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Who Framed Roger Rabbit
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1988 Buena Vista
1988 Touchstone
2002 Walt Disney
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Orchestrated by:
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James Campbell
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Labels and Dates:
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Buena Vista Records
(1988)
Touchstone Records
(1988)
Walt Disney Records
(April 16, 2002)
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Availability:
The 1988 Buena Vista Promo (CD 010) and 1988 Touchstone Records commercial album are both out of print, but their extensive original pressing makes them relatively easy to find on the secondary market. The 2002 Walt Disney Records is a regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you can't get enough of that old Warner Brothers/Looney
Tunes sound of orchestral slapstick music.
Avoid it... if dizzy, swinging orchestral music for cartoons makes you
want to strangle an animated character.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Silvestri | |
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit: (Alan Silvestri) Hailed as one
of the most successful technological breakthroughs in history of the
animated film genre, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was an incredibly
popular merging of animated and live-action filming technologies. And while
the seamless integration of these two genres was heralded to no end in 1988,
the film strangely had little impact on the actual future of animation and
live action films. Ironically, Disney would meet an even greater success by
going back to the strictly animated scene, and would hit the financial pot
of gold beginning the next year with The Little Mermaid and
continuing through all of the Alan Menken projects. Despite the success of
the visuals, the project turned out to have a bigger legacy in the other
realm in which it dabbled: cross-studio character mingling. Who Framed
Roger Rabbit was also famous for its rare collaboration between Warner
Brothers and Disney, and the licensing and copyright nightmare that the film
ended up creating would unfortunately make it a one-time experiment. No
better a director to pull of this corporate-competitive challenge than
director Robert Zemeckis. Having proven with Back to the Future that
he was a bankable director, Zemeckis tacked the project with charm and
succeeded in making a film that was much better than the nightmarish
corporate backdrop under which it was created. Zemeckis had discovered
composer Alan Silvestri during the production of Romancing the Stone
just a few years earlier, and had made movie magic together with Back to
the Future. Zemeckis would naturally continue his trust in Silvestri in
bringing a fictional cartoon studio to life in Who Framed Roger
Rabbit before concentrating solely on the Back to the Future
sequels. Silvestri's task for Who Framed Roger Rabbit would be to do
a little merging of his own. The old Looney Tunes style would have to be
infused into the jazzy atmosphere of 1940's Los Angeles.
Just as the film successfully combined its visuals,
Silvestri created an extremely serviceable score for both the cartoon
characters and the real life location of the film. As a whole, 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 cartoon characters. It's a lightweight score, with
minimal real thematic development, and 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 in any Warner
Brothers cartoon. The delightful nature of the score is carried by
Silvestri's ability to adapt the style of legendary WB animation composer
Carl Stalling, who created all of the memorable themes for the old WB
cartoons. No better a tribute is made to Stalling than in the logo music for
the Maroon studio that starts the real film. Several cues exhibit the same
Stalling character, fulfilling the job needed to be done by Silvestri.
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, including "That's All Folks,"
are a treat. Film score collectors will 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). Various music and dialogue from the film has been released on
album several times over the years. At the time of the film's release, a
40-minute album of music and dialogue from Who Framed Roger Rabbit
was released directly by Beuna Vista (Disney) in a promotional format (of
sorts) that was sold mostly at Disney locations. Concurrently, Touchstone
Records released a 46-minute album with a little more of Silvestri's music
featured. Both albums fell badly out of print and were, for a while,
considered 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. This new album is readily in print and easy to find. On any
album, the score is a wild ride, as to be expected, but cartoon lovers will
devour it. ****
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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Track Listings (1988 Buena Vista Album):
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Total Time: 39:15
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• 1. The Setup (6:01)
• 2. Judge Doom (6:12)
• 3. The Will (9:17)
• 4. On the Lam (6:12)
• 5. Toontown (2:21)
• 6. The Last Laugh (9:12)
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Track Listings (1988 Touchstone and 2002 Disney Albums):
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Total Time: 46:02
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• 1. Maroon Logo (0:17)
• 2. Maroon Cartoon (3:21)
• 3. Valiant & Valiant (4:19)
• 4. The Weasels (2:04)
• 5. Hungarian Rhapsody (Dueling Pianos) (1:49)
• 6. Judge Doom (3:46)
• 7. Why Don't You Do Right? - performed by Amy Irving (3:02)
• 8. No Justice For Toons (2:40)
• 9. The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down (Roger's Song) (0:44)
• 10. Jessica's Theme (2:00)
• 11. Toontown (4:39)
• 12. Eddie's Theme (5:19)
• 13. The Gag Factory (3:54)
• 14. The Will (1:06)
• 15. Smile Darn Ya Smile/That's All, Folks! (1:17)
• 16. End Title (4:56)
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The inserts for all available albums include no extra information about the score or film.
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