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Shrek on DVD
• "rollicking soundtrack" • DTS/Dolby Digital 5.1 More DVD info... |
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Shrek on DVD
• "rollicking soundtrack" • DTS/Dolby Digital 5.1 More DVD info... |
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Why exactly that is, however, is a mystery. The film, outside of an excess of toilet humor, is a delight, and the music is a rocking (in every way) part of its success. Powell and Gregson-Williams have secured their reputation as orchestral comedy scoring professionals, and rightfully so. But divorced from the film, Shrek is a weaker score than Antz or, especially, Chicken Run. All three are successful in their films because of their mere creativity and spunk. But they also suffer from a lack of cohesive listenability on album. Chicken Run, with lengthier sequences of consistent themes and motifs, makes for perhaps the best album. But the Shrek album contains the chopped up cues which the composers had to limit in development simply because of the short scene length. With a slapstick film that moves at a fast pace, you don't notice that Shrek's cues are choppy and incohesive until you hear them apart from the film. In the time it takes the massive ensemble to develop a theme or rhythm of worth, the cue ends and the next one sets a different pace. For instance, the much discussed "Escape from the Dragon" cue explodes with a rhythm taken right from the pages of David Arnold's The World is Not Enough, which works brilliantly for its scene in the film, but the sheer contrast between that sound and the rest of the score cuts to the heart of the album's problem. That particular cue introduces the "Dragon's Theme," for lack of a better reference term, and is disappointing if only for the fact that Powell has created it by recycling nearly his friend's entire title theme for Deep Blue Sea. The "lifting" continues in the latter half of the score and culminates in a choral rendition of that theme which very well have been a cue from Deep Blue Sea and nobody would have probably blinked. Whereas Antz and Chicken Run were difficult to enjoy on album because they lifted material (for parody's sake) from traditional sources, a lot of the Shrek material is recycled from the composers' own material and other modern scores. The guitar work, punctuated by the 17th track on the album, is remarkably similar in performance to Mark Knopfler's Princess Bride, which may make perfect sense, but nevertheless gives you the feeling that this has been done before. The most curious point of the listening experience came in the final few tracks, when the wondrous fantasy theme is allowed to hold the film's musical center stage. For some reason, Kermit the Frog came to mind when listening to this theme, and then I realized that the first few measures were a close cousin to Kermit's "Rainbow Connection" muppet song. These "liftings" may be small and certainly not noticable while the film is playing, but on album, they stick out like a sore thumb. If you don't have all these musical references in your memory, then perhaps the Shrek score will play better on album, but if you've heard your fair share of scores, then the music will leave you with at least two or three "where have I heard that before?" thoughts. And if so, Shrek could very well turn out to be a less rambunctious version of Chicken Run for you. The phenomenon that is the John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams series of animated scores also reveals a generational difference. Seasoned veterans of film score collecting aren't purchasing scores like Shrek, Chicken Run, or Antz in great quantities. Teens and young 20-somethings, however, are. The mere silliness of Shrek is a turn-off for some film score collectors who hear the potential of a 110 piece orchestra and supplemental choir, and wonder what Powell and Gregson-Williams could do if they were to ever produce a serious score with that talent... for an animated film or otherwise. The slapstick backlash is no better highlighted than by the two pseudo-songs in the Shrek film and album. For some reason, both "Welcome to Duloc" and "Merry Men" were hailed as major selling points of the album, when, to be honest, it is exactly this kind of unlistenable wailing (in South Park-like voices, no less) that turns most film music collectors away from scores like this. Another sticky point with the Shrek recording is its sound quality. It is no secret that Chicken Run exhibited incredible sound quality, both in resonance and clarity. But Shrek's fidelity is closer to that of Antz, and lacking the tangy edge of crisp sound that made Chicken Run a specimen to enjoy simply for its sound. As for the content of the music, Shrek contains no cue that comes even close to matching the length and robust construction of a track like "Building the Crate" from Chicken Run. So in the end, beyond all the hype and waiting for an album release of Shrek (which is half a year late, no less), the music hasn't translated as well from film to album as was hoped. What we're left with is a mish-mash of short rhythms, thematic rip-offs, and a few nearly unlistenable comedy tracks.
Music as presented on album: ** Overall rating: ***
Insert includes extensive artwork and notation about the film and score. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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