Danny Elfman provides one of his most quintessentially
Elfman-esque scores for one of
Tim Burton's most quintessentially
Burton-esque movies, Beetlejuice. The film's dark yet sardonically funny "Main Titles" is among
Elfman's all-time best moments, bustling along with a dark joie de vivre (or is it joie de morte?) that defines the spooky fun of both this movie, and his collaboration with
Burton. The score's stylized world also includes the ironically perky "Travel Music"; "Incantation," a tensely percussive cue that unfolds into exaggerated brass and ghostly vocals and organs; and the eerily pretty but still whimsical "Lydia Discovers." The tip-toeing pizzicato strings and pianos, and the theatrical brass, organs, harps, and percussion that appear on every track -- most definitively on tracks like "Enter...The Family / Sand Worm Planet" -- underline the film's live-action cartoonishness, with the music's hyperactive shifts, and the addition of
Harry Belafonte's "Jump In Line" and "Banana Boat Song (Day-O)" just adding another layer of quirkiness to the whole thing. A perfect mix of silliness and spookiness, Beetlejuice remains one of
Elfman's most consistent scores. ~ Heather Phares