Meet Michael Giacchino, American soundtrack composer

The American soundtrack composer Michael Giacchino has been known since the beginning of his career, at the beginning of the 21st century, for the scores of the series of video games set in World War II: Medal of Honor, among others. But, from the second half of the decade from 2000 to 2010, he began to work for television and film, in JJ Abrams productions and in animated films for Pixar. For all this, Steven Spielberg classified him as "a young John Williams."

His first work was the soundtrack of videogame The lost World, adaptation of the film of the same name, which in turn was a sequel to Jurassic Park. He won an Oscar in 2010 for best soundtrack for his work on the film Up. Due to its significance in the history of music, we tell you which are the best film soundtracks by Michael Giacchino.

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Who is Michael Giacchino?

His career as a musician and composer has been marked by his work for video games, films, television and video and, because of them, he is one of the most common composers in Hollywood cinema. He has received Oscars, Golden Globes, Grammys, Emmys and BAFTAs.

One of the fundamental reasons why he has acquired great fame has been the collaborations he has developed throughout his career, both with JJAbrams and with Brad Bird, Matt Reeves, Pete Docter, Colin Trevorrow, Jon Watts, Drew Goddard , The Wachowskis and Thomas Bezucha. But also, thanks to his work as a composer for Pixar animated films directed by Brad Bird, such as Ratatouille either The Incredibles.

The video game soundtrack The lost World, published in the United Kingdom in 1987, led Michael Giacchino to follow in the footsteps of his idols. The chances of John Williams doing the soundtrack for Jurassic World (2015) directed by Colin Trevorrow, were scarce, if not non-existent, but thanks to the work done on the video game, Giacchino closed the circle with the score for this film. Thus, and due to his style of composition, he became the great heir of the legendary New York composer.

Nominations and awards received by the composer Giacchino

The most prestigious awards in cinema, the Oscars, have allowed Giacchino to enjoy two nominations for best original score. By Ratatouille, and by Up, a film that allowed him to obtain the award in 2010, but, in addition, it has received another 25 awards in different categories and competitions, as well as another 17 nominations.

As for his awards at the Golden Globes, he has only been nominated once, also for Up, in which he also won this award. However, the Grammy Awards have given him more opportunities and recognition, with a total of seven nominations and five wins: for Ratatouille, for Best Music Soundtrack Album in 2008; and the Best Music Soundtrack Album in 2010 for Up, as well as the Best Instrumental Composition, for the same film. He has also had other nominations for The Incredibles and Star Trek.

The Emmy Awards juries have awarded Giacchino on one occasion for Best Musical Composition for a Series, for his work in lost the mythical adventure that brought JJ Abrams to fame. On two other occasions, editions of 2008 and 2010, he has been nominated for seasons of the same production. As for the BAFTA Awards, he was also rewarded with the award for Best Original Music also for Up.

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Best movie soundtracks by Michael Giacchino

If we take a tour of the work of Michael Giacchino, who has been composing film soundtracks for 20 years, we find ourselves back in 2004 with The Incredibles, the first of his works for Pixar. This film allowed the composer to play with a jazzy feel that evokes the James Bond films of the 60s and that combines with excellent and fast-paced action rhythms. In some way, with this animated film, Giacchino discovered his voice, as he would reuse many techniques from this film in the future.

Continuing with Pixar, among its best soundtracks, its work in Ratatouille, the 2007 film that tells the adventures of a little French rat who cooks to the author's impressive music. The score places us perfectly in Remy's perspective, as a great dreamer of French cuisine and culture through his small eyes.

In 2009, the American musician teamed up again with JJ Abrams, after lost, to bring the USS Enterprise back to the big screen. Star Trek, the iconic franchise was already known for its theme song, but Giacchino found a beautiful way to set the film apart with a moving score. The epic, combined with wonder and adrenaline is what fuels the new version of this work of science fiction.

Back at Pixar, that same year, Giacchino wrote the music for Up. Its opening scene has gone down in history as one of the greatest moments in film history, and the music behind it has a lot to do with what makes it so great. The song best known to the public is 'Married Life', a silent montage of Carl and Ellie's life together, while Giacchino plays in the background. What is most impressive about the score is its ability to generate a dramatic arc from a blissful high to the most heartbreaking despondency.

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The American's career has gone hand in hand with this animation production company that, in 2015, brought them together again in Inside out, a film about emotions, with a score full of feeling, with decorations that lead us towards madness. It evokes the feeling of joy and goes through different moods, sometimes with crazy fast, darkly slow or simply smooth tracks. Very few composers could have created such an eclectic mix and made it perfect.

Another of his musical adventures took him to Marvel to renew his musical universe in doctor strange. He 'Master of the Mystic' is a particularly fun piece of music that not only turns Doctor Strange into a Marvel character in his own right, but also helps give personality to the film itself.

And if Pixar, Star Trek and Marvel were not enough, he was also hired to write the film's soundtrack Villain one, a difficult task, considering that John Williams had typically done the music for the franchise and created some of the most fascinating themes over the years. Giacchino blew you away with an emotional but truly epic score.

In the most furious current times, we come across Batman. After his journey through Marvel with Doctor Strange and his three spider raids with Spiderman, the composer leaves the light to enter the darkness of DC and orchestrate the bat's new adventures. Its composition is an excellent work where darkness is the primary basis of the musical narrative, following the guidelines of three main themes that form the skeleton of the score. He leitmotiv of the main character takes the pattern already exercised by Hans Zimmer for the acclaimed trilogy of the Dark Knight.

In this analysis of his work, it would be a good time to return to the past and look at his relationship with the Wachowskis and their adaptation of the Japanese anime Speed runner. In this film Giacchino has in mind the premise "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", so he composes a new interpretation of the theme speed racer that weaves throughout the entire film. Also mentionable is the score of the unsuccessful John Carter, where the musician infuses the soundtrack with something similar to Danny Elfman's early work with Tim Burton.

In 2015, Giacchino resumed his collaboration with Brad Bird on The world of tomorrow. The music often attempts to invoke the old-style adventure films for which John Williams gained his fame. And with Mission Impossible 3 returns once again with JJ Abrams to revitalize the franchise.

Finally, it is essential to visit Jurassic World, in the wake, once again, of the incomparable John Williams. Giacchino considered it a daunting task to ask someone to track the score of a Williams film, but there was no one better than Michael Giacchino to design this score. His new themes for the Indominous Rex and other characters give the film its own identity but still keep it within the same family as the one Williams composed. Spider-Man: No Way Home Closes this journey through his legacy, a work that inherits the music created by Horner, Zimmer and Elfman.

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Jurassic World: Michael Giacchino in charge of the soundtrack

It has now been 48 weeks since the composer lived his last day of work composing the score for Jurassic World Dominion. On his social networks he claimed that it was an incredible 10 days with the orchestra and the team at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. In June 2022, the film's world premiere date, we will be able to hear this new composition of the Jurassic universe in theaters, in which it is the sequel to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, by JA Bayona.

Michael Giacchino on Instagram: “Last day of scoring for @JurassicWorld Dominion. It's been an incredible 10 days with the orchestra and crew at Abbey Road Studios.…”

Performance of the Jurassic World soundtrack with the FSO

The second week of October last year, the Film Symphony Orchestra presented live, and as a tribute to the musician on his birthday, the new interpretation of the Jurassic World soundtrack.

Music from movies like Up, The Incredibles either Jurassic Park have made Giacchino one of the most relevant film music composers of the 21st century. Pixar's main musician and Oscar winner, he has become part of the history of music created for film, and a regular in the FSO repertoire.