Randy Newman Has a Friend in Pixar

H itchcock had Herrmann, the Pink Panther had Mancini ... and Pixar has Newman.

The computer animation colossus is out to make it four for four with “Monsters, Inc.,” and once again calling the tunes, so to speak, is Randy Newman, the acerbic pop singer-songwriter who has tapped his inner child to write the scores and some memorable songs for all of the company’s features.

Newman, one of pop’s most respected and distinctive songwriters for three decades, became a front-line film composer in the early ‘80s, and it was that side of his artistry that led to one of today’s most enduring musician-moviemaker relationships.

Newman and Pixar executive vice president of creative (that’s the title) John Lasseter, director of the first three hits--”Toy Story,” “A Bug’s Life” and “Toy Story 2”--and executive producer of “Monsters,” recently put their heads together and dissected their collaborative chemistry.

*

Question: John, had you been a long-term fan of Randy’s music?

John Lasseter: I was always a big fan of his albums, but also his film scores. I loved the movie “The Natural,” and part of what is so magical about that film is that the score really makes the scenes. I had the CD of the soundtrack and would play it all the time, along with “Awakenings,” “Ragtime” and others. What I was so taken by with Randy’s scores is that they were great music; you could listen to it on a CD, but when you watch it with a film, it just brings each scene alive like very few composers do.

Everything that Randy has done has been very intelligent. He never spoke down to his audience in either the songs or the score.... He was our first and only choice because of that exact thing; he never speaks down to the audience. It’s always from an adult point of view.

*

Q: Randy, Pixar was an unknown quantity before “Toy Story.” What sold you on working with them?

Randy Newman: I don’t have much visual imagination, so when I look at a storyboard, I can’t interpolate the whole picture and figure out what it’s gonna be. But I knew that it would be funny, and they talked intelligently about what they wanted to do and what they wanted music to do. Music can’t transmit a lot of information, but emotion is what it does, and they knew that.

I’ve always loved animation and I’m fortunate that I was in these pictures. They took me places I wouldn’t have gone on my own. I’d probably be beating away at 4/4 my whole life if I didn’t do pictures.

*

Q: How do you work together to make the movie and the music emotionally compatible?

Lasseter: We like to talk to Randy even in advance of having any finished film and start thinking in terms of themes. For instance, on “Bug’s Life,” we just gave him boards with images on it, not necessarily even images from the film, to evoke what we’re thinking of, along with single words that describe the emotion, and we just had him concentrate on themes.

For me, probably the funnest part of making these movies is when we’re at the scoring stage and Randy’s up in front of the 105-piece orchestra.... We go out and stand among the orchestra while he’s performing, and it brings absolute chills every single time. He just gets it. He understood what we were trying to achieve. He’s the modern-day Carl Stalling [the legendary composer for Warner Bros.’ cartoons].

*

Q: Do you remember your first meeting?

Lasseter: Oh yeah, I remember. He walked in and I’m, “Oh my God, it’s Randy Newman!”

Newman: I went, “Oh my God, this is gonna have a lot of really fast music in it.” I think we liked each other at the first meeting.

*

Q: Are you friends; do you socialize?

Newman: Yeah. I mean we live in different parts of the state, but we like each other, and I can’t say that about every director I’ve ever worked with.

Lasseter: Our wives are good friends. The four of us went on a publicity trip down to Latin America, for a little over a week, I think.

Newman: It was like “Three Caballeros.”

Lasseter: We went to Rio de Janeiro, and every 10 minutes Randy broke into the Barry Manilow song “Copacabana.”

Newman: But not in as good tune as he sang it.

*

Q: Do you ever butt heads?

Newman: Oh yeah. I usually lose. John’s instincts have gotten better and better as things have gone on, but inevitably, since I have strong opinions of my own, we’ve butted heads on occasion, sure. And I’ve won a couple. I’m maybe 2 and 6. But always without rancor, and with respect for the opinion of the other. Which isn’t always the case. It’s kind of an authoritarian system, and if the director tells you to do something, he’s not gonna listen to your opinion too often. John is wise enough to at least listen.

*

Q: Randy, do you keep this kind of song and score work separated from the kind of music you do for your own albums?

Newman: Not consciously, but I mean, I write to assignment. I’m serving in something else, a higher calling perhaps.

*

Q: Can you foresee producing a project that wouldn’t use Randy?

Lasseter: It’s not dictatorial here. I don’t tell them what to do. In the case of Randy getting “Monsters,” [director] Pete Docter was starting to look at all sorts of composers, and Randy got the job because he was the perfect guy for the film. Are all the Pixar movies always gonna be using Randy? Probably not, because they’ll be directed by lots of different people through the years.

Will I continue to use Randy? I don’t know if every movie I personally direct, but heck yeah, I’m gonna continue to use Randy, because I know that almost anything I can think of, he can write music for. And I love working with him.