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Composed, Orchestrated, Conducted, and Co-Produced by:
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Robert Rodriguez
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Co-Produced by:
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George Oldziey
Carl Thiel
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Release Date:
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July 22nd, 2003
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you think that synthetic video game music in analog is
still cool, and you want to hear it beefed up with a digital orchestra.
Avoid it... if the parts of the previous Spy Kids scores that
you enjoyed the most were those of orchestral bombast by John Debney.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over: (Robert Rodriguez) With the
children stars of the series growing older quickly, the Spy Kids
concept will likely end as a trilogy. With this in mind, and cranking out
this third installment to the Spy Kids franchise in record time (and
delaying his Once Upon a Time in Mexico film in the process),
director Robert Rodriguez continues to expand his ethical beliefs of family
and loyalty in the series. This time, a malevolent Toymaker, performed by
Sylvester Stallone, has an insidious plan to take over all the kids in the
world by trapping their minds in their video games, and our favorite Cortez
family has to play the game itself to free a trapped member. The twist on
the film is its use of 3-D imagery during video game sequences that make up
the latter half of the film. Critically, the film fared poorly compared to
the first two, with the 3-D elements considered blurry and badly rendered in
its colors. Nevertheless, the film is meant as silly fun, with performances
by Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek (our Mariachi favorites), Steve Buscemi,
Alan Cumming, George Clooney, Bill Paxton, Ricardo Montalban (who makes cute
references to his old car commercial performances) and Sylvester Stallone
(who plays four roles in the film, sometimes all in the same frame).
Musically, the series had been a collaborative effort in the first two
scores, with veteran John Debney entering both projects to provide some
orchestral backbone to material that was often written or conceived of by
Rodriguez. Unlike those previous two scores, however, Spy Kids 3-D is
a solo Rodriguez effort. The director/screenwriter had proven concurrently
with his effort for Once Upon a Time in Mexico that he is capable of
providing a rousing electronic and orchestral score for his films. Unlike
that score, though, Spy Kids 3-D is completely rendered digitally,
playing towards the video game aspect of the story.
But for some reason, Rodriguez's music for Spy Kids
3-D suffers from the same cloudy vision as the film itself. The score is
a hybrid sound of classic video game synthetics in analog (and seemingly
mono constructed) and digitally performed orchestral passages. The
occasional electric guitar adds some excitement to mix. The video game
elements, however, dominate the Spy Kids 3-D score, with steady,
simple rhythms and electronic keyboarding from yesteryear occupying many, if
not all of the scenes taking place in the video game itself. It's a nice tip
of the hat to that genre of music, but it falls considerably short of being
readily listenable, as the action music in the previous scores had been.
Rodriguez pens a heroic theme that is a variant of Danny Elfman's
Batman title, and yet the digital performances of that theme restrain
its potential considerably. He also brings back a cascading motif from his
previous score (the original family theme from the first theme is hinted at)
for continuity. With the comical nature of the film comes some carnival
atmosphere, especially for Stallone's musicbox-like theme gone awry. The
overall combination of electric guitar ripping action cues and cutesy comedy
relief cause the score to become a muddled and confused listening
experience. One can't help but wonder if time constraints were an issue for
the less ebullient Rodriguez on this one, given the film's rapid rollout.
The number of songs continues to increase, with the primary, young female
lead of the series, Alexa Vega, performing in all of the songs and remixes
for Spy Kids 3-D. The opening song, "Game Over," complete with
Stallone's announcement and a more mature voice from Vega than before, is
the highlight of the album. Given the Hispanic influence in the series, it's
not surprising to hear a Mariachi-like Hispanic touch in the song, and with
the success of his music for Once Upon a Time in Mexico, it's easy to
ponder how the Spy Kids scores would be improved with a slightly more
pronounced ethnic edge. Overall, this third score plays like a 3-D film
without the glasses... blurred at the edges and a potential headache if you
pay too much attention to it. **
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Game Over - performed by Alexa Vega (3:15)
• 2. Thumb Thumbs (0:59)
• 3. Pogoland (1:53)
• 4. Robot Arena (2:12)
• 5. Metal Battle (2:44)
• 6. Toy Maker (3:34)
• 7. Mega Racer (5:57)
• 8. Programmerz (3:04)
• 9. Bonus Life (2:32)
• 10. Cyber Staff Battle (1:54)
• 11. Tinker Toys (1:20)
• 12. Lava Monster Rock (1:10)
• 13. The Real Guy (1:31)
• 14. Orbit (1:11)
• 15. Welcome to the Game (2:32)
• 16. Heart Drive - performed by Bobby Edner and Alexa Vega (3:43)
• 17. Game Over (Level 5 Mix) Remix (3:28)
• 18. Isle of Dreams (Cortez Mix) Remix (4:07)
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The insert includes a fold-out poster, but no extra information about the score or film.
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