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| Horner |
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story: (James Horner) A
Steven Spielberg-produced flight of fantasy, the 1993 animated film
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story basically follows four singing and
dancing dinosaurs as they travel forward in time to New York and engage
in activities that today would constitute a significant breech in
American national security. Basic flat animation techniques and the
inevitable involvement of a couple of children as supporting characters
make this formula yet another yawn fest for adults. Movies like this
were still being released to theatres in the early 1990's, the days
before the straight-to-video market and the creation of Disney's heinous
video sequel department pumped out such awful results on a regular basis
without the need for theatrical distribution. Ironically, there were two
films about dinosaurs in 1993 that were either produced or directed by
Spielberg, and they couldn't be more stylistically different. One was
Jurassic Park, for which maestro John Williams wrote one of the
most popular scores of the 1990's. And then there was
We're Back! A
Dinosaur's Story, for which James Horner tried to match Williams
note for note in an effort to take a dinosaur horror score and twist it
into a wildly outrageous slapstick variation. If a collector of Horner's
works looks back at all of the children's music he wrote from 1988 to
1995, animated and live-action, a good head-scratching could result. But
of all the somewhat bizarre projects on which Horner became involved
during that era, none is stranger in content or musical result than
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. Whether or not Horner chose these
assignments simply because of his association with the producers, there
was one fact about a film like
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story
that would explain his involvement; the composer did seem to have had a
whole lot of fun when writing and recording some of these more
imaginative children's scores. Without a doubt,
We're Back! A
Dinosaur's Story is his most zany and energetic slapstick comedy
entry. With sound effects and funky rhythms flying at breakneck speeds,
this work is also Horner's response to Jerry Goldsmith's
Gremlins 2:
The New Batch. And given the complexity of much of the writing in
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, fans should be appreciative that
the London Symphony Orchestra was once again Horner's performing group
of choice, because the score makes some strenuous demands on those
musicians during its wild ride.
On a technical level, Horner's composition here is more
impressive than in any of his other animation scores. There are
marvelous sequences of slapstick comedy that, when combined with the
superior abilities of the ensemble, merit a listen simply for study
alone. If you recall the most active and dense sections of
The
Pagemaster and
Balto, imagine that demeanor cranked up
another notch in intensity. One of Horner's few truly slapstick efforts,
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story rips and snorts through countless
thematic motifs and rhythms that will make your head spin. An
appropriately cute title theme opens and closes the score, although it
is the soaring secondary theme heard in "Flying Forward in Time" that
draws broad strokes from
The Land Before Time and offers its lush
strings over brass support that will remind of John Barry's romantic
style. The dominating spirit in the score is established in "Grand Slam
Demons," however, when Horner lifts several elements from Danny Elfman's
title sequence for
Beetlejuice and begins to overlay the London
Symphony Orchestra with his various specialty instruments, eventually
including kazoos, a barrel organ, vibraphone, whistle, and a series of
sound effects not limited to car horns, sirens, and duck calls. This
creativity on a massive level extends to "Circus" and "Grand Demon
Parade," and each of these explosions of sound is led by brass themes
that play on famous classical and older film music melodies (including
everything from
The Godfather to
The Phantom of the
Opera); for people driven nuts by Horner's habit of ripping off his
own material, be content in knowing that he quotes others' works far
more than his own this time (though his standard four-note motif of evil
does make a brief appearance). The most important aspect of
We're
Back! A Dinosaur's Story is that all the musicians, whether they
play the muted trumpets or the inspiring percussion, embrace Horner's
playfulness and respond with a sense of zeal that you rarely hear from
studio performers. In "Grand Demon Parade," you even encounter a brass
section intentionally playing the wrong notes. A customary, cooing
female choir fills out the magical moments of a more sincere heart,
highlighted by the first two minutes of "Flying Forward in Time." On the
whole, as with most slapstick music, the score requires a very specific
mood in order to fully enjoy it. Two variations on the "Roll Back the
Rock" song co-authored by Horner don't help the package, the John
Goodman performance in the first rendition functioning like a musical
number. The album (a somewhat rare DAD recording) went out-of-print not
long after its debut and will likely provide more smirks for a Horner
collector than lasting enjoyment.
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