As usual, Debney's talent for interpreting pop culture themes into his orchestral works is placed at the forefront. The Lalo Schifrin theme for the Mission: Impossible television series is a pronounced influence in two of the early cues, establishing without a doubt the technological mastery of these cats and dogs in their epic battle. Interestingly, beyond these stylish performances, the score has surprisingly few purely slapstick comedy moments. Both My Favorite Martian and Inspector Gadget were difficult to appreciate at certain points because they were so frantic in their bouncy enthusiasm for their genre. Cats & Dogs, while still maintaining the charisma of the storyline, is a smoother and more consistent listening experience. The full orchestra, which performs well but is mixed rather flatly, kicks with ferocious force during some cues, but never in too silly of a context. Debney introduces a tender primary theme for the heroic lead puppy, Lou, that flourishes at the conclusion of "Lou's Alive!" The harmonica-produced simplicity of the theme is corny to an extent, but a film involving cute, talking canines and felines is well served by this tone. On album, it becomes easier to notice two notable traits to the score. First, Debney only scratches the surface of the unique forms of orchestration he could have employed for the animals themselves. For the cats, he employs a scratchy violin cascade in short bursts (nothing to the extent of Danny Elfman's Batman Returns, however) and that creative motif seems underused throughout the score. Likewise, there doesn't seem to be a creative instrumental representation of the woofing dogs (such as what Jerry Goldsmith did in The 'Burbs), a definite opportunity missed. The other noteworthy aspect of Cats & Dogs is the numerous similarities in theme to James Horner's prior works. While there are some subtle references to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and The Pagemaster in some of the comedy cues, the theme for Lou is a direct relative of Horner's The Land Before Time, another talking animal film. Overall, Cats & Dogs confirms Debney's obvious talents in composing large-scale, silly scores. Each of these entries predictably functions in their respective films, but in this case, Cats & Dogs doesn't feature enough outlandish creativity in instrumentation to make it distinctive on album.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download