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Tim Burton’s composer of choice, Danny Elfman, returns for the duo’s 17th collaboration and delivers all that you could want for the fantastical tale of a soaring elephant.

On the face of it, scoring a movie set in a carnival and circus might not be seen as much of a challenge for Elfman. He has after all, spent a lot of his career composing funfair fanfares and music for clowns. However, this isn’t just any old fairground feature, and the composer would be well aware that the beloved score by Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace from the 1941 original won the Oscar for best music, and was nominated for best song (Baby Mine). So how do you approach that? Ignore what’s gone before and deliver your own sound, or pay homage to a beloved score? Thankfully, it’s a little of both.

Elfman wisely recognises the power of the original score but isn’t held hostage to it. In Train’s a Comin’ he references Casey Junior, but interpolates it into the percussive drive. Recognising a classic song when he hears it, Elfman doesn’t throw out the baby (Mine) with the bath water, instead featuring it twice – as sung in-film by Sharon Rooney (her character is Miss Atlantis) and over the end credits by Arcade Fire. It’s a gorgeous song – a lullaby by Mrs Jumbo to her distressed son – and is seamlessly blended into Elfman’s wider thematic material.

Classic psychedelic track Pink Elephants on Parade also gets a bubbly 21st Century makeover with what can only be described as the most Burton/Elfman sounding track on the album – big frothy fun. When I See an Elephant Fly is referenced by its lyrics, but wisely there’s no attempt to reinvent the three crows in today’s more enlightened times.

But enough of the old, what of the new material? Suffice to say that Dumbo’s Theme is glorious, originally playing out in a lower-key, more subdued version, but then taking off (literally) in Dumbo Soars. Optimistic, life-affirming and using every part of the orchestra, it’s the beating heart of the film.

Eva Green’s character also gets her own cue in Colette’s Theme, a haunting anthem that follows her trapeze act, with no small amount of Edward Scissorhands magic thrown in. Action cues Nightmare Island and Rescuing the Farriers are album highlights, taking the established and giving them some extra peril and layering, the percussion and brass adding to the drama.

Verdict: If you thought that Danny Elfman was going to rest on his laurels for his latest ‘Tim Burton at the circus’ score, you were so wrong. His main theme is one of his best for years and weaves its way through the high (flying) drama and magic. Multiple plays immediately reward with additional nuance – it’s 61 minutes of pure joy. 10/10

Nick Joy