You know the catchy music they play in the teaser for the movie Wall-E? From the first time i heard it, i thought it was great. I thought at the time that it was part of the film score, written especially for the pixar film. But then, I heard the same music, characterized by the three-note half-step sequence, in another preview of some sort, this time some for some sort of girly situational comedy. First, i thought that the sit com totally ripped off Wall-E. But i figured, at that point, that the music was actually an older composition that caught the attention of music directors for two completely different features. Recently, i saw the movie Brazil, a 1985 sci-fi film. Or, if your name beings with “Wiki” and ends in “Pedia”, its a dystopian black comedy. Whatever. The movie itself is quirky and fantastic, in my opinion, and sure enough, it has its own cult following. Very early in the film, there is a scene in which the camera moves quickly through a bustling office, and what do you know, that SAME fully-orchestrated up-tempo three-note sequence is coming out of the speakers. At this point, i’m convinced that this music, wherever it came from, is very high on Hollywood music directors’ go-to lists for “busy, excited working theme music”.

So this music has been bouncing around in my head for the last few weeks, and i’ve been meaning to find out where it really came from. Thank God for the internet. I tried asking people if they knew where that music came from, and all i get is blank stares. “Do you know that theme music they play in that movie trailer that’s like dum dum dummmm, dum dum da-da-dum… no?” It’s impossible to convey the actual piece of music with just your mouth, because the music has so many great elements that make it unique. It’s not just the 3 notes in sequence, its the building chords behind the sequence, the latin percussion, the crescendo of it all.

The music, as i have found out, is really just a very small beginning of the piece “Aquarela do Brasil” aka Brazil, written in 1939. The movie Brazil that i saw earlier used this song, translated into english, as the main part of its score. The song was recorded a bajillion times in a bajillion ways by everyone, usually as “Brazil”: Django, Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Chet Atkins, Arcade Fire (i know!), etc. The part that got my attention isn’t even prominent in most versions of the song, just the orchestral version as far as i know. Chasing down the origin and uses of this song has taken me so many different places because it’s used so much.

Now i want to show you this:
“Aquarela do Brasil” Samba Cartoon

This 8-minute Donald Duck cartoon comes from Saludos Amigos, a 1942 Disney cartoon with 4 segments, the finale of which is linked to above. This cartoon, the first use of the song in films (by Disney, no less, 66 years before Wall-E), is awesome. It struck me as fantastic even apart from the fact that it uses “Brasil”. Maybe i think its so great because i’m the kind of person that thinks films like Fantasia are the best use of animation ever created. A cartoon that centers around music is a worthwhile cartoon. So many elements present in that cartoon are no longer used in today’s attention deficit disorder sugar-high cartoons. Donald, decked out in his sailor garb, an american icon, digs this Portuguese-speaking stranger. We watch as they take a short stroll through colorful latin-american culture, including everything from Samba music to cigar-smoking and fine local liquors. Cartoons can’t get away with any of that these days, and if they do, they probably were created to appeal to a more mature crowd in the first place. Of course, what do i know… maybe the old Disney toons from the 40’s weren’t for the kids either, showing a suited Walt smoking a little cigarette in his office as he introduces his lovable characters.

Anyways, the next time you hear “Brasil”, you’ll know where it came from.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 at 9:47 pm and is filed under journal, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.