Buy it... if you desire a foreshadowing of the balance of vintage jazz and orchestral sensitivity of James Horner's Cocoon: The Return and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

Avoid it... if you expect Horner to treat the cute, mechanized alien visitors in this film with the kind of truly unique instrumental tones that Jerry Goldsmith might have afforded them.

Horner

*batteries not included: (James Horner) Originally meant to be an episodic entry in Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" television series of the mid-1980's, the plot of *batteries not included was considered too overflowing with potential to constrain to anything less than a full feature film. Unfortunately, while Spielberg produced the film and brought a lot of his comfortable talent with him for Universal, he declined to schedule the film into his own directorial schedule. Instead helming *batteries not included was Matthew Robbins, and although he does a decent enough job of emulating Spielberg's sense of wonderment for the production, Robbins was quickly pounced upon by critics for missing the same touch. The basic ingredients of an affable Spielberg story of the 1980's are all there, however, merging concepts from E.T. and Cocoon to form a story of two, small flying saucers from outer space that float into the window of an elderly couple's New York apartment one night. That couple is played by Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn (not only a real-life pair but also both appearing the Cocoon: The Return the following year) and they run a restaurant at the base of their apartment complex, one that is the target of developers. The two little saucers mean well, and after using appliance parts and household power to rejuvenate themselves, they take on the cause of the couple in saving their lifestyle. The picture is as cute as one could possibly imagine, though despite strong special effects and Spielberg's influence, *batteries not included did not tug at enough heart strings to be considered truly memorable. No stranger to either Universal's Spielberg-related productions or the genre of science fiction fairy tales was composer James Horner, whose career was entering full swing (quite literally) by the time *batteries not included arrived in 1987. The assignment gave Horner the opportunity to stay firmly rooted in his comfort zone within this narrow sub-genre, plucking many of the elements from his music for Cocoon for rearrangement in *batteries not included while also testing a few ideas that would receive significantly more development in The Land Before Time the next year. In retrospect, the music for *batteries not included really doesn't offer a Horner collector anything newsworthy, especially with better exploration of all of the various components of this score in later efforts. Still, however, it is a serviceable score with only a few detriments on album.

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If anything, *batteries not included proves that Horner was either obsessed with the style of Glenn Miller's vintage jazz or simply really good at emulating it. The jazzy structures you hear in this score are very similar to those of Cocoon: The Return. They occupy a significant portion of the musical landscape here, opening the film and providing spirited enthusiasm to the endeavors of the lead couple. If you've never been appreciative of either the disparate environment caused by this style of jazz in Cocoon: The Return or the more extensive variations in Swing Kids, then *batteries not included is limited in what it can offer you in its remaining parts. Horner writes two themes for orchestral renderings, one of mechanized percussion and bouncing woodwind rhythms for the alien saucers themselves and then a more standard orchestral idea for lofty strings that represents the sentimentality of the tale. The first theme of descending mystery tinkers with creative sounds in "Night Visitors," though Horner's noise-makers and other devices to denote cute robots are nowhere near as interesting as Jerry Goldsmith's similar employment of creativity at the time. The prancing optimism of this theme sometimes segues directly into the jazz, though a few of the perky combinations of the two sounds are very similar to Horner's forthcoming Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. The latter theme (the one of friendship) is a more fluid orchestral one that opens the "End Credits" with a full statement in typical Horner fashion after several flourishes in previous scenes in the latter half of the film. Collectors of the composer's works will notice significant similarities between this idea and one in The Land Before Time, though the only complete and obvious connection comes in the first thirty seconds of "Hamburger Rhumba." Outside of Horner's rotation between these themes are a few unique passages, usually denoting suspense with equally familiar Horner techniques. The entirety of "Arson" (and a few jabs at the conclusion of "Farewell") consists of slightly dissonant, melodramatic rumbling for lower performance elements that culminates in a truly disturbing crescendo of despair at the end. On the whole, however, *batteries not included is a pleasant work that will appeal to devoted collectors of Horner's 1980's jazz-infused scores. Only existing on an original MCA Records CD album from the film's debut, the score has been difficult to obtain for decades. For casual film music collectors, the recommendation here is the same as that for Cocoon: The Return, though this score has more intrigue to offer. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.13 (in 98 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25 (in 184,725 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.