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Edited Text
An Analysis of
Selected Themes from
the Musical Score
from Disney/Pixar’s
Monsters University
A Master’s Thesis in Scoring for Film, Television,
and Video Games
Nicholas R. Esposito VIII
Berklee College of Music
M.Mus SFTV Class of 2014
1
Table of Contents
1. Personal Foreword ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
2. Introduction and Composer Biography ----------------------------------------------------------------4
3. Plot Synopsis of Monsters University------------------------------------------------------------------6
4. Overview of Compositional Approach and Orchestration Techniques --------------------------12
i. Compositional Approach --------------------------------------------------------------------------12
ii. Orchestration Techniques--------------------------------------------------------------------------14
iii. Additional Music------------------------------------------------------------------------------------15
5. Leitmotiv—Monsters University Alma Mater ------------------------------------------------------16
i. Annotated Theme -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------16
ii. From Cue—Title Theme---------------------------------------------------------------------------17
iii. From Cue—First Day at M.U. --------------------------------------------------------------------28
iv. From Cue—Alma Mater (Before Scare Games) -----------------------------------------------33
6. Leitmotiv—Wonder-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------35
i. Annotated Theme -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------35
ii. From Cue—Young Michael -----------------------------------------------------------------------36
iii. From Cue—Goodbyes -----------------------------------------------------------------------------40
7. Personal Epilogue ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------48
8. Works Cited----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------49
2
Chapter 1: Personal Foreword
When we, the Berklee College of Music Masters in Scoring for Film, Television, and
Video Games class of 2014, were assigned the thesis project of analyzing a film of our choice,
the decision seemed daunting. I mean, when one thinks of the astonishing number of films that
have been produced in the twenty three years that I have lived up to this point, trying to pick one
singular film to examine seemed like it was a feat worthy of a master’s degree in and of itself.
What ultimately drew me to the choice that I made, Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University,
featuring an original score by Randy Newman, was the way that the university setting clicked
with me—I went straight from my undergraduate into this Master’s degree, so this film, which I
can only describe as the Animal House of my generation, really spoke to me and the eternal
student that I have been up to this point. Mr. Newman was able to, in my personal opinion, create
a score that is always in some way “collegiate”, writing in a way that evokes feelings of being a
terrified “freshman” stepping onto the quad of your dream school for the first time during
orientation week, or that incredibly “pumped-up” feeling of watching your school’s team win the
big game, or even that melancholy-yet-hopeful feeling of leaving campus for the last time at the
end of one’s studies.
Sure, this film may be filled with a lot of the college movie clichés that one would expect
from a movie surrounding the given subject matter, as well as a lot of the Disney/Pixar clichés
that go along with the nature of being produced by said companies, but it also has a few surprises
thrown in for good measure. Most importantly, though, it has one characteristic that makes it all
worthwhile:
It’s a genuinely good movie.
3
Chapter 2: Introduction and Composer Biography
Monsters University, which premiered in the United States on June 21st, 20131, is the
prequel to the 2001 Academy Award nominated Monsters, Inc.2 The plot of the film is centered
around the origin story of the two main characters of the original film, “Scarer” James P. “Sully”
Sullivan, voiced by John Goodman, and his good friend and assistant, Michael “Mike”
Wazowski, voiced by Billy Crystal3, telling the tale of how they met, starting as bitter rivals and
slowly becoming friends through the trials and tribulations of college life, as well as showing
their unique path to working at Monsters, Incorporated, the setting for the original film and the
cultural importance of scarers in Monstropolis life.
The composer selected to write the score for Monsters University was Randy Newman,
who was also the composer for the original Monsters, Inc. Mr. Newman has written a number of
scores for the both the Disney and Pixar corporations, including the scores to the Toy Story
series, A Bug’s Life, and The Princess and the Frog.4
Randy Newman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on November 28th, 1943, to Adele
"Dixie" Fox and Irving George Newman, Randy was born into a family of renown film
composers, including his paternal uncles Lionel Newman, Emil Newman, and Alfred Newman,
as well as their children, including David Newman, Joey Newman, Maria Newman, and Thomas
1
"Monsters
University
(2013)."
Internet
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Amazon.com,
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2
June
2014.
tt1453405/?ref_=sch_int>.
(“Details”)
2
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4
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Newman. 5 6 Randy grew up in Los Angeles, where he found success in songwriting by the age
of 17, and where he went to school, attempting to earn a B.A. in Music at the University of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA), but dropping out one semester before graduating. 6
Mr. Newman made his film-scoring debut in 1971 with the film Cold Turkey, and was
awarded his first of 16 Oscar nominations in 1981 for the film Ragtime.7 8 He would continue to
score films with great success throughout the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, winning his first
Oscar in 2002, for best original song in a film, for "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc.
and his second in 2010, again for best original song in a film, for "We Belong Together" from
Toy Story 3. 8
5
Newman,
Randy.
"Randy
Newman's
America:
A
Portrait
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Artist."
Interview
by
Timothy
White.
Billboard
9
Dec.
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16-‐19.
Print.
6
"Randy
Newman."
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"Randy
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(I)."
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(“Filmography”)
8
List
of
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for
Randy
Newman.
Oscars
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Academy
of
Motion
Picture
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and
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2
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2014.
.
5
Chapter 3: Plot Synopsis of Monsters University
The film starts an undetermined number of years before the start of Monsters, Inc.,
opening with an introduction to young Mike Wazowski, portrayed as a very enthusiastic young
monster, but one who is ignored, if not openly ridiculed, by his collogues—even his teacher
forgets him on the bus as they go to Monsters Incorporated on a field trip to learn about scarers
and scream energy. Mike is fascinated by everything around him and by the scarers who speak to
him, one of who,
"Frightening" Frank McCay, mentions being from Monsters University (M.U.).
Trying to witness what is happening on the Scare Floor, though he is pushed out of the way by
his fellow students, one commenting that he “doesn’t even belong on a scare floor”. Mike, more
determined then ever, sneaks onto the Scare Floor itself and into the door of the scarer from
M.U., an incredibly dangerous act. Though Mike is chastised for it, Frank, impressed by Mike’s
stealth, awards him his M.U. cap, leaving Mike determined to become a scarer himself.
Years later, Mike is accepted to Monster’s University, the alma mater of his idol and his
own personal dream school, as Scaring major. During orientation, he is shown around the school,
including such important places as the Door Lab, the cafeteria, and the illustrious Scaring
School. While passing through a club fare, he is immediately pulled in by the Greek Council, as
they tell him about the annual Scare Games. Mike then moves into his dorm, meeting his
roommate Randy Boggs, the villain of the original Monster’s Inc., though he seems far more
amicable in his younger state.
The next day, Mike attends his first day of scaring class, wherein he meets his professor,
Professor Knight, as well as the terrifying dean of the Scaring School, Abigail Hardscrabble, and
the lazy, arrogant, and lackadaisical James P. “Sully” Sullivan, a legacy scarer who is far from
6
the kind character he was in the original film. It is in this class that Mike is informed of the final
exam of the semester—one that failure of would mean expulsion from the scaring program. Mike
turns down Boggs’ offer to attend a party at Frat Row, saying that he would rather study, but
soon finds himself being interrupted when Sully climbs in through his window with the stolen
mascot of the rival school, Fear Tech’s Scare Pig. The pig ends up stealing Mike’s treasured
M.U. hat, and Mike is sent on a wild ride trying to capture it. Ending up at Frat Row, he finally
does catch the mascot, though Sully gets all the credit for the deed. Johnny Worthington, the
president of Roar Omega Roar (“The Roars”), the top fraternity on campus, invites Sully to be a
member whilst simultaneously ridiculing Mike. While it is clear that, early in the semester, Mike
is far from scary, he is shown to get progressively better throughout the class, matching and
eventually overtaking Sully in terms of skill in the class through hard work and constant
studying, compared to Sully’s sole desire to party.
Finally, the two reach the day of the aforementioned scare final. Mike goes in
confidently, but Sully is shaken when the Roars take his letter jacket, the symbol of his
membership, saying they will return it on the condition that he beats Mike in the exam. The final
itself utilizes a machine called a Scare Simulator, which measures the effectiveness of a given
scare. Sully attempts to intimidate Mike before they go, both physically and verbally, which
ultimately results in the two trying to one-up each other until Sullivan trips, knocking over and
destroying Dean Hardscrabble’s record-breaking can of scream, her “one souvenir from a
lifetime of scaring”. She then proceeds to kick both of them out of the program, Sully for not
listening to directions and Mike for simply “not [being] scary”.
Mike and Sully are then resigned to the Scream Can Design major, a fate that Sully holds
Mike personally responsible for. Upon returning to his dorm, Mike sees the flyer he got during
7
orientation about the Scare Games, and determines that it would be the best way to get back into
the scaring program. He hurries to Frat Row and joins the only frat that will accept him, Oozma
Kappa (“OK”). He then wagers against Dean Hardscrabble, saying that only the scariest of
monsters could win the Scare Games, so if he won, he should be allowed back into the scare
program. Dean Hardscrabble agrees, on the condition that if he loses, that he leave campus
forever. When told that he is one team member short, Mike tries to recruit his former roommate
Boggs, but discovers that he is now a member of Roar Omega Roar. Hearing the agreement
between Mike and Hardscrabble, Sully joins the OK team as well, joining the conjoined dance
major monsters Terry and Terri, the “mature student” and ex-salesman Don Carlton, New Age
Philosophy major Art, and the “unattached, undeclared, and pretty much unwelcome anywhere”
Scott “Squishy” Squibbles. The Team clearly looks like the least likely to succeed, though Mike
swears that, as team captain, he will lead the team to victory. Once again, though, he is ignored
as the rest of the team fawns over Sully. Mike and Sully share a room in the fraternity house,
which clearly works out quite poorly.
The next day, Oozma Kappa receives the invitation to the first challenge of the Scare
Games, the “Toxicity Challenge”, a painful race that takes place in the sewers under the school.
Misinterpreting the challenge, Mike and Sully race headlong to the end, not realizing that the
whole team had to cross the finish line, resulting in the team being eliminated from the Games.
In a stroke of luck, one of the other teams is disqualified due to cheating, so the Oozma Kappa
team is put back into the Games. Hardscrabble warns Mike that their luck will run out
eventually, which frightens him.
Mike then takes it as his mission to train his team, who all appear to be one degree above
useless, though Sully refuses to be a part of the training, claiming he can do everything by
8
himself. At the next event, the Oozmas find themselves in the bottom two teams, so Sully rushes
ahead without care to try and keep his team in. His recklessness, however, almost gets them
caught and eliminated. Mike watches as he believes his team is lost again when the rest of the
team pull together using their own unique skills that Mike wrote off to save the day, keeping
them in the competition for another day as they narrowly beat the other team.
Having made it to the halfway point of the competition, the Oozma Kappa team is invited
to a party at the Roar’s frat house, wherein they are at first welcomed by the crowd, but then
publically humiliated by Worthington. Demoralized and ostracized, the Oozmas are ready to
surrender, when Mike comes up with a cunning plan to get everyone back to fighting shape. He
gathers his team and breaks into the grounds of Monsters, Inc., showing his team how it’s the
differences in each scarer that makes them as successful as they are. Mike and Sully start to bond
when Monsters, Inc. Security spot them, forcing the team to run together in order to evade
incarceration.
The events at Monsters, Inc. rally the team, and through training and working together as
a team, the Oozma Kappas soar through the next two challenges, leaving all the other teams in
the dust and making it into the Scare Games Finals against Roar Omega Roar, with a whole army
of support behind them. As the rest of the team celebrates making it that far, Hardscrabble
scathingly reminds Sully how no matter how well the rest of the team does in the final challenge,
a straight-ahead Scare-Off in the scare simulators, that Mike is not, and never will be, scary
enough to succeed. Sully then tries to train Mike the night before the finals, telling him to forget
the theories he’s memorized and to just “let the scary out”.
The next day, the Scare Games Final begins to a massive turnout from the crowd, with
half rooting vehemently for Oozma Kappa. Sully convinces Mike to go last, telling him that he
9
started it, and that it only seemed right that he end it as well. Mike agrees, and the games begin.
The Oozma team does better than anyone could have expected, as the two teams go head to head.
The Roars start to take the lead, but Sully is able to tie things back up through an incredible scare
against Boggs, planting the seeds to the rivalry that would make Boggs the villain of the original
film. Worthington then scores an almost perfect scare, leaving it so that the only way the Oozmas
could win would be through a perfect scare, something that is almost unheard of at the difficulty
level that the scare simulators are set to. “Digging deep” and fighting against all his inner fears,
Mike “let’s the scary out”, earning the perfect scare that his team needed to win, shocking The
Roars and Dean Hardscrabble beyond words.
After the competition, Mike reflects over the scare simulator where he won. It is while
doing this, though, that he discovers that the machine had been tampered with, and that his scare
was set at the easiest difficulty level. Sully admits to having manipulated the machine, cheating
to make sure that their team would win and that Mike wouldn’t lose the competition for
everyone. Mike, dejected and angry, breaks into the door lab, convinced he can prove his worth
in a real scare in the human world. Meanwhile, Sully, wracked with guilt, confesses to
Hardscrabble, who expels him from the school. While chastising him, however, school security
informs them that a student, who the viewer knows is Mike, has broken into the door lab and
entered the human world without permission or protection.
In the human world, Mike tries to scare a sleeping girl, only to have her wake up and
laugh at him. It is then that he realizes that he was not in one girl’s bedroom, but rather into a
summer camp cabin filled with children. The scene cuts from Mike’s terrified face back to the
door lab, where Sully determines that he must go in after Mike to save him. Don helps Sully get
past security, where he then follows Mike’s footsteps through the door. Once through, though, he
10
finds the cabin empty with no sign of Mike. Climbing through an open window, camp rangers
spot Sullivan and chase after him thinking he is a bear. He is chased down to the lake, where he
finds a broken-hearted Mike skipping stones. Sully and Mike bond, but the rangers come chasing
after them. Mike and Sully manage to escape back to the camp, but find that their exit door has
been disconnected.
Though Sully is terrified, Mike comes up with a plan that will get them out: adult scream
is far more powerful than child scream, so if the two of them could properly scare the park
rangers, they should be able to power the door from the inside. Following Mike’s lead, the two
are able to concoct and execute a series of small scares followed by one final, large scare by
Sully. The terrified screams of the park rangers are indeed enough to power the door, and with so
much extra energy that the door itself, along with all of the scream cans in the door lab, explodes
as Mike and Sully escape, leaving nothing by the burnt husk of Mike’s favorite M.U. hat.
Hardscrabble is shocked and terrified, asking how the two were able to do this as the scene
suddenly cuts back to the OK house, with Mike and Sully informing the rest of the team that they
were expelled. Don informs them that Dean Hardscrabble has welcomed the rest of them into the
scare program anyway, as she was incredibly impressed by their performance in the Scare
Games.
Mike and Sully then say their goodbyes as Mike boards his bus back home, though
Sullivan quickly chases after him to stop. As the two talk, Hardscrabble flies over to them and
complements them both. She wishes them luck, as Mike and Sully come up with a plan to work
at Monsters, Inc.—in the mailroom. The film ends as they work their way up from the bottom to
the rank of a scare team, setting things up for the start of the original Monsters, Inc.
11
Chapter 4: Overview of Compositional Approach and
Orchestration Techniques
The approach that the composer took when scoring the music to this film is, I believe,
highly characteristic of his work as a whole. Randy Newman’s scores, especially for animation,
are typically populated with ear-catching melodies that are effortlessly absorbed and noticeable,
being simple and memorable enough that one could quite certainly hum them as one leaves the
movie theater or after watching a copy of the film at one’s home. These easily digestible tonal,
usually diatonic, themes often take the form of leitmotivs, musical ideas that represent and
follow either characters or locations, or even ideas or emotional concepts. Monsters University is
no exception to this, as will be described in greater detail in later chapters.
All of this is not to say that Mr. Newman eschews dissonance—one will definitely find
instances of tone clusters and loud, clashing brass, winds, and strings throughout the score, but
such things are reserved for high intensity and high tension moments, like when young mike
sneaks into the child’s room behind “Frightening” Frank McCay—an incredibly dangerous act,
indeed! By reserving raw, harsh dissonances for only the most tense of situations, like the initial
confrontation with Dean Abigail Hardscrabble or running away from the park rangers in the
human world, the power of said sonic tool becomes all the more striking—like an atonal slap to
the face.
In addition to knowing where to place consonance and dissonance, Randy Newman also
knows the importance, and impact, of well placed silence. For example, the whole of the final
exam at the end of the first semester is shown without music. In a film with so much music in it,
12
and how closely one typically associates music with animation, the deathly still atmosphere only
heightens the latent tension between both Mike and Sully, and between each of them personally
with the exam they face. The sound of the scream canister breaking and shooting across the room
becomes even more emotionally shaking against the dead silence of the exam hall of the film and
the movie theater the viewer resides in—the lack of score places the viewer in the exam hall with
the other monsters, making everything seem that much more tense.
One of the things that first made me fall in love with the score to Monsters University is
the way that the composer was able to emulate the classic collegiate sound—through the use of
clever orchestration and typical chords and structures found in the alma maters and school
anthems, Randy Newman is able to create a sound that instantly places the viewer in the scene
and in the feel of the film. It’s also worth noting how much of the score is non-diegetic—there
are only two instances of full source music cues, the electronic dance music piece from the party
at the Roars and the sung version of the Monsters University Alma Mater at the beginning of the
Scare Games finals, and one very brief source music section of the Scare Pig cue, with the folk
guitarist on the quad. Other than those three instances, all music in the film is non-diegetic—
music that is heard only by the viewer and not by the characters in the film itself.
One clear characteristic of how Randy Newman composes is how dense his
orchestrations are. As described by sound designer, Tom Myers, “You can hear how dense
[Randy Newman’s score] is, and how percussive it is—hitting things, cymbal hits when
characters are being hit and things that hit on the ground—and everybody loved Randy’s score,
13
so we had to figure out how to work around that.” As a result, the sound designers and editors
needed to work in a way that would allow them to not interfere with or “muddy up” the score.9
Randy Newman also put a lot of work into his orchestrations, utilizing a number of
different ensembles throughout the film as a way of creating an iconic score. One of the primary
textures that he uses is what one can describe as the quintessential film orchestra—a standard
symphonic palate of strings, doubled woodwinds, brass, percussion, harp, and piano. While this
more traditional sound serves as one of the three primary textures, the other two main colors are
more idiomatic, in my opinion. The second primary texture Mr. Newman uses is a jazz orchestra
type sound, featuring strings along with flute, clarinet, jazz brass, saxes, pizzicato bass, jazz
drum set and percussion, guitar, piano, and even accordion and banjo. This ensemble is very
much a Randy Newman ensemble, utilizing textures, timbres, and orchestration techniques seen
in many of his other Disney/Pixar films, like the Toy Story series and The Princess and the Frog.
The third and, in my opinion, most iconic texture is one that I can best describe as a marching
band or “pep band” sound, consisting of marching winds and brass, along with drum line
percussion parts written and arranged by Blue Devils percussion caption head Scott Johnson, and
recorded by the Blue Devils Drum Corps at Skywalker Ranch.10 It is this texture that most
powerfully sets the location and feel of the film, whether presented in full, high-energy march or
in a more reflective brass choir style, as these are the sounds of a modern university and the
school spirit that runs through its campus.
9
Coleman,
Michael,
prod.
The
Sound
of
Monsters
University.
Ed.
Michael
Coleman
and
Logan
Grimé.
Soundworks
Collection.
Colemanfilm
Media
Group,
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2
June
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the-‐sound-‐of-‐monsters-‐university>.
10
"BD
Entertainment
Featured
in
Monsters
University."
Blue
Devils.
BD
Performing
Arts,
5
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14
Along with these primary textures, the composer utilizes a few smaller textures that only
appear once or twice for effect, including a rock-band style ensemble of guitars, both clean and
distorted, driving electric bass, and heavy drum kit percussion that appears at the end of the
“Scare Pig” cue as Mike catches the titular mascot on Frat Row, as well as two and a half lines of
a stereotypical singer-songwriter folk guitar piece sung by a monster on the quad of the campus
before being interrupted earlier on in the same cue.
In addition to the music composed by Randy Newman, there are three pieces of music
written by other artists. One is piece of electronic dance music called “ROAR”, which was
composed and performed by written and performed by Axwell & Sebastian Ingrosso of the
electronic supergroup Swedish House Mafia specifically for the dance party scene at the Roar
Omega Roar fraternity house. Along with ROAR, the film also uses two pre-existing songs, one
being the heavy metal song “Island” by the band Mastodon, which is used as a humorous aside
when a sweet stereotypical mother says she is going to “listen to her tunes”, and the other being
the song “Gospel” by the performance group MarchFourth Marching Band, which is featured as
the first song in the end credits of the film.
15
Chapter 5: Leitmotiv—Monsters University Alma Mater
While this is not the first leitmotiv that is heard in the film, a position held by Mike’s
Theme to be discussed later, I feel it is worth mentioning first because of it’s overall importance
in the film. This primary honor this theme, which is contextualized as the Alma Mater, or school
anthem, of Monsters University, bears is its use as the main title theme of the film. The leitmotiv
is presented below in C major, in example 5.1:
Example 5.1: Monsters University Alma Mater, annotated (C Major)
16
This simple diatonic melody never ventures too far away from tonic, departing only
through temporary flights through secondary dominants of the dominant and submediant, as well
the chain of secondary dominants that ends the melody. The result is a pleasant, ear-catching
melody that sticks with the listener—perfect for a title theme as well as for the imaginary Alma
Mater it is supposed to represent. The primary purpose of this theme, as it appears though all its
various forms, is one of narrative—this melody serves to set the location of the scene every time
it appears.
The first time this theme appears is in the main title sequence of the film, starting right
after young Michael asks with childlike wonder, “How do I become a scarer?” The orchestration
for this iteration of the theme utilizes the marching band texture mentioned in Chapter 4 the
whole way through, including and intro and powerful drum fills by the Blue Devils drum corps,
as seen in examples 5.2a-j, starting on the following page (Page 18).
As one can see, the orchestration texture was chosen to emulate the sound of a collegiate
marching band, with driving rhythms pushing the theme forward and leading into the main body
of the film bursting with energy. One thing that is worth noting about this presentation of the
theme is that it cuts out the “B” section, the section based around the inherently minor diatonic
submediant, and adds on a more driving, ascending cadence to the end, as a way of increasing
the energy and excitement into the film to follow.
[Analysis continued on page 28]
17
Example 5.2a: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 1-6; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
18
Example 5.2b: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 7-11; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
19
Example 5.2c: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 12-16; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
20
Example 5.2d: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 17-21; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
21
Example 5.2e: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 22-26; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
22
Example 5.2f: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 27-31; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
23
Example 5.2g: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 32-37; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
24
Example 5.2h: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 38-42; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
25
Example 5.2i: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 43-50; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
26
Example 5.2j: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 51-57; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
27
The next instance of the theme is heard as a now college age Mike appears takes his first
steps onto campus. The high energy is preserved, though the orchestration used moves away
from the marching band texture and to a more traditional orchestral setting. There is a notable
absence of winds in this orchestration, though, with only a single piccolo being used, and for
only four measures. It is worth noting, however, that this is just one theme, twenty-four seconds
or so of a four and a half minute long cue, and that the winds do play a stronger role later on in
later themes.
It is also worth noting that while this is the same theme as the title sequence, it has been
made not unsubstantially less march-like by changing the two-beat bass line to a faster, doubletime walking quarter note line, which I feel better captures the frenetic action and chaotic
perpetual motion of a university at first-year-student move-in day. The composer also transitions
between textures to match the things that Mike is seeing as he explores, continuing this
leitmotiv’s characteristic of being a narrative theme. Mike is at the university, and this is the
university’s theme.
This excerpt from the larger cue, “First Day at M.U.”, can be seen in examples 5.3a-d,
starting on the following page (page 29).
[Analysis continued on page 33]
28
Example 5.3a: Excerpt from “First Day at M.U.”, mm. 1-7; Pitches sound as written.
29
Example 5.3b: Excerpt from “First Day at M.U.”, mm. 8-15; Pitches sound as written.
30
Example 5.3c: Excerpt from “First Day at M.U.”, mm. 16-23; Pitches sound as written.
31
Example 5.3d: Excerpt from “First Day at M.U.”, mm. 24-29; Pitches sound as written.
32
The third example I will give of this theme appearing is when it is presented as what it
was supposed to represent all along: the Monsters University Alma Mater. The work appears in
this way in the transition from Mike and Sully’s bedroom, leading into the start of the scare
games—sung before the competition much like how the national anthem of the United States of
America is sung before the start of all US Baseball games and other sporting events. In order to
keep that same feeling, the song is stripped of all harmony, and sung monophonically in the
chorused voice of a crowd like that which would gather at a sporting event. Once again, the
submediant “b section” is cut from the cue, likely for the sake of time or brevity.
It is worth noting that this cue is presented differently in the “official soundtrack” of the
film, wherein there is full SATB harmonies that sometimes branch into as many as six different
tones, and wherein all of the lyrics and sections of the theme are present. I assume that this
version of the cue was pulled in favor of the one that is heard both for the sake of time, but also
to make it sound more realistic for the location.
It is also worth noting that this is the first times the lyrics to the theme are heard, which
were crafted on the common themes, if not clichés, heard in actual college and university
anthems from around the United States. There is, of course, the obligatory swearing of allegiance
to the school at the beginning, and the expected hailing of the school at the end. In between those
two is where the lyrics reflect the specific location, however, wherein a reference to the school’s
reputation for scaring is proudly presented.
The purpose of this cue is once again narrative—placing the scene at the school and right
before the game. The cultural connotations, at least for those in the United States, would be
palpable and instantly pull the viewer right back into the scene.
This cue can be seen on the following page in example 5.4 (page 34).
33
Example 5.4: Sung version of the Monsters University Alma Mater
34
Chapter 6: Leitmotiv—Wonder
I chose the next leitmotiv, which I have named the “Wonder” motif, because I see it as
being functionally the opposite of the previous theme. While the Monsters University Leitmotiv
was one that was a theme of narrative function that set a physical location, the wonder leitmotiv
serves a purely emotional one. This is a theme that we hear when Mike, or any of his
companions when they are with him, is put into a situation of reverence and, well, wonder. As
with the previous chapter, I have prepared an annotated version of the theme in the key of C
major, as seen below in example 6.1:
Example 6.1: Monsters University Alma Mater, annotated (C Major)
This theme is significantly shorter than the previous one, consisting of only eight bars
with an anacrusis, or pick-up measure. The chord progression is also entirely tonal, running
through the standard I-IV-V, utilizing a secondary dominant to lead into the dominant. One
interesting point about this theme is that it is unresolved, ending on a half cadence rather than
some form of authentic, V-I cadence. I personally believe that this was a way of increasing that
feeling of wonder, as the unresolved phrase leaves a sensation of longing, or a feeling of being
pulled forward to whatever happens next.
35
The first time the theme is heard is at the very opening of the film. The viewer watches as
young Michael is forgotten on the bus by his teacher, rejected by all of his classmates, including
his own cousin, as a partner. Resigned to the ultimate grade-school humiliation of being
partnered with the teacher, Mike gives a half-hearted, semi-sarcastic laugh. That resignation soon
turns to childlike fascination and wonder as the camera pans up to reveal the sign of Monsters,
Inc. The scene then cuts into the scream factory itself as Mike and his class take in all the sights
and excitement of the pinnacle of Monster culture; the rock stars or star athletes of Monstropolis.
It is at this point, as the wonder and excitement of it all courses through Mike’s
veins, that the theme is heard. The orchestration is simple in this cue and demure compared
bombastic approaches taken for the Alma Mater-based cues, consisting of a smaller string
orchestra with trumpet, clarinet, and F Horn soloists, with a single timpani roll for emphasis. The
theme itself starts with a slow, string-only introduction before the trumpet enters with the
melody. The string accompaniment here is highly contrapuntal, featuring almost constant motion
as the inner voices of the string section enter into a dialogue with each other as well as with the
trumpet melody. The solo clarinet enters later on, doubling the violin II line for a subtle texture
change. The whole register of the cue then shifts upwards into the higher regions of the strings as
the violins take the lead through a continuation of the cue before sustaining as the solo horn
comes in with a short melodic fragment. The motion and restrained nature of the ensemble
reflects well the emotion of the scene.
A transcription of this cue can be reviewed in examples 5.2a-c, starting on the following
page (Page 37).
[Analysis continued on page 40]
36
Example 6.2a: Excerpt from “Young Michael”, mm. 1-4; Pitches sound as written.
37
Example 6.2b: Excerpt from “Young Michael”, mm. 5-8; Pitches sound as written.
38
Example 6.2c: Excerpt from “Young Michael”, mm. 9-14; Pitches sound as written.
39
The wonder theme appears again at the very end of the movie, after we find out that Mike
and Sully have been expelled dishonorably from the university after the stunt they pulled when
Mike snuck into the human work without authorization to prove that he could scare, with sully
barging through security to chase after him in an attempt to protect the monster with whom he
felt that he had now developed a strong bond of friendship. The leitmotiv enters the goodbyes
cue as Mike bids farewell to his now ex-fraternity brothers, tinged with sadness as Mike and
Sully wonder what the future holds for them. Seeing their friends accepted into the scare
program in their stead is good news to them, though, letting a little shimmer of optimism shine
through the leitmotiv like it did in the first time it appears. The theme continues to develop in a
more melancholic way as Mike expresses his not knowing what the future holds, stating “it’s
time to leave greatness to the other monsters.” A secondary development of the theme appears as
Mike sits on the bus, watching the school of his dreams slowly disappear behind the trees.
The orchestration for this cue is very similar to the last example in terms of
instrumentation, consisting of string orchestra and solo clarinet, but with the addition of a harp
and the absence of any percussion or brass. One of the main differences in the texture, though, is
that static block chords have replaced most of the contrapuntal motion, creating less of a feel of
forward motion. The result is a texture that seems more reflective than progressive. The melody
has also been manipulated, expanded upon, and recomposed primarily in 3/4, making the theme
more waltz-like, which I personally believe adds to the melancholic feel. The emotion of the cue
is manipulated through the addition of additional motion and the introduction and removal of
instrumental timbre. I also personally found the return of the introductory segment from the
Young Michael version of this theme, albeit in a less rhythmically active form, after the actual
40
leitmotiv to be an interesting point, almost seeming like the back cover of a book that has
reached it’s end.
This cue can be seen below and on the pages following in examples 6.3a-g:
Example 6.3a: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 1-6; Pitches sound as written.
41
Example 6.3b: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 1-13; Pitches sound as written.
42
Example 6.3c: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 14-20; Pitches sound as written.
43
Example 6.3d: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 21-26; Pitches sound as written.
44
Example 6.3e: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 27-32; Pitches sound as written.
45
Example 6.3f: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 33-38; Pitches sound as written.
46
Example 6.3g: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 39-45; Pitches sound as written.
47
Chapter 7: Personal Epilogue
Well, that brings us to the conclusion of this thesis, and I sincerely hope you found it as
interesting to read as I did to write it. I believe that the examples I gave of theme manipulation
and orchestral development give a good overview as to the techniques used by Randy Newman
throughout what I believe is an incredible score to a great film. Obviously, there are more themes
and leitmotivs than the ones that I covered here, and more examples of each of the ones that I did
cover, but my goal in this thesis was not to reproduce the score to the film, but rather to peak the
reader’s interest, your interest, and hopefully inspire you to watch the film for yourself.
By this point in the writing process, I’ve watched Monsters University at least fifty times,
and I have yet to get tired of it. So, whether you’ve seen it before, only seen Monster’s Inc., or
haven’t seen either, I encourage you to track down and watch this film for yourself again, or for
the first time. The score is so robust and fits the picture perfectly—and inspiring example for
film composers and an engrossing experience for non-musicians. The changing textures and
types of orchestration keep the listener from getting bored, while the recurring leitmotivs and
themes keep the viewer in the world the film creates—the perfect combination.
So thank you, reader, for taking the time to read through this master’s thesis, and I hope it
inspires you to watch the film I so deeply enjoyed writing about and analyzing.
48
Works Cited
"The 74th Academy Awards (2002) Nominees and Winners." Oscar Legacy. Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2014. Web. 2 June 2014.
.
"BD Entertainment Featured in Monsters University." Blue Devils. BD Performing Arts, 5 June
2013. Web. 2 June 2014. .
Coleman, Michael, prod. The Sound of Monsters University. Ed. Michael Coleman and Logan
Grimé. Soundworks Collection. Colemanfilm Media Group, 2014. Web. 2 June 2014.
.
List of Academy Award Nominations for Randy Newman. Oscars Legacy. Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences, 2014. Web. 2 June 2014.
.
"Monsters University (2013)." Internet Movie Database Professional (IMDb Pro). Amazon.com,
n.d. Web. 2 June 2014. .
Newman, Randy, composer. Monsters University. Dir. Dan Scanlon. Screenplay by Dan
Scanlon, Daniel Gerson, and Robert L. Baird. Prod. Kori Rae. Disney/Pixar, 2013. Film.
-‐
-‐
-‐.
Monsters
University
(Original
Score).
Cond.
Randy
Newman.
Walt
Disney
Records,
2013.
CD.
- - -. "Randy Newman's America: A Portrait of the Artist." Interview by Timothy White.
Billboard 9 Dec. 2000: 16-19. Print.
- - -. "Soundtracks." Randy Newman. Ed. Randy Newman. Randy Newman, 2014. Web. 2 June
2014. .
"Randy Newman." The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. Ed. Patricia Romanowski
and Holly George-Warren. 3rd ed. New York: Fireside, 2001. 693-94. Print.
"Randy Newman (I)." Internet Movie Database Professional (IMDb Pro). Amazon.com, n.d.
Web. 2 June 2014. .
49
Selected Themes from
the Musical Score
from Disney/Pixar’s
Monsters University
A Master’s Thesis in Scoring for Film, Television,
and Video Games
Nicholas R. Esposito VIII
Berklee College of Music
M.Mus SFTV Class of 2014
1
Table of Contents
1. Personal Foreword ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
2. Introduction and Composer Biography ----------------------------------------------------------------4
3. Plot Synopsis of Monsters University------------------------------------------------------------------6
4. Overview of Compositional Approach and Orchestration Techniques --------------------------12
i. Compositional Approach --------------------------------------------------------------------------12
ii. Orchestration Techniques--------------------------------------------------------------------------14
iii. Additional Music------------------------------------------------------------------------------------15
5. Leitmotiv—Monsters University Alma Mater ------------------------------------------------------16
i. Annotated Theme -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------16
ii. From Cue—Title Theme---------------------------------------------------------------------------17
iii. From Cue—First Day at M.U. --------------------------------------------------------------------28
iv. From Cue—Alma Mater (Before Scare Games) -----------------------------------------------33
6. Leitmotiv—Wonder-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------35
i. Annotated Theme -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------35
ii. From Cue—Young Michael -----------------------------------------------------------------------36
iii. From Cue—Goodbyes -----------------------------------------------------------------------------40
7. Personal Epilogue ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------48
8. Works Cited----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------49
2
Chapter 1: Personal Foreword
When we, the Berklee College of Music Masters in Scoring for Film, Television, and
Video Games class of 2014, were assigned the thesis project of analyzing a film of our choice,
the decision seemed daunting. I mean, when one thinks of the astonishing number of films that
have been produced in the twenty three years that I have lived up to this point, trying to pick one
singular film to examine seemed like it was a feat worthy of a master’s degree in and of itself.
What ultimately drew me to the choice that I made, Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University,
featuring an original score by Randy Newman, was the way that the university setting clicked
with me—I went straight from my undergraduate into this Master’s degree, so this film, which I
can only describe as the Animal House of my generation, really spoke to me and the eternal
student that I have been up to this point. Mr. Newman was able to, in my personal opinion, create
a score that is always in some way “collegiate”, writing in a way that evokes feelings of being a
terrified “freshman” stepping onto the quad of your dream school for the first time during
orientation week, or that incredibly “pumped-up” feeling of watching your school’s team win the
big game, or even that melancholy-yet-hopeful feeling of leaving campus for the last time at the
end of one’s studies.
Sure, this film may be filled with a lot of the college movie clichés that one would expect
from a movie surrounding the given subject matter, as well as a lot of the Disney/Pixar clichés
that go along with the nature of being produced by said companies, but it also has a few surprises
thrown in for good measure. Most importantly, though, it has one characteristic that makes it all
worthwhile:
It’s a genuinely good movie.
3
Chapter 2: Introduction and Composer Biography
Monsters University, which premiered in the United States on June 21st, 20131, is the
prequel to the 2001 Academy Award nominated Monsters, Inc.2 The plot of the film is centered
around the origin story of the two main characters of the original film, “Scarer” James P. “Sully”
Sullivan, voiced by John Goodman, and his good friend and assistant, Michael “Mike”
Wazowski, voiced by Billy Crystal3, telling the tale of how they met, starting as bitter rivals and
slowly becoming friends through the trials and tribulations of college life, as well as showing
their unique path to working at Monsters, Incorporated, the setting for the original film and the
cultural importance of scarers in Monstropolis life.
The composer selected to write the score for Monsters University was Randy Newman,
who was also the composer for the original Monsters, Inc. Mr. Newman has written a number of
scores for the both the Disney and Pixar corporations, including the scores to the Toy Story
series, A Bug’s Life, and The Princess and the Frog.4
Randy Newman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on November 28th, 1943, to Adele
"Dixie" Fox and Irving George Newman, Randy was born into a family of renown film
composers, including his paternal uncles Lionel Newman, Emil Newman, and Alfred Newman,
as well as their children, including David Newman, Joey Newman, Maria Newman, and Thomas
1
"Monsters
University
(2013)."
Internet
Movie
Database
Professional
(IMDb
Pro).
Amazon.com,
n.d.
Web.
2
June
2014.
tt1453405/?ref_=sch_int>.
(“Details”)
2
"The
74th
Academy
Awards
(2002)
Nominees
and
Winners."
Oscar
Legacy.
Academy
of
Motion
Picture
Arts
and
Sciences,
2014.
Web.
2
June
2014.
.
3
"Monsters
University
(2013)."
Internet
Movie
Database
Professional
(IMDb
Pro).
Amazon.com,
n.d.
Web.
2
June
2014.
tt1453405/?ref_=sch_int>.
(“Cast”)
4
Newman,
Randy.
"Soundtracks."
Randy
Newman.
Ed.
Randy
Newman.
Randy
Newman,
2014.
Web.
2
June
2014.
.
4
Newman. 5 6 Randy grew up in Los Angeles, where he found success in songwriting by the age
of 17, and where he went to school, attempting to earn a B.A. in Music at the University of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA), but dropping out one semester before graduating. 6
Mr. Newman made his film-scoring debut in 1971 with the film Cold Turkey, and was
awarded his first of 16 Oscar nominations in 1981 for the film Ragtime.7 8 He would continue to
score films with great success throughout the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, winning his first
Oscar in 2002, for best original song in a film, for "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc.
and his second in 2010, again for best original song in a film, for "We Belong Together" from
Toy Story 3. 8
5
Newman,
Randy.
"Randy
Newman's
America:
A
Portrait
of
the
Artist."
Interview
by
Timothy
White.
Billboard
9
Dec.
2000:
16-‐19.
Print.
6
"Randy
Newman."
The
Rolling
Stone
Encyclopedia
of
Rock
&
Roll.
Ed.
Patricia
Romanowski
and
Holly
George-‐Warren.
3rd
ed.
New
York:
Fireside,
2001.
693-‐94.
Print.
7
"Randy
Newman
(I)."
Internet
Movie
Database
Professional
(IMDb
Pro).
Amazon.com,
n.d.
Web.
2
June
2014.
.
(“Filmography”)
8
List
of
Academy
Award
Nominations
for
Randy
Newman.
Oscars
Legacy.
Academy
of
Motion
Picture
Arts
and
Sciences,
2014.
Web.
2
June
2014.
.
5
Chapter 3: Plot Synopsis of Monsters University
The film starts an undetermined number of years before the start of Monsters, Inc.,
opening with an introduction to young Mike Wazowski, portrayed as a very enthusiastic young
monster, but one who is ignored, if not openly ridiculed, by his collogues—even his teacher
forgets him on the bus as they go to Monsters Incorporated on a field trip to learn about scarers
and scream energy. Mike is fascinated by everything around him and by the scarers who speak to
him, one of who,
"Frightening" Frank McCay, mentions being from Monsters University (M.U.).
Trying to witness what is happening on the Scare Floor, though he is pushed out of the way by
his fellow students, one commenting that he “doesn’t even belong on a scare floor”. Mike, more
determined then ever, sneaks onto the Scare Floor itself and into the door of the scarer from
M.U., an incredibly dangerous act. Though Mike is chastised for it, Frank, impressed by Mike’s
stealth, awards him his M.U. cap, leaving Mike determined to become a scarer himself.
Years later, Mike is accepted to Monster’s University, the alma mater of his idol and his
own personal dream school, as Scaring major. During orientation, he is shown around the school,
including such important places as the Door Lab, the cafeteria, and the illustrious Scaring
School. While passing through a club fare, he is immediately pulled in by the Greek Council, as
they tell him about the annual Scare Games. Mike then moves into his dorm, meeting his
roommate Randy Boggs, the villain of the original Monster’s Inc., though he seems far more
amicable in his younger state.
The next day, Mike attends his first day of scaring class, wherein he meets his professor,
Professor Knight, as well as the terrifying dean of the Scaring School, Abigail Hardscrabble, and
the lazy, arrogant, and lackadaisical James P. “Sully” Sullivan, a legacy scarer who is far from
6
the kind character he was in the original film. It is in this class that Mike is informed of the final
exam of the semester—one that failure of would mean expulsion from the scaring program. Mike
turns down Boggs’ offer to attend a party at Frat Row, saying that he would rather study, but
soon finds himself being interrupted when Sully climbs in through his window with the stolen
mascot of the rival school, Fear Tech’s Scare Pig. The pig ends up stealing Mike’s treasured
M.U. hat, and Mike is sent on a wild ride trying to capture it. Ending up at Frat Row, he finally
does catch the mascot, though Sully gets all the credit for the deed. Johnny Worthington, the
president of Roar Omega Roar (“The Roars”), the top fraternity on campus, invites Sully to be a
member whilst simultaneously ridiculing Mike. While it is clear that, early in the semester, Mike
is far from scary, he is shown to get progressively better throughout the class, matching and
eventually overtaking Sully in terms of skill in the class through hard work and constant
studying, compared to Sully’s sole desire to party.
Finally, the two reach the day of the aforementioned scare final. Mike goes in
confidently, but Sully is shaken when the Roars take his letter jacket, the symbol of his
membership, saying they will return it on the condition that he beats Mike in the exam. The final
itself utilizes a machine called a Scare Simulator, which measures the effectiveness of a given
scare. Sully attempts to intimidate Mike before they go, both physically and verbally, which
ultimately results in the two trying to one-up each other until Sullivan trips, knocking over and
destroying Dean Hardscrabble’s record-breaking can of scream, her “one souvenir from a
lifetime of scaring”. She then proceeds to kick both of them out of the program, Sully for not
listening to directions and Mike for simply “not [being] scary”.
Mike and Sully are then resigned to the Scream Can Design major, a fate that Sully holds
Mike personally responsible for. Upon returning to his dorm, Mike sees the flyer he got during
7
orientation about the Scare Games, and determines that it would be the best way to get back into
the scaring program. He hurries to Frat Row and joins the only frat that will accept him, Oozma
Kappa (“OK”). He then wagers against Dean Hardscrabble, saying that only the scariest of
monsters could win the Scare Games, so if he won, he should be allowed back into the scare
program. Dean Hardscrabble agrees, on the condition that if he loses, that he leave campus
forever. When told that he is one team member short, Mike tries to recruit his former roommate
Boggs, but discovers that he is now a member of Roar Omega Roar. Hearing the agreement
between Mike and Hardscrabble, Sully joins the OK team as well, joining the conjoined dance
major monsters Terry and Terri, the “mature student” and ex-salesman Don Carlton, New Age
Philosophy major Art, and the “unattached, undeclared, and pretty much unwelcome anywhere”
Scott “Squishy” Squibbles. The Team clearly looks like the least likely to succeed, though Mike
swears that, as team captain, he will lead the team to victory. Once again, though, he is ignored
as the rest of the team fawns over Sully. Mike and Sully share a room in the fraternity house,
which clearly works out quite poorly.
The next day, Oozma Kappa receives the invitation to the first challenge of the Scare
Games, the “Toxicity Challenge”, a painful race that takes place in the sewers under the school.
Misinterpreting the challenge, Mike and Sully race headlong to the end, not realizing that the
whole team had to cross the finish line, resulting in the team being eliminated from the Games.
In a stroke of luck, one of the other teams is disqualified due to cheating, so the Oozma Kappa
team is put back into the Games. Hardscrabble warns Mike that their luck will run out
eventually, which frightens him.
Mike then takes it as his mission to train his team, who all appear to be one degree above
useless, though Sully refuses to be a part of the training, claiming he can do everything by
8
himself. At the next event, the Oozmas find themselves in the bottom two teams, so Sully rushes
ahead without care to try and keep his team in. His recklessness, however, almost gets them
caught and eliminated. Mike watches as he believes his team is lost again when the rest of the
team pull together using their own unique skills that Mike wrote off to save the day, keeping
them in the competition for another day as they narrowly beat the other team.
Having made it to the halfway point of the competition, the Oozma Kappa team is invited
to a party at the Roar’s frat house, wherein they are at first welcomed by the crowd, but then
publically humiliated by Worthington. Demoralized and ostracized, the Oozmas are ready to
surrender, when Mike comes up with a cunning plan to get everyone back to fighting shape. He
gathers his team and breaks into the grounds of Monsters, Inc., showing his team how it’s the
differences in each scarer that makes them as successful as they are. Mike and Sully start to bond
when Monsters, Inc. Security spot them, forcing the team to run together in order to evade
incarceration.
The events at Monsters, Inc. rally the team, and through training and working together as
a team, the Oozma Kappas soar through the next two challenges, leaving all the other teams in
the dust and making it into the Scare Games Finals against Roar Omega Roar, with a whole army
of support behind them. As the rest of the team celebrates making it that far, Hardscrabble
scathingly reminds Sully how no matter how well the rest of the team does in the final challenge,
a straight-ahead Scare-Off in the scare simulators, that Mike is not, and never will be, scary
enough to succeed. Sully then tries to train Mike the night before the finals, telling him to forget
the theories he’s memorized and to just “let the scary out”.
The next day, the Scare Games Final begins to a massive turnout from the crowd, with
half rooting vehemently for Oozma Kappa. Sully convinces Mike to go last, telling him that he
9
started it, and that it only seemed right that he end it as well. Mike agrees, and the games begin.
The Oozma team does better than anyone could have expected, as the two teams go head to head.
The Roars start to take the lead, but Sully is able to tie things back up through an incredible scare
against Boggs, planting the seeds to the rivalry that would make Boggs the villain of the original
film. Worthington then scores an almost perfect scare, leaving it so that the only way the Oozmas
could win would be through a perfect scare, something that is almost unheard of at the difficulty
level that the scare simulators are set to. “Digging deep” and fighting against all his inner fears,
Mike “let’s the scary out”, earning the perfect scare that his team needed to win, shocking The
Roars and Dean Hardscrabble beyond words.
After the competition, Mike reflects over the scare simulator where he won. It is while
doing this, though, that he discovers that the machine had been tampered with, and that his scare
was set at the easiest difficulty level. Sully admits to having manipulated the machine, cheating
to make sure that their team would win and that Mike wouldn’t lose the competition for
everyone. Mike, dejected and angry, breaks into the door lab, convinced he can prove his worth
in a real scare in the human world. Meanwhile, Sully, wracked with guilt, confesses to
Hardscrabble, who expels him from the school. While chastising him, however, school security
informs them that a student, who the viewer knows is Mike, has broken into the door lab and
entered the human world without permission or protection.
In the human world, Mike tries to scare a sleeping girl, only to have her wake up and
laugh at him. It is then that he realizes that he was not in one girl’s bedroom, but rather into a
summer camp cabin filled with children. The scene cuts from Mike’s terrified face back to the
door lab, where Sully determines that he must go in after Mike to save him. Don helps Sully get
past security, where he then follows Mike’s footsteps through the door. Once through, though, he
10
finds the cabin empty with no sign of Mike. Climbing through an open window, camp rangers
spot Sullivan and chase after him thinking he is a bear. He is chased down to the lake, where he
finds a broken-hearted Mike skipping stones. Sully and Mike bond, but the rangers come chasing
after them. Mike and Sully manage to escape back to the camp, but find that their exit door has
been disconnected.
Though Sully is terrified, Mike comes up with a plan that will get them out: adult scream
is far more powerful than child scream, so if the two of them could properly scare the park
rangers, they should be able to power the door from the inside. Following Mike’s lead, the two
are able to concoct and execute a series of small scares followed by one final, large scare by
Sully. The terrified screams of the park rangers are indeed enough to power the door, and with so
much extra energy that the door itself, along with all of the scream cans in the door lab, explodes
as Mike and Sully escape, leaving nothing by the burnt husk of Mike’s favorite M.U. hat.
Hardscrabble is shocked and terrified, asking how the two were able to do this as the scene
suddenly cuts back to the OK house, with Mike and Sully informing the rest of the team that they
were expelled. Don informs them that Dean Hardscrabble has welcomed the rest of them into the
scare program anyway, as she was incredibly impressed by their performance in the Scare
Games.
Mike and Sully then say their goodbyes as Mike boards his bus back home, though
Sullivan quickly chases after him to stop. As the two talk, Hardscrabble flies over to them and
complements them both. She wishes them luck, as Mike and Sully come up with a plan to work
at Monsters, Inc.—in the mailroom. The film ends as they work their way up from the bottom to
the rank of a scare team, setting things up for the start of the original Monsters, Inc.
11
Chapter 4: Overview of Compositional Approach and
Orchestration Techniques
The approach that the composer took when scoring the music to this film is, I believe,
highly characteristic of his work as a whole. Randy Newman’s scores, especially for animation,
are typically populated with ear-catching melodies that are effortlessly absorbed and noticeable,
being simple and memorable enough that one could quite certainly hum them as one leaves the
movie theater or after watching a copy of the film at one’s home. These easily digestible tonal,
usually diatonic, themes often take the form of leitmotivs, musical ideas that represent and
follow either characters or locations, or even ideas or emotional concepts. Monsters University is
no exception to this, as will be described in greater detail in later chapters.
All of this is not to say that Mr. Newman eschews dissonance—one will definitely find
instances of tone clusters and loud, clashing brass, winds, and strings throughout the score, but
such things are reserved for high intensity and high tension moments, like when young mike
sneaks into the child’s room behind “Frightening” Frank McCay—an incredibly dangerous act,
indeed! By reserving raw, harsh dissonances for only the most tense of situations, like the initial
confrontation with Dean Abigail Hardscrabble or running away from the park rangers in the
human world, the power of said sonic tool becomes all the more striking—like an atonal slap to
the face.
In addition to knowing where to place consonance and dissonance, Randy Newman also
knows the importance, and impact, of well placed silence. For example, the whole of the final
exam at the end of the first semester is shown without music. In a film with so much music in it,
12
and how closely one typically associates music with animation, the deathly still atmosphere only
heightens the latent tension between both Mike and Sully, and between each of them personally
with the exam they face. The sound of the scream canister breaking and shooting across the room
becomes even more emotionally shaking against the dead silence of the exam hall of the film and
the movie theater the viewer resides in—the lack of score places the viewer in the exam hall with
the other monsters, making everything seem that much more tense.
One of the things that first made me fall in love with the score to Monsters University is
the way that the composer was able to emulate the classic collegiate sound—through the use of
clever orchestration and typical chords and structures found in the alma maters and school
anthems, Randy Newman is able to create a sound that instantly places the viewer in the scene
and in the feel of the film. It’s also worth noting how much of the score is non-diegetic—there
are only two instances of full source music cues, the electronic dance music piece from the party
at the Roars and the sung version of the Monsters University Alma Mater at the beginning of the
Scare Games finals, and one very brief source music section of the Scare Pig cue, with the folk
guitarist on the quad. Other than those three instances, all music in the film is non-diegetic—
music that is heard only by the viewer and not by the characters in the film itself.
One clear characteristic of how Randy Newman composes is how dense his
orchestrations are. As described by sound designer, Tom Myers, “You can hear how dense
[Randy Newman’s score] is, and how percussive it is—hitting things, cymbal hits when
characters are being hit and things that hit on the ground—and everybody loved Randy’s score,
13
so we had to figure out how to work around that.” As a result, the sound designers and editors
needed to work in a way that would allow them to not interfere with or “muddy up” the score.9
Randy Newman also put a lot of work into his orchestrations, utilizing a number of
different ensembles throughout the film as a way of creating an iconic score. One of the primary
textures that he uses is what one can describe as the quintessential film orchestra—a standard
symphonic palate of strings, doubled woodwinds, brass, percussion, harp, and piano. While this
more traditional sound serves as one of the three primary textures, the other two main colors are
more idiomatic, in my opinion. The second primary texture Mr. Newman uses is a jazz orchestra
type sound, featuring strings along with flute, clarinet, jazz brass, saxes, pizzicato bass, jazz
drum set and percussion, guitar, piano, and even accordion and banjo. This ensemble is very
much a Randy Newman ensemble, utilizing textures, timbres, and orchestration techniques seen
in many of his other Disney/Pixar films, like the Toy Story series and The Princess and the Frog.
The third and, in my opinion, most iconic texture is one that I can best describe as a marching
band or “pep band” sound, consisting of marching winds and brass, along with drum line
percussion parts written and arranged by Blue Devils percussion caption head Scott Johnson, and
recorded by the Blue Devils Drum Corps at Skywalker Ranch.10 It is this texture that most
powerfully sets the location and feel of the film, whether presented in full, high-energy march or
in a more reflective brass choir style, as these are the sounds of a modern university and the
school spirit that runs through its campus.
9
Coleman,
Michael,
prod.
The
Sound
of
Monsters
University.
Ed.
Michael
Coleman
and
Logan
Grimé.
Soundworks
Collection.
Colemanfilm
Media
Group,
2014.
Web.
2
June
2014.
the-‐sound-‐of-‐monsters-‐university>.
10
"BD
Entertainment
Featured
in
Monsters
University."
Blue
Devils.
BD
Performing
Arts,
5
June
2013.
Web.
2
June
2014.
.
14
Along with these primary textures, the composer utilizes a few smaller textures that only
appear once or twice for effect, including a rock-band style ensemble of guitars, both clean and
distorted, driving electric bass, and heavy drum kit percussion that appears at the end of the
“Scare Pig” cue as Mike catches the titular mascot on Frat Row, as well as two and a half lines of
a stereotypical singer-songwriter folk guitar piece sung by a monster on the quad of the campus
before being interrupted earlier on in the same cue.
In addition to the music composed by Randy Newman, there are three pieces of music
written by other artists. One is piece of electronic dance music called “ROAR”, which was
composed and performed by written and performed by Axwell & Sebastian Ingrosso of the
electronic supergroup Swedish House Mafia specifically for the dance party scene at the Roar
Omega Roar fraternity house. Along with ROAR, the film also uses two pre-existing songs, one
being the heavy metal song “Island” by the band Mastodon, which is used as a humorous aside
when a sweet stereotypical mother says she is going to “listen to her tunes”, and the other being
the song “Gospel” by the performance group MarchFourth Marching Band, which is featured as
the first song in the end credits of the film.
15
Chapter 5: Leitmotiv—Monsters University Alma Mater
While this is not the first leitmotiv that is heard in the film, a position held by Mike’s
Theme to be discussed later, I feel it is worth mentioning first because of it’s overall importance
in the film. This primary honor this theme, which is contextualized as the Alma Mater, or school
anthem, of Monsters University, bears is its use as the main title theme of the film. The leitmotiv
is presented below in C major, in example 5.1:
Example 5.1: Monsters University Alma Mater, annotated (C Major)
16
This simple diatonic melody never ventures too far away from tonic, departing only
through temporary flights through secondary dominants of the dominant and submediant, as well
the chain of secondary dominants that ends the melody. The result is a pleasant, ear-catching
melody that sticks with the listener—perfect for a title theme as well as for the imaginary Alma
Mater it is supposed to represent. The primary purpose of this theme, as it appears though all its
various forms, is one of narrative—this melody serves to set the location of the scene every time
it appears.
The first time this theme appears is in the main title sequence of the film, starting right
after young Michael asks with childlike wonder, “How do I become a scarer?” The orchestration
for this iteration of the theme utilizes the marching band texture mentioned in Chapter 4 the
whole way through, including and intro and powerful drum fills by the Blue Devils drum corps,
as seen in examples 5.2a-j, starting on the following page (Page 18).
As one can see, the orchestration texture was chosen to emulate the sound of a collegiate
marching band, with driving rhythms pushing the theme forward and leading into the main body
of the film bursting with energy. One thing that is worth noting about this presentation of the
theme is that it cuts out the “B” section, the section based around the inherently minor diatonic
submediant, and adds on a more driving, ascending cadence to the end, as a way of increasing
the energy and excitement into the film to follow.
[Analysis continued on page 28]
17
Example 5.2a: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 1-6; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
18
Example 5.2b: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 7-11; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
19
Example 5.2c: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 12-16; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
20
Example 5.2d: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 17-21; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
21
Example 5.2e: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 22-26; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
22
Example 5.2f: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 27-31; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
23
Example 5.2g: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 32-37; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
24
Example 5.2h: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 38-42; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
25
Example 5.2i: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 43-50; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
26
Example 5.2j: Monsters University Title Theme, mm. 51-57; Pitches sound as written.
Flute, Clarinet, Trumpets, and Trombones play section unison unless in obvious divisi.
27
The next instance of the theme is heard as a now college age Mike appears takes his first
steps onto campus. The high energy is preserved, though the orchestration used moves away
from the marching band texture and to a more traditional orchestral setting. There is a notable
absence of winds in this orchestration, though, with only a single piccolo being used, and for
only four measures. It is worth noting, however, that this is just one theme, twenty-four seconds
or so of a four and a half minute long cue, and that the winds do play a stronger role later on in
later themes.
It is also worth noting that while this is the same theme as the title sequence, it has been
made not unsubstantially less march-like by changing the two-beat bass line to a faster, doubletime walking quarter note line, which I feel better captures the frenetic action and chaotic
perpetual motion of a university at first-year-student move-in day. The composer also transitions
between textures to match the things that Mike is seeing as he explores, continuing this
leitmotiv’s characteristic of being a narrative theme. Mike is at the university, and this is the
university’s theme.
This excerpt from the larger cue, “First Day at M.U.”, can be seen in examples 5.3a-d,
starting on the following page (page 29).
[Analysis continued on page 33]
28
Example 5.3a: Excerpt from “First Day at M.U.”, mm. 1-7; Pitches sound as written.
29
Example 5.3b: Excerpt from “First Day at M.U.”, mm. 8-15; Pitches sound as written.
30
Example 5.3c: Excerpt from “First Day at M.U.”, mm. 16-23; Pitches sound as written.
31
Example 5.3d: Excerpt from “First Day at M.U.”, mm. 24-29; Pitches sound as written.
32
The third example I will give of this theme appearing is when it is presented as what it
was supposed to represent all along: the Monsters University Alma Mater. The work appears in
this way in the transition from Mike and Sully’s bedroom, leading into the start of the scare
games—sung before the competition much like how the national anthem of the United States of
America is sung before the start of all US Baseball games and other sporting events. In order to
keep that same feeling, the song is stripped of all harmony, and sung monophonically in the
chorused voice of a crowd like that which would gather at a sporting event. Once again, the
submediant “b section” is cut from the cue, likely for the sake of time or brevity.
It is worth noting that this cue is presented differently in the “official soundtrack” of the
film, wherein there is full SATB harmonies that sometimes branch into as many as six different
tones, and wherein all of the lyrics and sections of the theme are present. I assume that this
version of the cue was pulled in favor of the one that is heard both for the sake of time, but also
to make it sound more realistic for the location.
It is also worth noting that this is the first times the lyrics to the theme are heard, which
were crafted on the common themes, if not clichés, heard in actual college and university
anthems from around the United States. There is, of course, the obligatory swearing of allegiance
to the school at the beginning, and the expected hailing of the school at the end. In between those
two is where the lyrics reflect the specific location, however, wherein a reference to the school’s
reputation for scaring is proudly presented.
The purpose of this cue is once again narrative—placing the scene at the school and right
before the game. The cultural connotations, at least for those in the United States, would be
palpable and instantly pull the viewer right back into the scene.
This cue can be seen on the following page in example 5.4 (page 34).
33
Example 5.4: Sung version of the Monsters University Alma Mater
34
Chapter 6: Leitmotiv—Wonder
I chose the next leitmotiv, which I have named the “Wonder” motif, because I see it as
being functionally the opposite of the previous theme. While the Monsters University Leitmotiv
was one that was a theme of narrative function that set a physical location, the wonder leitmotiv
serves a purely emotional one. This is a theme that we hear when Mike, or any of his
companions when they are with him, is put into a situation of reverence and, well, wonder. As
with the previous chapter, I have prepared an annotated version of the theme in the key of C
major, as seen below in example 6.1:
Example 6.1: Monsters University Alma Mater, annotated (C Major)
This theme is significantly shorter than the previous one, consisting of only eight bars
with an anacrusis, or pick-up measure. The chord progression is also entirely tonal, running
through the standard I-IV-V, utilizing a secondary dominant to lead into the dominant. One
interesting point about this theme is that it is unresolved, ending on a half cadence rather than
some form of authentic, V-I cadence. I personally believe that this was a way of increasing that
feeling of wonder, as the unresolved phrase leaves a sensation of longing, or a feeling of being
pulled forward to whatever happens next.
35
The first time the theme is heard is at the very opening of the film. The viewer watches as
young Michael is forgotten on the bus by his teacher, rejected by all of his classmates, including
his own cousin, as a partner. Resigned to the ultimate grade-school humiliation of being
partnered with the teacher, Mike gives a half-hearted, semi-sarcastic laugh. That resignation soon
turns to childlike fascination and wonder as the camera pans up to reveal the sign of Monsters,
Inc. The scene then cuts into the scream factory itself as Mike and his class take in all the sights
and excitement of the pinnacle of Monster culture; the rock stars or star athletes of Monstropolis.
It is at this point, as the wonder and excitement of it all courses through Mike’s
veins, that the theme is heard. The orchestration is simple in this cue and demure compared
bombastic approaches taken for the Alma Mater-based cues, consisting of a smaller string
orchestra with trumpet, clarinet, and F Horn soloists, with a single timpani roll for emphasis. The
theme itself starts with a slow, string-only introduction before the trumpet enters with the
melody. The string accompaniment here is highly contrapuntal, featuring almost constant motion
as the inner voices of the string section enter into a dialogue with each other as well as with the
trumpet melody. The solo clarinet enters later on, doubling the violin II line for a subtle texture
change. The whole register of the cue then shifts upwards into the higher regions of the strings as
the violins take the lead through a continuation of the cue before sustaining as the solo horn
comes in with a short melodic fragment. The motion and restrained nature of the ensemble
reflects well the emotion of the scene.
A transcription of this cue can be reviewed in examples 5.2a-c, starting on the following
page (Page 37).
[Analysis continued on page 40]
36
Example 6.2a: Excerpt from “Young Michael”, mm. 1-4; Pitches sound as written.
37
Example 6.2b: Excerpt from “Young Michael”, mm. 5-8; Pitches sound as written.
38
Example 6.2c: Excerpt from “Young Michael”, mm. 9-14; Pitches sound as written.
39
The wonder theme appears again at the very end of the movie, after we find out that Mike
and Sully have been expelled dishonorably from the university after the stunt they pulled when
Mike snuck into the human work without authorization to prove that he could scare, with sully
barging through security to chase after him in an attempt to protect the monster with whom he
felt that he had now developed a strong bond of friendship. The leitmotiv enters the goodbyes
cue as Mike bids farewell to his now ex-fraternity brothers, tinged with sadness as Mike and
Sully wonder what the future holds for them. Seeing their friends accepted into the scare
program in their stead is good news to them, though, letting a little shimmer of optimism shine
through the leitmotiv like it did in the first time it appears. The theme continues to develop in a
more melancholic way as Mike expresses his not knowing what the future holds, stating “it’s
time to leave greatness to the other monsters.” A secondary development of the theme appears as
Mike sits on the bus, watching the school of his dreams slowly disappear behind the trees.
The orchestration for this cue is very similar to the last example in terms of
instrumentation, consisting of string orchestra and solo clarinet, but with the addition of a harp
and the absence of any percussion or brass. One of the main differences in the texture, though, is
that static block chords have replaced most of the contrapuntal motion, creating less of a feel of
forward motion. The result is a texture that seems more reflective than progressive. The melody
has also been manipulated, expanded upon, and recomposed primarily in 3/4, making the theme
more waltz-like, which I personally believe adds to the melancholic feel. The emotion of the cue
is manipulated through the addition of additional motion and the introduction and removal of
instrumental timbre. I also personally found the return of the introductory segment from the
Young Michael version of this theme, albeit in a less rhythmically active form, after the actual
40
leitmotiv to be an interesting point, almost seeming like the back cover of a book that has
reached it’s end.
This cue can be seen below and on the pages following in examples 6.3a-g:
Example 6.3a: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 1-6; Pitches sound as written.
41
Example 6.3b: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 1-13; Pitches sound as written.
42
Example 6.3c: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 14-20; Pitches sound as written.
43
Example 6.3d: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 21-26; Pitches sound as written.
44
Example 6.3e: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 27-32; Pitches sound as written.
45
Example 6.3f: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 33-38; Pitches sound as written.
46
Example 6.3g: Excerpt from “Goodbyes”, mm. 39-45; Pitches sound as written.
47
Chapter 7: Personal Epilogue
Well, that brings us to the conclusion of this thesis, and I sincerely hope you found it as
interesting to read as I did to write it. I believe that the examples I gave of theme manipulation
and orchestral development give a good overview as to the techniques used by Randy Newman
throughout what I believe is an incredible score to a great film. Obviously, there are more themes
and leitmotivs than the ones that I covered here, and more examples of each of the ones that I did
cover, but my goal in this thesis was not to reproduce the score to the film, but rather to peak the
reader’s interest, your interest, and hopefully inspire you to watch the film for yourself.
By this point in the writing process, I’ve watched Monsters University at least fifty times,
and I have yet to get tired of it. So, whether you’ve seen it before, only seen Monster’s Inc., or
haven’t seen either, I encourage you to track down and watch this film for yourself again, or for
the first time. The score is so robust and fits the picture perfectly—and inspiring example for
film composers and an engrossing experience for non-musicians. The changing textures and
types of orchestration keep the listener from getting bored, while the recurring leitmotivs and
themes keep the viewer in the world the film creates—the perfect combination.
So thank you, reader, for taking the time to read through this master’s thesis, and I hope it
inspires you to watch the film I so deeply enjoyed writing about and analyzing.
48
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Media of
