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| Powell |
Happy Feet Two: (John Powell) Despite its obnoxious
dose of upbeat character, the 2006 animated film
Happy Feet was a
resounding fiscal success, and many of the same crew and cast returned
in 2011 for
Happy Feet Two. The filmmakers dropped the irritating
political message pushed upon viewers in the first film in favor of a
more generic "creatures working together can accomplish anything"
formula in the sequel, a predictable feel-good lesson that makes one
wonder if there was some way to trap Israelis and Palestinians in a
large block of ice and force them to persevere through the panic. An icy
entrapment is essentially what happens to the penguins in
Happy Feet
Two; when one colony of the perky, tuxedoed animals is caught in an
ice formation, they have to rely upon the help of seals and krill to do
what the humans ultimately could not: use their thumping dance
techniques to bust open the ice and bring joy to Antarctica. There
wasn't much joy in the human population that took their children to
watch this sequel, however, and
Happy Feet Two fared extremely
poorly at the box office compared to expectations. After grossing only
half of its predecessor's earnings in its initial weeks and failing to
recoup its budget worldwide, the digital production studio that made the
film, Dr. D Studios, became a headline in the news for firing nearly 90%
of its employees. Let that serve as a lesson not to make sucky animated
sequels. The basic format of the soundtrack was retained for
Happy
Feet Two, a buoyant original score by animation veteran John Powell
connecting several song placements that re-record previous song melodies
in musical format. The song selections in the sequel are even more
disjointed than those in
Happy Feet, though they sway closer to
the R&B realm in part to accommodate the style of Pink (Alecia Beth
Moore), who became involved with the sequel when actress Brittany Murphy
surprisingly died early in the production. Among movies that use a
stream of cover versions of songs to tell its major narrative points,
Happy Feet Two once again fails to live up to
Moulin Rouge
in forming a consistent, cohesive sound in its selection of material and
vocal performances. Powell was in part involved with the song placements
in this film, contributing the character song "The Mighty Sven" (with
the gospel tone from
Gigli blown to ridiculous proportions and
Robin Williams' voice either distorted or very badly recorded and mixed)
and working three other covers directly into his score material.
While Powell's contribution to
Happy Feet
contained enough passages of monumental orchestral and choral bravado to
be recommended as a whole, it suffered from acute schizophrenia as well.
It was something of a sampler of the composer's capabilities in a number
of genres, akin to
Robots,
Rio, and other animated tales
of haphazard personality. Ultimately, Powell did manage to connect the
score together with some distinctly Hans Zimmer-like themes (much is
still owed to
The Prince of Egypt in the progressions and choral
tone) and, more importantly, an overwhelming and often deep choral
accompaniment. Gone from
Happy Feet Two are the ominous choral
cues specifically representing the threat from humanity, but the
composer does retain this identity for the larger awe of nature. The
talent assembled for the score spans the world, parts recorded in Sydney
and others in Los Angeles, a range of notable soloists contributing
alongside the chorus. The main theme, melodramatic in a Zimmer sense as
any could be, receives prominent treatment at the end of "Trapped in
Emperor Land" and in lesser incarnations elsewhere (its spirit carries
over into "No Fly Zone"). The secondary theme of greater pizzazz a bit
more standard to Powell's own career is reprised as well, as in "Krill
Joy." Whenever possible, Powell seems to reflect the previous score's
personality with the choral layers, though the results are not as
resoundingly powerful as before. Returning as well is the Latin flare in
several cues, starting immediately in the middle of "In the Hole." The
interludes of full ensemble Latin and jazz enthusiasm are seemingly
fewer, the highlight of which here expressed in "Adelie Rescue."
Continuing 1970's lounge jazz with Hammond organ is more confined
("Dinner a la Sven"). The straight orchestral comedy and suspense
material is extremely standard to Powell's average output for this
genre, never really expressing anything new to chew on outside of
vintage James Horner-like rhythms of panic in "Skua Attack" (which do
segue into the main theme in dramatic fashion). There is less uniquely
interesting activity here than in
Kung Fu Panda 2 from earlier in
the same year, and the listening experience on album will be a challenge
for some enthusiasts of the composer because of the intrusion of source
applications (like "We Are the Champions") directly into the score. Such
fans will find five to ten minutes of worthy new music to add to their
playlists from the original
Happy Feet score, but don't expect
much more. Meanwhile, aside from some funny treatment of a Dmitri
Tiomkin standard, the songs clustered with the score this time tell you
all you need to know about why the movie failed at the box office.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For John Powell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.28
(in 50 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.16
(in 52,492 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes extensive credits and a single page advertisement
for a ridiculous video game, but no extra information about the score or film.
