Planet Of The Apes (newly expanded edition)
The modern world of big-screen reboots and remakes presents a minefield to the music department: how do you create music for a story that’s been done before, without doing the same music that’s been done before? (At least one movie remake, the modern remount of Hitchcock’s Psycho, opted to reuse the original music, albeit a new recording of it.) Matters are made worse when the soundtrack of the original version was a groundbreaking, genre-shaking opus that was practically its own character in the film – such as Jerry Goldsmith’s brutally percussive score from 1968’s Planet Of The Apes. In that respect, the 2001 reboot of Apes had a double burden – the original movie and its music were indelibly ingrained into the minds of genre fans. Top that.
Tim Burton tried to, and as he so often does, he brought frequent musical collaborator Danny Elfman along for the ride. Both had an unenviable task ahead of them. Arguably, the music succeeded better than the movie for which it was designed, and La-La Land has re-released the soundtrack to the 2001 Apes remake in an extravagant form, stretching the movie’s almost wall-to-wall music across three discs covering both the original soundtrack album as released in ’01 (which had a pretty healthy selection of music on it to begin with) as well as the complete score as heard in the film (the material on the single-CD soundtrack release differed significantly from the actual film score in many places).
As I was listening to the movie score, the thought struck me that Elfman – despite his seemingly permanent place on Hollywood’s music A-list – hasn’t scored too many sprawling space sagas. Planet Of The Apes isn’t really a sprawling space saga – its “space” scenes are confined to the movie’s opening minutes – but the music for those scenes is an interesting taste of how Elfman would handle the territory that is so often associated with Williams, Goldsmith, Horner and others more frequently regarded as “sci-fi composers.”
When the action comes jarringly down to Earth, the race is on for the film’s hero to outrun the apes, and for Elfman to do things differently from Jerry Goldsmith. As attached as I am to the original 1968 movie and its soundtrack, I found Elfman’s treatment of similar scenes to be more than satisfactory – in fact, they’re hugely enjoyable purely as a listening experience (they didn’t hurt the movie either, though arguably there were things other than the music that did hurt it). In some regards, it’s not entirely dissimilar from Goldsmith’s score because it doesn’t need to be – it’s not a case of anyone’s ideas being ripped off, it’s a case of both composers bowing to the tribally-rhythmic obvious.
The original single-disc soundtrack has been given fresh coat of remastered paint, and sounds great if you’re still attached to the original tracks and running order. (I still admit to enjoying Paul Oakenfold’s movie-dialogue-heavy “Rule The World Remix” as a guilty pleasure; Oakenfold probably does too, since it helped to raise his Hollywood profile, which now includes his own film scores.) Rounding things out are a selection of “source” cues Elfman concocted for scenes which needed “in universe” background music.
Planet Of The Apes was meant to launch a new generation of 20th Century Fox’s venerable Apes franchise for the 21st century, and its hugely-hyped launch seemed to all but guarantee that. Somewhere between the movie just not being as shocking or interesting as the 1968 original, and the inevitable anti-reboot backlash, it managed to fall between the cracks despite the hype. Elfman’s soundtrack remains possibly the most valid element of the movie – much like the re-release of the music from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (also reissued by La-La Land), it was ripe for reassessment despite being 
only a decade old. I felt a little let down by the music from Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, so maybe this re-release could serve to remind the director and producers of the next Apes reboot-sequel-prequel-thingie that Elfman’s still out there – and he definitely knows how to go ape.
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Disc 1: Film Score Part 1
- Main Titles (film version) (3:53)
- Deep Space Launch / Space Station / Power Outage (2:36)
- Thumbs Up / Trouble (5:57)
- Pod Escape / New World / The Hunt (4:13)
- Ape City (2:13)
- A Look / Unloading /Thade’s Inspection / Ari Watches / The Branding (3:44)
- Ari Buys a Pet (1:24)
- Leo Wants Out / Dental Exam (2:12)
- Thade’s Desire (1:35)
- The Dirty Deed (1:54)
- The Escape (3:39)
- Trust / Escape (3:32)
- In the Forest /Into the Pond / The Messenger (2:29)
- Unused / Thade Gets His Way / Ari Connects (3:49)
- The Story (3:00)
- Scarecrow Stinger / The Camp / Raid (5:20)
- Thade Goes Ape (2:42)
- Calima (7:22)
- The Army Approaches (3:03)
- Thade’s Tent (2:10)
- Discovery (5:07)
- Preparing for Battle (3:51)
Disc 2: Film Score Part 2
- The Charge (4:44)
- The Final Confrontation Landing / Showdown (8:34)
- The Aftermath / Thade’s Suite (7:31)
- Ape Suite #
- 4:59)
- Ape Suite #
- 2:36)
- Rule The Planet Remix (4:09)
- Thumbs Up / Trouble (alternate mix) (5:57)
- New World / The Hunt (alternate mix) (3:20)
- Dental Exam (alternate mix) (1:21)
- The Dirty Deed (alternate mix) (1:54)
- The Story (alternate mix) (2:59)
- Preparing for Battle (alternate) (3:35)
- The Final Confrontation (alternate mix) (7:14)
- The Aftermath / Thade’s Suite (unedited) (7:32)
- Camp Raid (percussion only) (4:08)
- Rule The Planet (overlay) (3:01)
- Source Music Montage (Band Source, Trendy Source, Jazzy Source, Calliope Source, Rave Source) (2:54)
- Dinner Source (1:40)
Disc 3: Original Soundtrack Album
- Main Titles (3:49)
- Ape Suite #1 (3:52)
- Deep Space Launch (4:35)
- The Hunt (4:58)
- Branding The Herd (0:48)
- The Dirty Deed (2:27)
- Escape From Ape City / The Legend (5:57)
- Ape Suite #2 (2:42)
- Old Flames (2:10)
- Thade Goes Ape (2:37)
- Preparing For Battle (3:26)
- The Battle Begins (5:17)
- The Return (7:18)
- Main Title Deconstruction (4:22)
- Rule The Planet Remix (remixed by Paul Oakenfold) (4:03)
Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2012
Disc one total running time: 75:57
Disc two total running time: 78:24
Disc three total running time: 58:21
If you were as disappointed by Men In Black: The Album as I was, then maybe, this CD should be renamed Men In Black: The Apology. As it is, you will probably have a hard time finding it at the store. Here is a helpful hunt: The Album CD has a picture of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith on the cover and “VARIOUS ARTISTS” on the CD seal, while The Score has MIB prominently on the cover with J and K standing in the I. Even the store clerk at Tower Records was confused, and handed me the album instead of the score.
Avoid this CD at all costs. Especially if you hate rap music.
The CD insert is a long strip, with photos on one side of the strip, and credits for each song on the other side.