball project. It's on I-Tunes now, and it's classic Gabriel. His music is deeply felt and interesting... a great match for this film.

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Willy105 writes:
on Feb 16 2008 03:09 PM

Wall-E will be BIG.

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harrismonkey writes:
on Feb 16 2008 03:27 PM

rt_hire_me,

In fairness, while his limited album output since the 80's has been very strong, he's actually contributed more than an albums worth of songs to various soudtracks and such over the years. Much of that work is absolutely fantastic, but some has been exactly the kind of mediocre work you're talking about. I definetly get the feeling that some of his soundtrack offerings are cuts he didn't let brew as long as his process seems to require (he apparently now reworks album cuts over and over and over and over and....), or tracks that didn't quite make it onto albums because they weren't as strong as the ones that did.

The Wall-E track(s) could certainly fall into this scenario. I certainly hope they don't though.

As far as the 100 plus songs he's sitting on, I don't think we'll see many of them before his death (although at some point after I expect a HUGE box set of the more releasable work). He does sometimes finish unfinished tracks for new albums (come talk to me was actually a left over from So), but after Up he was swearing he was going to dip back into those hundred tracks and do the next album more quickly that way. He didn't, and he has said he's begun writing new stuff again for an album that may be called IO.

Apparently the Big Blue Ball project is made mostly from recordings done back around the Us period that they've finally gotten around to finishing (so from 16 years ago- or maybe it is 12?). I'm still unclear how many of these songs he actually sings on. I hope it's not just "whole thing".

BTW, I like "whole thing" very much, but I don't think it's up there with his very best stuff.

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rgallitan writes:
on Feb 16 2008 05:34 PM

Somebody else mentioned Rabbit Proof Fence, and I have to back them up on that. Gabriel's film music has been outstanding. But, no, it's not the peppy kind of stuff you get from Randy Newman (no offense to Newman - his brand of peppy is very good, and Pleasantville is one of my favorite scores).

Anyway, this is shaping up to be a very interesting movie. I hope it faces that challenge head on, and doesn't chicken out under the pasteurization of Disney.

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BrianInSD writes:
on Feb 16 2008 06:22 PM

According to IMDB, Thomas Newman is doing the actual score so Peter Gabriel may just be contributing an original song or two.

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VML writes:
on Feb 18 2008 10:23 PM

In reply to this comment (#1576595)
Thomas Newman is doing the score

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jihad writes:
on Feb 19 2008 12:03 AM

i perfered peter gabriel when he was making gloomy goth music,when he is dark he is brilliant, thou when he doese corny ballads and pop songs he makes me cring.

i think genesis where great when peter gabriel was in it,whent to **** after he left.

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bmcarter2006 writes:
on Mar 03 2008 06:38 PM

i love WALL-E ..i think it's going to be GREAT i can't wait

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