Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2005 film of the same name. The soundtrack features music composed by Danny Elfman.
Development[]
Danny Elfman, similar to Tim Burton, had no emotional attachment to 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. According to Elfman, "I had no trouble divorcing myself from those [original] songs. I've dealt with that a couple of times. You know you're dealing with something that's going to make a lot of people angry, and you just can't think about it." Because the Oompa-Loompa musical numbers would require complex choreography and be shot on set, Elfman had to compose those songs before filming began. Elfman also composed the songs simultaneously alongside the music from Corpse Bride. It was decided at an early stage that Elfman would be providing the vocals for all the Oompa-Loompas, a decision justified by the identical nature of the Oompa-Loompas, with pitch changes and modulations to represent different singers. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory marks the first time since 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas that Elfman contributed to a film score using written songs and his vocals.
The first song composed was "Augustus Gloop", being done as a Bollywood spectacle per Deep Roy's suggestion. Elfman recounted, "my original approach was to find a style of music and apply that to all the songs. Tim was like, 'No, no, no, no, no... we're going to completely mix it up!' I said, 'Great, let's go.'" Per Burton's suggestion, the Oompa-Loompa songs would each reflect a different style of music: "Violet Beauregarde" is 1970s funk, "Veruca Salt" is 1960s bubblegum and psychedelic pop, and "Mike Teavee" is a tribute to late-1970s hard rock, particularly Queen, and early 1980s hair bands. All four songs utilize lyrics direct from Roald Dahl's book; as such, the lyrics are credited to Dahl. Rather than using the book's songs in their entirety, Elfman selected specific verses, as he believed using them unabridged would have made each song ten minutes long. "Violet Beauregarde" was the only song that required a partial rewrite, as the song in the book was about a girl who chewed gum rather than Violet Beauregarde herself. The only other song to require vocal performances was "Wonka's Welcome Song", a maddeningly cheerful theme park ditty, which was written in collaboration with the film's screenwriter John August.
In addition to the Oompa-Loompa songs, Elfman created an entire underscore for the film being based around three primary themes: a gentle family theme for the Buckets, generally set in upper woodwinds; a mystical, string-driven waltz for Willy Wonka; and a hyper-upbeat factory theme for full orchestra, Elfman's homemade synthesizer samples and the diminutive chanting voices of the Oompa-Loompas. Elfman and Burton differed on their ideas for the main title music, as Elfman imagined something more dreamy while Burton wanted something energetic. Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra plays during a sequence in the film as a direct reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey. When introducing himself to the golden ticket winners, Wonka quotes "Good Morning Starshine" from the 1967 musical Hair.
The original motion picture soundtrack was released on July 12, 2005, by Warner Sunset Records. The soundtrack received positive reviews, with Doug Adams of Film Score Monthly saying of the Oompa-Loompa songs: "Each piece includes something the others don't, rhythms or hooks or harmonies that in Elfman's inimitable way seem like deconstructions and wholly original concepts at the same time." Filmtracks.com called the soundtrack a "rhythmically driven affair" because of the mechanical nature of the factory, a departure from Elfman's penchant for quieter heartbreaking themes. "Wonka's Welcome Song" received a Grammy nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Elfman would later cite Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as being one of the most fun projects he had been involved with.
In 2010, thirteen previously unreleased tracks were included as part of the Danny Elfman & Tim Burton 25th Anniversary Music Box. In addition to those tracks, instrumentals of "Wonka's Welcome Song" and the Oompa-Loompa songs were included, as well as several demos.
Track listing[]
- "Wonka's Welcome Song"
- "Augustus Gloop"
- "Violet Beauregarde"
- "Veruca Salt"
- "Mike Teavee"
- "Main Titles"
- "Wonka's First Shop"
- "The Indian Palace"
- "Wheels In Motion"
- "Charlie's Birthday Bar"
- "The Golden Ticket/Factory"
- "Chocolate Explorers"
- "Loompa Land"
- "The Boat Arrives"
- "The River Cruise"
- "First Candy"
- "Up And Out"
- "The River Cruise - Part 2"
- "Charlie Declines"
- "Finale"
- "End Credit Suite"
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