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| Newman |
A Bug's Life: (Randy Newman) In the battle between
1998 animated features involving insects, Disney and Pixar began
production on
A Bug's Life before Dreamworks did on
Antz,
but the latter film beat Disney to the theatres by almost two months.
The proximity of their release dates begged countless comparisons
between all the elements of their productions, and ten years later, the
animated genre still hadn't seen anything like them. It's commonly
considered that
Antz features a better vocal cast with humor
aimed more squarely at adults, while
A Bug's Life is more lovable
for the children and is visually more vivid. Both plots involve unique
ants in a colony that want to make a difference or be something more,
and their trailblazing actions both help save their colony by unexpected
means. The music for the two productions can be compared directly as
well, with John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams writing music for
Antz that, in some ways, is similar to the laid back, jazzy style
of Randy Newman, whose music for
A Bug's Life, like the film,
received far more initial recognition. Both scores are typical to the
careers of their respective composers, with the Powell and
Gregson-Williams entry opening the door for several future
collaborations of equal creativity, while Newman was firmly establishing
his own style for animation in the late 1990's. It's somewhat surprising
to think back and recall that
A Bug's Life was only Newman's
third score for the genre (after
Toy Story and
James and the
Giant Peach). His trademark song and score style for the genre was
so familiar by 1998 that this sound was already synonymous with films
like
A Bug's Life.
Fans had already decided by that time to either suck up
every moment of Newman's style or write it off as lame and try to ignore
it. Regardless of where you fit in the equation, Newman's career was
clearly at its height in 1998. He became the first person in any
Hollywood field to be Oscar-nominated for three different films in three
different categories in the same year. Both
A Bug's Life and
Pleasantville were nominated in their respective, split score
categories while Newman's song for
Babe 2 beat out "The Time of
Your Life" from
A Bug's Life for Newman's typical entry in that
category. The fact that all three nominees lost was testimony to the
competition and, for Newman himself, became an eventual source for
jokes. Although
A Bug's Life is a very effective score with a
solid fan base, film score fans will likely find themselves gravitating
to the more stylish sound of
Antz. Only expressed fans of Randy
Newman can really get into the groove of
A Bug's Life, and that
statement is aimed more at the somewhat tired and predictable writing
style of Newman rather than the qualities of
A Bug's Life itself.
The main song is quite catchy, though Newman's usual slurred performance
and female chorus backing will once again appeal to only his own fans. A
far superior instrumental performance of this song (with snazzy
percussion) was recorded within a year by Erich Kunzel and the
Cincinnati Pops, available on one of their Telarc compilations. The
score itself makes use of the tune from this main song several times,
most notably in "Flik Leaves." One of the score's more compelling
secondary themes debuts near the end of that same cue, exhibiting an
adventurous Western spirit for the full orchestral ensemble and
receiving significant airtime in "A Bug's Life Suite" at the end of the
album.
A far more infectious secondary theme accompanies
Flik's (the main ant) creativity; its high swing style rumbles through
"The Flik Machine" and "The City." These two rambunctious cues offer the
best and most precise performances by the ensemble. Without significant
integration of any of these three themes into the score's second half,
the action music contained there becomes somewhat generic. The slightly
Arabic tilt to the "Circus Bugs" and some notable trumpet work in the
late action pieces are exceptions. As the score loses touch with
Newman's main themes and jazzy sensibilities, it wanders into Carl
Stalling territory and hits you with tiresome cliches from yesteryear's
cartoon scores. Newman handles these well in a technical sense, but
again they lack a distinct personality. Another issue that plagues the
score in several places is questionable performances by the horns. In
both "Flik Leaves" and "A Bug's Life Suite," the brass are a half-tone
off, and while some of this technique is intentional in the performances
of the song's lazy melody, these other instances sound more like flubs.
It remains possible that this consistently awkward use was meant to
accent the personality of Flik's character, however. Overall,
A Bug's
Life could leave non-Randy Newman fans cold. His jazz is predictable
and his generic orchestral animation music begs for more personality.
The highlights of both Newman's own
Pleasantville from the same
year and the competing
Antz are superior to anything heard here.
If you own a healthy collection of Newman's films on DVD, from
Toy
Story to
Cars, then you will likely enjoy
A Bug's Life
as much as
Monsters Inc. and all his related entries. And if you
fall into that category, then be aware that Newman's interests released
an AMPAS promo of score music from
A Bug's Life that adds a
handful of additional cues to the commercial release. But for listeners
tired of Newman's run-of-the-mill music for animation, then approach the
general enthusiasm for this score with caution.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Randy Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 20 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.1
(in 22,457 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert contains lyrics for the song, as well as the usual Disney
advertisements for their other products, but no extra information about
the film or score.
