 |
|
| Silvestri |
|
|
Who Framed Roger Rabbit: (Alan Silvestri) Hailed as one of
the most successful technological breakthroughs in the history of the animated
film genre,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was an incredibly popular merging of
animated and live-action filming technologies in 1988. And while the seamless
integration of these two genres was heralded to no end at the time, the film
strangely had little impact on the actual future of animation and live action
films. It would take until 2003's
Looney Tunes: Back in Action before the
technique could be perfected in the digital realm. Ironically, the industry
encountered even greater grosses in the interim by going back to the strictly
animated scene, and Disney would hit the financial pot of gold beginning the next
year with
The Little Mermaid and continuing through all of the Alan
Menken-composed projects of the 1990's. Despite the success of the visuals,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit turned out to have a bigger legacy in the other
realm in which it dabbled: cross-studio character mingling. It was also famous
for its rare collaboration between Warner Brothers and Disney, and the licensing
and copyright nightmare that the film ended up creating unfortunately made it a
one-time experiment for quite some time. No better a director to pull off this
competitive corporate challenge than Robert Zemeckis. Having proven with
Back
to the Future that he was a bankable director, Zemeckis tackled the project
with charm and succeeded in making a film that was much better than the
nightmarish corporate circumstances under which it was created. Zemeckis had
discovered composer Alan Silvestri during the production of
Romancing the
Stone just a few years earlier, and their work together on
Back to the
Future created undeniable movie magic. The director naturally continued to
trust Silvestri's talents, bringing the aural atmosphere of a fictional cartoon
studio to life in
Who Framed Roger Rabbit before concentrating solely on
the
Back to the Future sequels. Ultimately, Silvestri's task for
Who
Framed Roger Rabbit would be to do a little merging of his own, too. The old,
frentic Looney Tunes style of writing had to be infused into the jazzy atmosphere
of 1940's Los Angeles that still exuded a hint of noir personality.
Just as the film successfully combined its disparate visual
halves, Silvestri created an extremely serviceable score for both the cartoon
characters and the real life location of the film. In its general demeanor,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a trademark cartoon score, with slapstick
breaks and dizzy rhythms that challenge the London Symphony Orchestra to keep up
with the mad dashing of the animated characters. It's a lightweight score in
tone, with minimal thematic development of a truly memorable nature. The work
relies more on the bouncing creativity and positive energy that the orchestra
generates in order to provide the same children's ambience that you'd expect to
hear in any Warner Brothers cartoon. The delightful, upbeat personality of the
score is carried by Silvestri's ability to adapt the style of legendary Warner
Brothers animation composer Carl Stalling, who created all of the memorable
themes for the studio's legacy cartoons. No better a tribute is made to Stalling
than in the logo music for the Maroon studio that opens the real film. Many
subsequent cues exhibit the same Stalling character, fulfilling the basic
environment necessary. Several slapstick adaptations of other famous themes are
included in the mix, as well as the integration of dialogue from the film. A few
direct statements of old Warner pieces throughout the score, including "That's
All Folks," are a treat. Film music collectors will likely be drawn more to the
1940's jazz, performed by trumpet with great solace in "Valiant & Valiant" and in
the famous song "Who Don't You Do Right?" (which is the musical centerpiece of
the film). On album, various score and source music, as well as dialogue from the
film, has been released several times over the years. At the time of the film's
debut, a 40-minute album of music and dialogue from
Who Framed Roger
Rabbit was released directly by Buena Vista (Disney) in a promotional format
(of sorts) that was sold mostly at Disney-related locations. Concurrently,
Touchstone Records released a 46-minute album with more of Silvestri's music
featured. Both albums fell badly out of print and were, for a while, considered
significant collectibles. Finally, in 2002, Disney Records itself re-issued an
identical copy of the 1988 Touchstone album with re-mastered sound and new cover
art, and this updated product remained readily in print and easy to find for
a few years before likewise becoming scarce. On any album, the score is a wild ride
(as to be expected), but cartoon lovers will devour its shameless enthusiasm.
**** Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
| Bias Check: | For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.34 (in 32 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.27
(in 30,725 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The inserts for all available albums include no extra information about
the score or film.
