Michael Giacchino is arguably one of the most influential contemporary film composers of the 21st century. If there is one composer who seems destined to pick up the mantle left by John Williams, it’s Michael Giacchino. Giacchino was born on October 10th, 1967 in Riverside Township, New Jersey to his parents who immigrated from Italy. Giacchino began cultivating his interest for music in film at the age of ten when he started to create stop-motion animations with soundtracks that he made in his basement. With the recommendation and guidance from his art teacher, Giacchino enrolled at the School of Visual Arts in New York City with a major in film production and a minor in history. During his final year, he got a six month internship at Universal Pictures, after which Universal offered a full time position post graduation.
Michael Giacchino then worked on publicity for Disney in Los Angeles where he was exposed to people who worked in the film industry, especially producers who have the ability to hire composers. Through this exposure, Giacchino made connections that opened the opportunity to work at Disney Interactive, where he created compositional work for film adapted video games. His works in video games like Call of Duty and The Lost World: Jurassic Park is what set in motion his contribution to television. J.J. Abrams brought Giacchino in to work on the musical score for Alias after seeing his work for the video game. This was the first time Giacchino was able to showcase to the world what he can do with music in action. His composition for the television series was filled with melodically orchestrated pieces immerse in depth and intertwined with technological inspired beats.
After hearing his work on Alias, director Brad Bird asked Giacchino to create a soundtrack for Pixar’s “The Incredibles”. He pays tribute to the swinging superhero style with jazz orchestrations that resonate the sound of the 1960s period. Giacchino’s attention to detail is admirable; the easy flow but vigorous rhythm of the score mirrors the tone and feel of the film with great orchestral sensibility. However, this is the point where Giacchino could arguably be considered to have a lack of original voice. To this point he has mimicked styles of other composers like John Barry in the case of the Incredibles, although done well, it puts into question if Giacchino has his own style and voice.
Michael Giacchino then moved on to score Mission: Impossible III in 2006, Star Trek in 2009, and Disney-Pixar film Ratatouille. With the release of Ratatouille, Giacchino established himself as one of the most distinguished animation movie composers of today. The soundtrack is a cheesy, stereotypical, parody styled french music with accordians and whimsical melodic tunes. However, there is immense warmth, heart, and love that Giacchino beautifully captured. He also scored the Pixar film Up which got him his first Academy Award for Best Original Score. This film once again showed how Giacchino has a wonderfully uncanny ability to take what would be considered as cheesy and corny and transform into something wholesome with so much depth and emotion. He adds dimension to animated motion pictures that elevates the film into something that creates a lasting impact on its audience.
The composer worked in the Marvel film franchise as well with Doctor Strange and Spider-man: Homecoming. In Doctor Strange Giacchino creates a musical composition that intertwines a psychedelic nature with traditional scoring which mirrors the interdimensional wacky concept of the film. Almost every piece had trippy undertones that accentuated the adventure and excitement in a very unique, unheard of way. He also worked on the soundtrack for Disney’s Zootopia and Pixar’s Inside Out and Coco. After that, he returned back to Pixar to work on Incredibles 2. Giacchino’s score for Zootopia is a perfect reflection of the diversity in the make believe animal city. Each piece had a different style and melody whether it be jazzy, upbeat, somber, tension filled, funky, dramatic, romantic. In cues like ‘Hopps Goes (After) The Weasel’ he utilizes the technique of mickey mousing making the action that unfolds exciting and fun to watch. Inside Out is a film about five emotions battling within the mind of a young girl. Giacchino is known for giving life and emotion to animated films, and he proved his abilities once again with this soundtrack. He captures the true essence of childhood because it embodies an innocent, pure, and honest take on the world through the musical lense of a kid. The music is how a child would perceive it, marking Michael Giacchino’s true ingenuity. His music makes the film timeless: he is able to connect and touch emotions, make people really feel something regardless of the perceived age associated with animated films. He plays with subtlety and the literal in varying proportions to impeccably match the action, implicit and explicit emotion, theme, tone, and mood. He is a puppet master of emotion, which is what drew me into writing about him. All of the Disney, Pixar, and Marvel movies he has worked on I have watched multiple times, and I believe that is a very telling sign of a composer’s skill. Music is a very big part of the lasting impression a film can make on a person, and each time I watch one of those films it never gets old, referring back to the timeless quality forementioned. His musical style that he brings to the film industry reminds me of older styles that are modernized to make more relevant. So, his “tacky, corny, cheesy” style choices of jazz, mickey mousing, and literal representations of emotion are modernized to bring new depth and meaning. His music has an old fashioned feel to it, specifically the sixties, because that is what he grew up listening to. He seems to favor wind and string instruments over brass sections which is unconventional. When Pixar Animation Studios began to surface they wanted to differentiate themselves from the rest of the animation film industry especially no singing. Michael Giacchino, however, found a way to make music so relevant and integral to the identity of each movie he worked on. With every film he scored, he reinvented himself to fit the movie while stylistically staying true to his emotion centered focus and producing as such.