Jon Brion & Sarah Jaffe "Blue Umbrella Suite"

After taking the kids to see "Despicable Me 2" last week, we sought the refuge of an air conditioned movie theater yet again this week, this time catching "Monsters University" (that is, "Monsters, Inc 2").

The music in the animated Pixar feature is outstanding as always, and I was a bit surprised to see in the end credits that it was Randy Newman who scored the movie.  Newman has always done great work for Pixar, but this score had a really different feel from his previous work.  Good stuff.

But the bigger musical surprise came before the movie.

Pixar always includes an animated short, before the feature (old school!).  And it is generally unrelated to the feature.  Often it is stylistically different than the feature.  But this clip had some serious wow to it.

Check out a scene below, and note that this is animation.  But it's done in this photo-realistic style, where umbrellas and buildings come to life in a way that more recalls Jim Henson than "Toy Story."


See the clip on Youtube.

The short clip doesn't give to much away, which is good, but it also doesn't quite reveal how stunning the piece looked.

But the thing that really sold it, was the music behind it.

While seeing it in the theatre, I couldn't quite place the tuneful, hummable touch of the composer, or place the familiar sounding vocalization, that was wordless yet expressive.

At home, my wife did the Googling.

The music was composed by Jon Brion, who has done some excellent scores for PT Anderson films like "Magnolia" and "Boogie Nights" as well as scores for "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" and "I Heart Huckabees."

He's also produced some excellent records for the likes of Aimee Mann, Rhett Miller, Fiona Apple and Evan Dando.

He's even been part of some good bands, like Jellyfish and The Grays.

Meanwhile, the vocals were provided by Sarah Jaffe.  Apparently the animator who envisioned the story is a Jaffe fan, and listened to her music while initially creating the short.

Great stuff.


Hear the full song on Youtube.

The Minions "I Swear"

We took the kids to see "Despicable Me 2" at the movie theater last night.

I started thinking about what a different experience going to the movies is for our kids, compared to how it was when my wife and I were the same age.

When we were young, there were no DVDs or VHS.  When we were their age, if you wanted to see a movie, you had to go to a movie theater.

My kids, at ages 3 and 5, have seen dozens of movies.  And they've seen some of those movies, dozens of times.  Such is the way of the DVD era.

I can't think of ANY movie that I saw more than once, before the age of 10, except for the very rare movie that segued to television.

On the flip side, my kids have only been to a movie theater a couple of times.  And their experience of watching a movie in a theater is shaped by how they are used to watching a movie at home.  

Getting them to sit still for 90 minutes is a challenge, as "watching a movie" for them usually includes bouncing on the couch, moving around, perhaps acting out scenes . . .

Getting them to stay quiet for 90 minutes is also a challenge, because in your living room, there's no expectation of quiet like there is in a movie theater.

That said, last night the kids were pretty darn well-behaved, and in a theater filled with other kids their age, so the expectation of quiet wasn't quite the same as if we'd taken them to "Schindler's List" or anything.

They had a blast watching the film's abundant physical humor courtesy of the "Minions," but I imagine there were more than a few parts that sailed right over their heads.

I guess adding in references to 90s Boy Band videos and The Village People (which came at the end of the movie), were the filmmakers attempt at a nod to those parents who'd spent the last hour and a half holding their kids in their laps, and quietly answering the question "Why is he doing that?" every 2 minutes.


Hear "I Swear" on Youtube.


Hear "YMCA" on Youtube.