Each year, the Fantasia Festival presents the Honorary Career Award, which recognizes a significant cinematic artist who has left an indelible mark on the history of genre cinema. After John Woo in 2022, Nicolas Cage in 2023, and Mike Flanagan in 2024, this year sees two recipients. First, there’s animator Gendy Tartakovsky, who will receive his award at the festival’s closing and at the screening of his new film, Fixed, and music composer Danny Elfman. The latter received his award before the screening of The Nightmare Before Christmas and the short film Bullet Time, for which he composed the music. The Le Petit Septième team also had the chance to speak with him for a moment.
Who is Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman has had a different path from other music composers, as he first started on the New Wave scene with the band Oingo Boingo, where he was the singer and composer. He is credited with hit songs such as Only a Lad, Little Girls, Dead Man’s Party, and Weird Science.
His career in cinema came from a certain Tim Burton, who had just signed his very first feature film with Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, based on the television character created by Paul Reubens. Burton and Reubens, being fans of Oingo Boingo, asked Elfman to compose the film’s music. Initially uncertain, he eventually accepted and enjoyed his experience. This would launch a long collaboration with Tim Burton, scoring almost all of Burton’s films, whether it be Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, the two Batman films, Mars Attacks!, and Big Fish. The culmination of their collaboration will undoubtedly be The Nightmare Before Christmas, where Elfman composed all the songs for the musical and lent his voice to the main character of Jack Skellington.
Danny Elfman is also credited with the soundtracks for Sam Raimi’s films (Darkman, Spider-Man 1 and 2, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Gus Van Sant’s films (Good Will Hunting, Milk), the Men in Black films, as well as the series The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives. He has been nominated four times for the Oscars (Good Will Hunting, Men in Black, Big Fish, and Milk), three times for the Golden Globes (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Big Fish, Alice in Wonderland), has received three Emmys, two for his work on Desperate Housewives and Wednesday, and won a Grammy for the music of 1989’s Batman.
Bullet Time
The Honorary Career Award was presented as part of a special screening of The Nightmare Before Christmas, which was preceded by the short film Bullet Time, for which Danny Elfman composed the music.
The film follows Bullet, a Bull Terrier who participates in a fighting video game tournament. Not only will he have to face his opponent, but he will also have to confront his urge to eat all the junk food around him.
The short film was directed by Eddie Alcazar, an American director, screenwriter, producer, and game designer known for the science fiction films Perfect in 2018 and Divinity in 2023, the latter having been presented at Fantasia in 2023.
This time, he embarks on an animation project, drawing on his experience in video games. Bullet Time is heavily inspired by 80s and 2000s Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon cartoons, both in its drawing style and its very energetic, even overly so, tone. However, unlike these cartoons for young audiences, the short film is for adults. One only has to see its very trashy humor or its numerous sexual allusions.
The animation and visual style work very well, with trashy visual jokes that are genuinely funny. The claymation fighting game, which references the video game ClayFighter, is also well done. Nevertheless, the film’s over-the-top tone is also its main flaw. Our senses are directly attacked by the film, and we have difficulty following the story and understanding what is happening, especially with the presence of characters whose names we don’t know and who serve no purpose in the film. Moreover, the subversive aspect of the film will not please everyone. We are unable to hear Danny Elfman’s cool soundtrack.
Bullet Time was presented at the Fantasia Festival on July 23, 2025.
Interview
The Fantasia team was kind enough to let us speak for a moment on the red carpet of the screening. We only had time for two questions, but here is a report.
Today, you are best known for your film scores. Before that, you were the leader and singer of the band Oingo Boingo before Tim Burton asked you to do the music for Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. How was the transition between your band and composing for films?
It was a big shock because I was a big admirer of films and film music. I was a kind of film nerd as a teenager, but I never considered composing for a film. I never tried my hand at it. It wasn’t on my radar.
When [Tim Burton] offered me to do Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, it surprised me so much that I almost refused, because I thought I was inadequate for the job and that I wasn’t ready for the challenge.
And at the last second, I made a decision. If I have two words that helped me define my life, it’s simply “F*ck it”. And that’s what I told myself, and I went for it. And I’m glad I did. Because 110 films later, I can say it was a good opportunity for me.
And after 40 years as a film composer, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned?
I don’t know if there’s one lesson that’s the most important, there have been so many. How to work with directors or how to work with very tight deadlines and stress.
That’s the most important thing, because I think if someone really wants to excel as a film composer, you really have to be able to work in a minefield, under constraint, under pressure, and never give up. There’s no way to know what that minefield is like without ever setting foot in it. I learned during the first 10 or 15 films that it’s a lot of pressure, but I’m okay and I can manage it.
Also, you have to know how to interpret what the director wants or thinks, but doesn’t know how to express. That’s one of the biggest challenges of writing a soundtrack. And those are the two things I continue to learn today.
