Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you are either appreciative of the music in the film itself or if you are a serious collector of Hans Zimmer's works. Avoid it... the commercial album if you have no interest for the majority of obnoxious songs in the film and want only the ten or so minutes of good Zimmer material on the bootleg albums. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Toys: (Hans Zimmer/Trevor Horn) Reportedly the first idea for a film that director Barry Levinson had ever wanted to make, Toys was a dozen years in the making and just a few weeks in the crumbling. Hailed as a shining star right before its opening in 1992, Toys teamed Levinson once again with Robin Williams (the wildly successful pairing from Good Morning, Vietnam), Joan Cusack, and Michael Gambon as the evil 'General' (long before stepping into the role of Dumbledore after the death of Richard Harris). But despite a stunning array of colors and an equally intriguing set of ideas, Toys failed miserably in its task. It's tale of a family battle in an idealic toy factory, with a struggle for control of the manufacturing focus between the benevolent son (Williams), who wants to continue the wholesome nature of the business, and the militaristic uncle (Gambon), who has insane visions of producing violent, dangerous toys of war. There are really too many parallels and sub-plots in Toys to discuss; themes of espionage and domestic terrorism surely keep the film from being recommended to children, and Levinson's reasons for making the picture are still unclear a dozen years later. The lack of focus in the film leads to a mesmerizing and confusing overall experience, a problem compounded by the music chosen for the film. A series of new age-related avenues were explored in Toys, with Enya's dreamy "Ebundae" perfectly summing up the cloudy atmosphere of the story. Levinson had found success in his work with composer Hans Zimmer in Rainman, and Zimmer would be asked to provide an extension of the new age sound in his largely electronic score for Toys. Like the film, however, Zimmer's work (with long-time arranger and associate Trevor Horn in what was perhaps his most significant project in the formative Zimmer years leading up to the Media Ventures enterprise) would suffer from a lack of purpose or direction. Zimmer and Horn split the composing duties on Toys, with a handful of other artists contributing to the eclectic sounds of the score and its adjoining songs. Generally, Zimmer seems to have based his approach to the music on the joyful atmosphere of Robin Williams' version of the toy factory. While seeming to wander aimlessly at times, Zimmer contents himself in extending a friendly hand in the pleasant tone of the score. The opening and closing song, "The Closing of the Year," begins with a matronly lullaby and extends into a performance by a children's choir. The popularity of this song has been surprisingly strong over the years, with artists such as Placido Domingo and Sarah Brightman performing the song in concert for years to come. An elegant, orchestrally backed opera piece serves as "Alsatia's Lullaby," with a tragic heart (appropriate for Cusack's character) and beautiful melody. Zimmer goes on to create a primary theme for the score itself; "Let Joy and Innocence Prevail" is the recurring theme that holds the emotional scenes of the film together. Its simple and enjoyable rhythms and, once again, pleasant tones are offered in a five minute suite of Media Ventures-styled easy listening. Some of these ideas from "Let Joy and Innocence Prevail" (especially with a flute or other real-life solo instrument in the lead) would resurface in an increasingly mature form in Beyond Rangoon. Perhaps the more interesting cues in Toys for the majority of Zimmer collectors are those that accompany the dark side of the story. The Nazi-like march devised for "The General," with many darker ideas heard again in The Peacemaker, is one of uncomplicated minor key alternations in grand electronic style (one that could easily scare a young child!), with synthesizers programmed to such harsh extents that one could wonder if Vangelis was in the room at the time of recording. Another cue with consistent snare use is "Battle Introduction," in which the good toys, in their impending battle with the evil toys, are stirred to heroic deeds by a Rocketeer-like trumpet theme and a Scottish spirit of bagpipes that further stretches the imagination in the score's unfocused scope. Reprises of these themes appear throughout both the film and album, making the actual running time of original score music quite minimal. With Hans Zimmer's above contributions to Toys being interesting, if not average for the composer, the film and its album takes a distinctly sour turn in the plethora of auxiliary material recorded or adopted for the film. Aside from Enya's yawn-inducing song (by no means a better entry in her career), we also hear a touch of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1 at the very opening and a Tori Amos performance of "The Happy Worker," a piece arranged by Trevor Horn. Many of the more bizarre elements in Toys are indeed the work of Horn, who also, along with Bruce Wooley, writes another pop, distortion-laced song "Workers" for enhanced punch. They also co-write "The Mirror Song," a centerpiece number in the film that has an equally toxic pop effect on the film and album. The dance number "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" (mixed with snippets of score from the battle sequences) is another regrettable noisy cue, although this one has at least become the theme song of a well-known professional wrestler in Japan since its appearance in Toys. The final reprise of the album further dilutes the product with more pop wailing and disintegration of Zimmer's music into an attempt to further tap into mainstream appeal. When you put all of this together, whether we're talking about the film or album, you get a curious sense of dissatisfaction that seems to confuse Zimmer collectors more than the mainstream. The album for Toys was aimed away from score collectors, if not simply because of the obnoxious non-score material throughout, because of a few snippets of dialogue over score tracks, too. Ironically, one of the guilty pleasures of the commercial album is Grace Jones' vocal performance of Zimmer's title piece, "Let Joy and Innocence Prevail." Many movie-goers will recognize Jones, the tall and sleek African-American model in Conan the Destroyer and A View to a Kill (and a popular icon, interestingly, in the male/homosexual musical community), as an actress, but her raspy singing voice tells the story of Toys with a distinct fantasy touch. You can't help but cringe when you hear her perform the lyric: "...for I am fearless." Instead of being comforted by her performance, we hear the person who Arnold Schwarzenegger deemed as the only female co-star who was 'too tough' for him. Overall, Toys is a wildly curious failure. It's one of those rare Hans Zimmer works that sold so well in stores that you now see it overflowing in used-CD bins, and yet you rarely ever hear the score discussed in film music venues. Almost entirely shunned by score collectors, Toys is a venture to be explored with care if you are a 'Zimmerite,' because your reaction to this music could either irritate you greatly or become a mainstay of Zimmer's electronic portion of your collection. Relief for Zimmer fans came with the release of the second volume of "Follow Your Dreams" albums in 1997 (the series of two albums was supposed to be followed by a third, but that never happened... there remains debate even today about whether Zimmer had a hand in helping this source material escape into the secondary market for bootleggers to produce these and subsequent Media Ventures "promos"). The first "Follow Your Dreams" album, with Mark Mancina's contributions, was the source for cue #7, the instrumental backgrounds for "The Closing of the Year." On the second album were four additional cues from Toys, all of which being original Zimmer, non-song work. An extended recording of "The General" without dialogue, a version of "Battle Introduction" also without dialogue, the larger instrumental mix of "Let Joy and Innocence Prevail" under Grace Jones' performance, and an instrumental version of the opening "The Closing of the Year" song are all available on that album in excellent sound quality. As one could expect, bootleggers immediately took those four score-only cues and added them to the salvagable material from the commercial album and created a shorted, but score-happy presentation of Toys fans. Unfortunately, this bootleg still has Trevor Horn's more unlistenable pop material sprinkled throughout, so be forewarned that you may encounter unlistenable music no matter which route you take with Toys. If you desire the bootleg, then it probably wouldn't hurt to also find the commercial release because of its incredibly low price in used-CD bins (as low as $1.00). If not for the operatic theme for Alsatia, your best material from Toys is that which appears on "Follow Your Dreams, Volume II." Still, the entire package borders on frustration as it was constructed for the film, so be sure of your convictions about Zimmer music before taking the plunge on this one.
Music as Heard on Commercial Album: * Music as Heard on Bootleg: *** Overall: ** Track Listings (Commercial Album):
Total Time: 47:21
* contains score material composed by Hans Zimmer ** contains score material composed by Hans Zimmer and Trevor Horn *** song composed by Trevor Horn and Bruce Woolley Track Listings (Bootleg Album):
Total Time: 39:05
* contains score material composed by Hans Zimmer ** contains score material composed by Hans Zimmer and Trevor Horn *** song composed by Trevor Horn and Bruce Woolley All artwork and sound clips from Toys are Copyright © 2004, Geffen Records, Bootleg. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/9/04, updated 7/11/04. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2004-2005, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
Commercial