Danny Elfman vs. John Williams

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

If you can't tell it's his sound, that means it <i>isn't</i> unique.

[eestlinc]

having a recognizeable sound is good...

both have done some great work. I'll take John Williams for epic scope.

[Shoeberto]

If you can't tell it's his sound, that means it <i>isn't</i> unique.

I meant that each of his sound tracks aren't unique from each other if they all sound the same. I can only vouch for this on Spiderman and Batman, though. I still choose Other Guy.

[Chris]

John Williams is my composer hero!
...John Barry is the only possible match.

[Kossage]

I'd have to say I like John Williams more. I've enjoyed listening to his music in Jaws, E.T., the six Star Wars movies, the three first Harry Potter movies, the two first Jurassic Park movies, the three Indiana Jones movies, and of course Superman. He has this fantastic ability to create a world of his own through music, and he has composed many famous themes during his career. He knows how to weave themes together and knows to create unique and emotional themes (Imperial March, Force theme, Jurassic Park theme etc.), unlike James Horner who nowadays re-uses many of his themes in his newest scores (although Horner did compose some wonderful scores too, such as Willow and The Land Before Time to mention a few).

I do enjoy Elfman's works too in scores such as the first two Batman movies, the Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow, Spider-Man movies, Darkman, Big Fish, and Edward Scissorhands (one of my all time favourites; gotta love that choral work and beautiful themes there, not to mention that "the Grand Finale" is one of the best songs he has ever composed) just to name a few. Elfman used to have this quite odd and quite crazy style in his early works, but nowadays he doesn't compose like that as often as before, although his scores are still good.

All in all, I like John Williams more, although Danny Elfman is an awesome composer as well. It's just that Willams just knows how to make things work and how to create a musical world that can even live outside the movie (this is clearly evident in the Star Wars movies, at least the Original Trilogy anyway), whereas Elfman sometimes stumbles with his work and can't hold the consistency in some of his scores, although most of the time Elfman does manage to create wonderful themes such as the theme heard in "Grand Finale" in Edward Scissorhands for example. So yes, both Williams and Elfman are wonderful composers, but if I had to choose between them, I'd choose John Williams.

[Big D]

John Williams has a great style. Enjoyable, epic, with a lot of spirit and often a great pace. The themes from Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Jaws are classic recognisable to virtually anyone. I'm also enormously fond of Williams' music from the 1996 Olympic Games.

Danny Elfman's good, but his works don't stand out for me so much.
Didn't he also compose the theme to The Simpsons?

[eestlinc]

yea, the Simpson's theme is Elfman's work.