Discuss: What's Your Favorite Danny Elfman Score?

I was a big fan of anything with Tim Burton's name attached to it since I was a toddler, part of it was because I loved Danny Elfman's music. Just a few months ago I realized Danny Elfman was in Oingo Boingo, and my mind was blown.

I can't decide whether I liked his work in Batman Returns or Edward Scissorhands more.

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Edward Scissorhands is one of the most beautiful and deeply moving pieces I have ever heard

by far his best

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I was always quite partial to his Beetlejuice theme. That is one big, bombastic, Wagner-esque piece of goodness!

There is something to like (or love) about most of his scores. Normally, his themes are great, but I have never liked his Spider-Man theme. Seriously... I'll bet everyone here can hum the Batman theme, but can you remember the Spider-Man theme? I can't...

Overall, though, I would put him a notch below John WIlliams, and a couple of notches above just about anyone else. Especially Hans Zimmer, who is totally overrated and generic, in my book.

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to be hnest, i kinda fell out of admiration for elfman a while back because i find he just seems to repeat himself a lot. a lot of his scores just share a thematic 'sameness' to such a degree that they might as well be called 'variations on a theme' (listen to 'batman', then listen to 'spider-man', f.e.)

i still think from a to z, the original 'batman' was his best work, but thematically, he was never more brilliant than 'beetlejuice' (even if it sounded derivative of his score to pee-wee's big adventure...ahem.)

where would i rate him? well, he's not even near the same ballpark as john williams, sorry. i would put him on war with hans zimmer, though (who also seems to be copying himself an awful lot. either that or he finds a theme and then uses it for 5-10 movies straight.)

objectively, i'd have to say, that on their best james newton-howard, henry gregson-williams and michael giacchino have done stuff that's wow'ed me far more than most anything in elfman's oevre.

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Midnight Run, hands down. Wish the damn thing were more easy to come by. I'd rather not pay $30 for it on eBay.

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Mine is Charlie & The Chocolate Factory! Batman, Pee Wee and Beetlejuice are all good too! I believer that he is just as good as John Williams.

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"And let it not be forgotten what Burton's most famous composition is:"

Surely you meant to say Elfman here.

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Corpse Bride

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Are we restricted to live-action here? Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas has one of the most memorable & ridiculously catchy tunes in his musical canon by far. Not to mention he can also carry a tune with his singing voice. For me, TBTNBC is an incredibly respectful celebration of the talent Danny Elfman possesses.

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I loved his scores for Batman Returns, and the Spider-Man movies, they were just really moving and epic.

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Big Fish for me. I think of it as Elfman's tour-de-force when it comes to film music composition. It's a heartwarming and energetic score that hits all the right notes at the right moments, lifting the film from normalcy to fantastical.

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The score for Edward Scissorhands is so moving. It almost brings tears to my eyes just listening to it. I think it also has to do with how beautiful the movie is, and the score conjures up the movie for me even when I haven't watched it in a really long time.

The Batman score is also awesome. I still think of that theme whenever I watch a Batman movie, including Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, even though they don't have even a trace of Elfman's theme in them.

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Probably Beetlejuice, though I love what he did for Batman. No, I'll go with Batman. His work with Red Dragon was excellent, too, and he made The Hulk a somewhat decent movie through music.

For what it's worth, I love everything I've heard of Oingo Boingo. Oh yeah, and let's not overlook his one foray into original, non-TV/film inspired music, his "Serenada Schizophrana" opus.

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Oh, and for the record, I don't give any credit whatsoever to John Williams. He's the Puff Daddy of score composers.

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One of my favorite scores by Danny Elfman, and one of his lesser well-known ones, is from the movie Black Beauty. It is a very beautiful score and almost complete different from most of his newer ones. I think the score adds a lot to the film, and therefore is one of my favorites.

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I opt for both scores for Dolores Claiborne and A Simple Plan. They are so infectious and melancholy.

Another nod to the Mars Attacks! main title score. I swear I could watch that four-minute sequence on a loop for the amount it takes to watch the actual movie.
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Yes...Edward Scissorhands is fantastic! Especially Ballet De Suburbia.

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Something about the frighteners makes me smile.
A lovely almost B-Movie score which suits the movie perfectly.

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My definite favorite score of Elfman's is Good Will Hunting. I know that Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pee Wee's Big Adventure and the Simpsons theme are all iconic, but there's something very special about the work Elfman did on Good Will Hunting.

By the way, Elfman is the first I go to when anyone asks, 'who would make a good Joker'. I remember those sick, leering, skull-grins he used to do when performing with Oingo Boingo.

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