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Co-Produced by:
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Michael Mason
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Conducted by:
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Pete Anthony
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Release Date:
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August 21st, 2001
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Debney | |
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Cats & Dogs: (John Debney) Whether or not by his own choice, John Debney
is entrenching himself into the typecast of a composer whose expertise suits him
best for the action/comedy genre of films, especially those for wacky childrens'
films. His career has been defined by these projects since the mid-1990's, and
yet most of the attention brought to Debney by mainstream score fans has been
caused by such projects as Cutthroat Island and End of Days. Since
1999, Debney has been experimenting in a variety of genres, including the
electronically dense and marginally enjoyable scores for Michael Jordan to
the Max (an IMAX picture in which Debney's score is upstaged by the
insertion of Hans Zimmer's Crimson Tide into certain key sequences) and
the football comedy The Replacements, which best be forgotten on both
video and CD. With Cats & Dogs, a comedy techno thriller about the highly
sophisticated world-wide battle which exists between cats and dogs (without the
knowledge of those pesky humans, of course), Debney is presented with the
opportunity to record with a large Los Angeles orchestra and flex his muscle in
slapstick comedy scoring once again. The scores Debney composed for My
Favorite Martian and Inspector Gadget never made it onto commercial
albums, though their promotional releases remain popular finds in the
collector's markets.
For Debney, Cats & Dogs is more of a sister score to My Favorite
Martian and Inspector Gadget rather than Paulie, the
misadventure with a talking bird that was released by Varèse Sarabande to
grumbling fans three years ago. Casual fans of Debney's works will notice very
little difference between Cats & Dogs and those scores mentioned above.
As usual, Debney's talents at interpreting pop culture themes into his
orchestral works are strong. The Lalo Schifrin theme for the Mission:
Impossible television theme is a pronounced influence in two of the early
tracks, establishing without a doubt the technological mastery of these cats and
dogs in their epic battle. Interestingly, beyond these enjoyable performances
(or should I say mutilations of classic theme?), the score has surprisingly few
pure slapstick comedy moments. Both My Favorite Martian and Inspector
Gadget were difficult to listen to at certain points because they were so
frenetic in their bouncy enthusiasm for their genre. Cats & Dogs, while
still maintaining the charisma of the storyline, is a smoother and more
consistent listening experience. The full orchestra, which performs well but is
mixed rather flatly, kicks with ferocious force during some cues, but never in
too silly of a staggered rhythm. Debney also introduces a more tender title
theme for the lead dog, Lou, than typical in his other efforts. The
Americana-harmonica simplicity of the theme is corny to an extent, but if you
stop to think about it for a moment, we're talking about a film involving cute,
talking canines and felines. It undoubtedly works splendidly in the film.
On album, it becomes easier to notice two notable traits to the score. First,
Debney only scratches the surface of the unique forms of orchestration he could
have used for the animals themselves. For the cats, he introduces a scratchy
violin cascade for short bursts (nothing to the extent of Batman Returns,
however) and that creative motif seems underused throughout the score. Likewise,
there didn't seem to be a creative instrumental representation of the woofing
dogs (such as what Jerry Goldsmith did in The 'Burbs)... an opportunity
missed, perhaps. The other noteworthy aspect of Cats & Dogs that arose on
album was the numerous similarities in theme and motif to James Horner's work in
the same genre. While there are some subtle influences from Star Trek II: The
Wrath of Khan and The Pagemaster in some of the comedy cues, the
theme for the heroic puppy Lou is a direct relative to Horner's title for The
Land Before Time, another talking animal film. Fans of Horner's career will
likely pick up on this, though the mass populus of listeners won't notice or
care. Overall, Cats & Dogs reaffirms John Debney's strong talents in
composing large-scale, silly scores. Each works its own wonders in their films,
but in this case, the score doesn't feature enough outlandish creativity in
instrumentation to make it distinctive on album. If you are one of those people
who balks at spending the money on the promos for My Favorite Martian and
Inspector Gadget, though, Cats & Dogs may be an enticing
alternative. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Main Titles (2:40)
• 2. The Neighborhood (3:10)
• 3. Lou the Dreamer (1:44)
• 4. Meet Mr. Tinkles/The Formula (2:04)
• 5. Kung-Fu Kats (2:28)
• 6. Meet the Team (1:21)
• 7. The Russian! (2:53)
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• 8. Team Theme/Montage/The Discovery (4:04)
• 9. Tinkles Plots/Limo Ride/Flocking Factory (3:41)
• 10. Blasting to Headquarters (2:23)
• 11. Lou Saves the Day (3:41)
• 12. Lou's Alive! (2:11)
• 13. Dress-Up Time for Tinkles (1:32)
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Insert includes no extra information
about the film or score, except for a list of musicians who performed on the
score.
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