by

Song of the Day #4,483: ‘Ratatouille Main Theme’ – Michael Giacchino

Continuing my countdown of every Pixar movie…

#5. Ratatouille (2007)
(down two spots from previous ranking)

Brad Bird’s Ratatouille is a triumph of both concept and execution.

The premise — a rat with a gift for cooking — is both comically simple and curiously profound. Imagine if your very existence was uniquely horrifying in the very setting you felt most at home.

The visuals of this movie are breathtaking, with Bird taking full advantage of his Paris setting, and Michael Giacchino’s score is among my very favorites in a Pixar movie.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #4,482: ‘Why Don’t You Find Out For Yourself’ – Morrissey

This track appears on Morrissey’s 1994 album Vauxhall and I, his fourth solo release.

The four Smiths albums plus Morrissey’s first four solo records make up the universe of my appreciation for him and the band. I listened to his next couple of releases with diminishing enthusiasm, and jumped off the bandwagon entirely by the mid-2000’s. I’m surprised to see that Morrissey released his 13th (!) solo album just this year.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #4,481: ‘The New Underground’ – Guster

This track from Guster’s 2006 album Ganging Up on the Sun is apparently about the G.W. Bush administration’s propaganda surrounding the war with Iraq.

That was a bad period in American politics, to be sure, but it’s hard to look back at any of the national crises pre-Trump and not think we were all completely oblivious to what a true Oval Office threat to American democracy would look like.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #4,480: ‘Dream Productions’ – Michael Giacchino

Continuing my countdown of every Pixar movie…

#6. Inside Out (2015)
(no change from previous ranking)

Inside Out followed a trio of mediocre Pixar films (Cars 2, Brave and Monsters University), making viewers’ first reaction relief that the studio hadn’t lost it.

Far from it. This movie is thrillingly inventive, taking the somewhat familiar idea of “people inside your head” and exploding it with visual and thematic ingenuity.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #4,479: “The Ballad of the Lonesome Cowboy’ – Chris Stapleton

Continuing my countdown of every Pixar movie…

#7. Toy Story 4 (2019)
(no change from previous ranking)

One of the biggest shocks on this list (even to me) is the placement of Toy Story 4 above the first and second films in the series. It defies the conventional wisdom that this movie was unnecessary because the third movie tied things up so neatly.

I felt that way myself when this film was first announced. But after watching it (three times now), I strongly disagree. While Toy Story 3 offered perfect closure to the arc of the toys in Andy’s life, it left wide open the question of what was in store for Woody.

Continue reading →