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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
In any case, the frenetic score for Spy Kids gives the listener the impression that the group of composers had a lot of effortless fun working together on the project. As a cohesive whole, the score functions well enough. Elfman and Debney, the two blockbuster names on the project, have collaborated before, and their styles when writing for this genre are well matched. But not all of the other styles mesh as well. For the trained film music ear, it is easy to determine where one composer began and another left off. Rodriguez's guitars, Elfman's accoustics, Gregson-Williams' keyboards, and Debney's orchestra weave in and out with recognizable shifts in style. If you're a style purist, seeking a score of immaculate clarity and vision, Spy Kids is not the answer. The music's sheer zaniness creates the only consistency that the film requires from it. On album, however, the jigsaw puzzle of pieces begins to fall apart. The most obvious drawback of the "scoring by committee of 8+" approach is that each cue is short in length and shallow in realization. Just as one composer's take on the score begins to prevail, the music does a 180 degree shift and throws you off. Such an example of this occurs between track two, which contains a rather mellow Elfman cue, and track three, which bursts into an immediate flamenco guitar and chorus subtheme. Not all of the cue cuts are as dramatic as this, but just when you settle into the John Debney school of largely orchestral kiddie action cues, you get thrust upon a Gavin Greenaway display of new Media Ventures synthesizer tricks. Perhaps for someone who isn't familiar with each composer individually, this won't be as much of a problem. The very first cue to be composed for the film was sent in by Danny Elfman, who was originally approached by director Rodriguez for the project. In a page blatently torn from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Elfman recycles his "This is Halloween" song for "Floop's Song" in Spy Kids and I suddenly thought I was in October 1993 all over again. While Alan Cumming performs the song in character, Elfman's more dynamic voice seems to perform the secondary voice. As someone who cherishes The Nightmare Before Christmas as a unique score never to be defaced, the short song in Spy Kids irritated me in its lack of originality. After all, Elfman has had eight years to think up something new... The remaining Elfman cues, which are three or four in quantity, tend to combine the accoustics of A Simple Plan with a marginal orchestral presence. The exception is the more robust "Buddy Pack Escape" cue, for which Elfman assembles a large scale orchestral action piece. John Debney, who is the master at taking other composer's ideas and fleshing them out into a finished orchestral product, doesn't actually have any trademark cues of his own throughout Spy Kids. You can occasionly hear a bit of My Favorite Martian or Inspector Gadget in the more complex orchestral performances of the action cues. But unless you are a die hard completist of either Elfman or Debney's work, there is nothing substantially individual on this short album other than the value that Elfman's fans may place on "Floop's Song." Ironically, the best material in the Spy Kids score comes from the auxiliary composers. Director Rodriguez has a habit of producing Latin flavoured films, and it is inherent therefore that this score would be injected with Latin guitars. The problem with the guitars is that they begin the album as the staple of the score, with the help of Harry Gregson-Williams, but then the fade substantially in the latter half... leaving the listener wondering if the guitars could have been the one key element that could have glued this score together as a better whole. It is Harry Gregson-Williams who actually finalizes the only true theme for the film, with performances of the heroic synth theme --which is a highlight of the score-- in the short opening and closing tracks of the score portion of the album. The selling point of the album is the obnoxious teenage rock song by Fonda at the end, a truly hideous entry in its own lack of originality. But as for the score in sum, it overflows with fun creativity, and this wild ride can somewhat compensate for rocky listening experience caused by the short length of each cue and idea. Musically speaking, Spy Kids doesn't have the same kind of inspiring creativity as, for instance, Chicken Run, nor does Spy Kids overwhelm you with sonic grandeur at any point. The only cue worth getting excited about is Rodriguez's "Spy Wedding" track co-composed with Los Lobos, and yet these two minutes stand out like a sore thumb from the rest of the score. Overall, this one will rock your room with energy, but leaves you with an fading, unenthusiastic memory once the fun stops. ***
Insert offers extensive credits and a March, 2001, note from the director. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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