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| Horner |
An American Tail: (James Horner/Barry Mann) Luckily
for most children, Steven Spielberg's obsession with creative retellings
of Jewish hardship from an age past is irrelevant as long as the
pictures are pretty, the music cute, and the story glossed over with
lovable animals. Such was the case with 1986's
An American Tail,
basically a story of Jewish persecution by the Czar of Russia and
subsequent freedom in the United States dressed up in the form of a
harmless animation production. In 1885, a family of mice have to escape
death when the human house above them is burned by the Russian
government for reasons not explained; as they set out across the ocean
to America, young Fievel (named after Spielberg's grandfather, no less)
is accidentally tossed overboard in a storm, spending the rest of the
story making a living in New York and searching for his family, which is
never actually far away. Eluding cats and forming friendships with
dubious animal kingdom characters, Fievel is eventually reunited with
his family and all is well. He then heads out West with his
adventuresome sister, but that's the topic of the sequel film in 1991.
The historical representations in
An American Tail did not escape
critics and, although "Sesame Street" writers Tony Geiss and Judy
Freudberg and director Don Bluth effectively captured audiences with
their translation of the events into a form a child could sit through,
the film came under fire for depicting too much hardship and political
metaphors in the genre. Regardless of your tolerance for Spielberg's
incessant messages of Jewish persecution,
An American Tail is a
strong film that used all the talents of Bluth's former Disney
production team to create compelling visuals for the era. Joining that
crew for the first time and eventually becoming a regular part of it was
composer James Horner. Although Jerry Goldsmith had provided Bluth's
first film (
The Secret of N.I.M.H., another rat tale, of course)
with an impressive orchestral score and had been offered this
assignment, Horner was coming into his own by 1986, and
An American
Tail earned the composer his first Academy Award nomination (along
with
Aliens the same year) and Grammy Award win.
Horner's music for the Bluth films over this fruitful
period was often very similar, performed consistently by the London
Symphony Orchestra to pull classical references into a melting pot of
ideas that Horner could rotate through almost indiscriminately between
pictures. Most of the sources of inspiration for Horner when writing
An American Tail are, not surprisingly, Russian; whereas the
composer sometimes relied upon the work of Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky in
situations that didn't make much sense, at least the sound fits
comfortably here. Perhaps also not a surprise for most will be a
reliance on Maurice Jarre's
Dr. Zhivago in a similarly Russian
tone and Nino Rota in a general European sense. The symphonic ensemble
is joined by accordion and cimbalom to emphasize New York's
multi-cultural atmosphere (and, more specifically, characters like the
French-rendered pigeon). An abundance of lightly tapping metallic
percussion is also well utilized to give audiences that expected dose of
magical wonder. Horner's classically-informed thematic constructs of a
melodramatic and romantic variety in the middle of the 1980's all
eventually matured in 1988's
The Land Before Time, the composer's
most comprehensive and impressive capitulation of these ideas. This
especially applies to
An American Tail, which features one major
theme and a general tone that will please any enthusiast of the later
Bluth film's score. The action material and another theme in
An
American Tail are easily precursors to more developed incarnations
in
Willow, also a notable 1988 endeavor. Although Horner would
eventually team successfully with lyricist Will Jennings for his
subsequent efforts, some listeners consider his work with songwriter
Barry Mann and lyricist Cynthia Weil for
An American Tail to be
superior. Indeed, it's hard to argue with the success of the songs in
the context of this film, the "Somewhere Out There" duet alone popular
enough to attract a Grammy Award. The quality of the other songs in
An American Tail isn't at the same level, however. They're
effective narrative expositions with lots of the necessary personality,
but they're not as memorable in a supporting position as Alan Menken's
later efforts for Disney.
The melody from "Somewhere Out There" is the only one from
a song in
An American Tail to substantially impact Horner's
underscore. It makes for a lovely theme, especially in the delicately
alternating bridge section that is the song's most malleable and
recognizable section. Ironically, while this theme is probably the
score's strongest melodic element, it's nowhere near being the primary
identity of Horner's score. This is a mistake that most casual listeners
make with
An American Tail. The theme only memorably appears in
fragments and/or its bridge section in "Main Title," "The Market Place,"
"Gussie's Plan," "Reunited," and "Flying Away and End Credits." Although
the last cue does feature the most exuberant and boisterous full
ensemble performances of the "Somewhere Out There" theme, none of its
incarnations here are as robust as in the opening cue of
An American
Tail: Fievel Goes West. Outside of this theme, however, you might be
surprised to learn that Horner provides
An American Tail with no
less than three additional major themes and two minor ones, several of
which also live on in the sequel score. All three of the other major
themes are paraded in convenient succession in "Main Title." Arguably
the actual title theme of the film is the one for family and hope (and
perhaps America, in some places) that most resembles
The Land Before
Time. It debuts in a full, minute-long performance at the 2-minute
mark of "Main Title" and is heard in small fragments in "The Cossack
Cats" and "The Storm" before a bright, violin and plucked-bass
performance in "The Market Place" breathes life into it. A stretched and
agonizing performance of the theme in "Releasing the Secret Weapon" is
balanced by bubbly performances of the theme in "Reunited" and "Flying
Away and End Credits" (the trumpet performance of the idea at about 1:40
into the latter cue is a highlight). A little more elusive is the darker
companion theme for the same general concept; representing redemption in
a much heavier atmosphere is a theme that most often takes the form a
hymn. Heard late in both "Main Title" and "Reunited" with solemn choral
tones, this theme informs (though does not directly translate to) the
memorable choral crescendo in the middle of "Give Me Your Tired, Your
Poor" before expanding from cimbalom to full ensemble late in "Flying
Away and End Credits."
Not unexpectedly, some listeners attach best to the third
major theme in
An American Tail, and it is this idea that both
immediately opens the score and addresses the sensibilities that
Spielberg's original concept possesses. Often referred to as the Russian
theme or immigrant theme, this faux-Eastern European idea sufficiently
gives the mouse family its heritage. Occupying the first minute and a
half of "Main Title," this theme, most often performed thereafter by the
stereotypical solo violin, contains a secondary phrase that not only
shares many similarities in terms of wholesome sincerity with the theme
from "Somewhere Out There," but the latter's bridge section is often
attached directly to the end of the immigrant theme. Distressed versions
of this theme pop up in "The Storm" and "The Great Fire" while solo
string performances in "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor" and "Reunited"
lead to a full ensemble performance in both the latter cue and "Flying
Away and End Credits." Horner interestingly adapts the first five notes
of this theme into the main Western identity of his sequel score. Also
an obscure connection to
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West is
the introduction of Tanya's (Fievel's sister) fantastic theme in
An
American Tail. Since this theme becomes the basis for the gorgeous
"Dreams to Dream" song in the second score, few people actually remember
that it represents Tanya in the first film as well. It's mostly intact
at about 1:40 in "The Market Place" and is briefly referenced by Horner
at the start of "Reunited" (in which it segues directly into the
"Somewhere Out There" theme). There is immensely satisfying justice in
the fact that Horner was able to expand upon this idea in the sequel,
for it is arguably the most lyrically compelling theme of the franchise
and immediately brightens the middle of "The Market Place." The final,
minor theme in
An American Tail is an idea for bold horns that
most listeners will recognize as a foreshadowing of dark powers in
Willow (and, to a lesser extent,
The Rocketeer).
Representing both the general element of danger and the American cats
(more specifically), this theme is hinted in "The Storm," receives a
short burst at the start of "The Market Place," explodes with force over
a drum rhythm thirty seconds into "Releasing the Secret Weapon"
(yielding to the cat-related song melody's faint reference), and is
curiously heard on brass late in "The Great Fire."
All put together,
An American Tail stands among
Horner's most effective works in the children's genre, eclipsing most of
what he produced for similar topics in subsequent years. Some collectors
will argue that the sequel score is equal in appeal, if not superior,
and certainly anyone not satisfied with the thematic development in
An American Tail can seek refuge in that solid second effort. The
longstanding weakness of
An American Tail has been the
interaction between songs and score outside of "Somewhere Out There."
Granted, the remainder of the songs (despite adequate performances all
around, including Christopher Plummer in heavy accent as the pigeon in
"Never Say Never") aren't as strong, but it is always disappointing to
hear a disconnect between the musical numbers and the connecting
underscore. Of the 50 minutes on the popular MCA Records album released
for
An American Tail at the time, about 15 minutes are dedicated
to the songs. The pop song variation of "Somewhere Out There," which was
responsible for gaining most of the awards attention, was Horner's first
qualified entry in a series of pop song translations that would lead to
mass fortune with
Titanic. Linda Ronstadt and her crisp voice
contribute to both "Somewhere Out There" in this score and "Dreams to
Dream" in the sequel. Unfortunately, because "Somewhere Out There" was
obviously meant as a duet, the use of James Ingram as the male voice is
a major detriment. For some reason (though likely for style points),
Ingram refuses to stick to the actual melody, completely ignoring the
alternating notes of the two bridge section performances while Ronstadt
very deliberately and precisely hits every note in her part. It's a
distinctly irritating aspect of a song that would have been, for album
purposes, far better with Ronstadt alone. Again, though, "Dreams to
Dream" compensates for this lingering disgruntlement in the sequel. The
placement of the pop version of "Somewhere Out There" in the middle of
the album, complete with tasteful but still dated electric guitar
interlude, is another problem. The marketability of CDs was just
starting to develop in 1986, and Horner thus assembled a fuller
65-minute presentation of the score for that medium; unfortunately, that
arrangement and product never materialized despite the success of the
soundtrack on worldwide charts.
It took until 2019 for a proper presentation of the
An American Tail soundtrack to be revealed. Courtesy of Intrada
Records, the score was expanded to its full length and joined with the
songs and a couple of source-like cues to form a better representation
of the soundtrack. The truncated version long available did an immense
injustice to the narrative of the score, because aside from "The Market
Place," the entire middle third of Horner's work was simply missing from
that initial product. Over twenty minutes of material from these chase
and character scenes was restored for the Intrada product, and these
passages offer additional enjoyment even if they do not represent the
highlights of the score. Many of the secondary characters' musical
motifs and underlying personality shine in these cues, from the likable
Irish tones of "Honest John and Gussie Mausheimer" to the sleazy blues
treatments in "Fievel's Escape." Among the best additional moments is
Horner's exposition of the family and hope theme in the latter half of
"Building the Mouse of Minsk," the optimism of this cue nearly unmatched
in the score. A fair amount of the work's most raw action is also added
back into the presentation here, with the frantic pace of "Train
Trestle" joined by the xylophone frenzy in "The Rumble." Also joining
these cues from the middle section of film is the brief exploration of
the heritage theme in "Dissolve to Sea/Lullaby" earlier in the story.
The album also offers the humorous borrowing of "Poor Wandering One"
from Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance" heard in the film,
along with a rather obnoxious source cue and the instrumental version
for the pop song in the event you want to tackle Ronstadt's part in the
absence of Ingram yourself, preferably after a few stiff drinks. The
sound quality on the 2019 Intrada album is decent but still archival in
depth, especially during the passages with prominent solos. For all but
the biggest audiophiles, though, the remastering should be sufficient.
Considered on the whole, either album for
An American Tail
deserves a place in any Horner collection, even if the 2019 expansion is
superior. Few people give the composer credit for writing and nurturing
six themes in this score, instead getting hung up on the classical music
references or other aspects typical to Horner's writing. The composer,
however, packages this effort well enough to transcend these traits and
offer a score that, if only better songs had accompanied it, might have
merited a five star rating.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 108 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 203,346 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 1986 MCA album includes no extra information about the score or film. That of
the 2019 Intrada product includes extensive information about both.
