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| Newman |
Ice Age: (David Newman) Among a young, but growing group of
completely computer generated films to come from Hollywood, the
Ice Age film
of 2002 wasn't remembered as much for its actual merits as it was for its immensely
popular marketing campaign pushed by 20th Century Fox. While technically outmatched
by its competition in the genre, Fox brilliantly used a subplot in the film to
drive
Ice Age to fiscal success solid enough to warrant a 2006 sequel. In
both films, the unlikely group of a mammoth, sloth, and tiger traverse the Earth
because of the planet's shifting climate, taking their silly, slapstick comedy
along for their ventures. More interesting in both films is Scrat the sabertooth
squirrel, the primary selling point in the trailers, and his futile attempts to
catch that ever elusive acorn. It wasn't surprising that most adults wanted more of
the squirrel and less of the squabbling lead animals and cute baby in
Ice
Age, but the picture more than sufficed for children who didn't care about the
plot's endless series of not-so-funny fallacies of logic. Returning to score
another animation film for Fox was David Newman, whose contribution to the scene
was not only overwhelmed by his peers at the time (including Randy Newman), but who
would be replaced by Fox with their eventual resident animation scorer, John
Powell, for the sequel (Powell had already made a name for himself by writing music
for several animation productions at the time, including
Shrek). The two
Ice Age scores by the different composers don't have much, if any,
structural similarities in terms of thematic continuity, but they serve their
duties in the genre with equal orchestral zeal. A talented composer in many genres,
Newman had established the knack for providing energetic scores for films that
normally wouldn't be known best for their original music.
Ice Age is such an
example, with most of the focus regarding the soundtrack focused on song placement
rather than score usage.
Newman's music for
Ice Age didn't experience the same
longevity of
Shrek or
Monsters, Inc., and therefore became something
of a footnote in its year of debut. It didn't help that the release of the
score-only album for the film was contractually delayed until after much of the
hype surrounding it had fizzled, furthering the obscurity of Newman's lighthearted
score. There were a handful of strong cues heard in the context of
Ice Age
that merited interest in the score on album, however, a welcome turn of events for
a composer whose career saw far too few commercial album releases. Among the many
scores written for non-musical animated pictures through the years, Newman's
Ice
Age is about a run of the mill, average, and predictable piece. Its level of
dramatic weight resides somewhere between
Dinosaur and
Shrek,
utilizing a balance between slapstick and serious tones in a fashion that Newman
often excelled at. It isn't of the same harmonic caliber as similar music from
James Newton Howard, not does it whip up the same density of action as Powell's
music (though it comes close in parts). It does, though, offer more orchestral
flesh to its action sequences than Randy Newman could provide. Much of the general
style that David Newman was employing for such films reminded listeners of the
brassy and percussive comedy writing of Jerry Goldsmith, and
Ice Age is
highlighted by a handful of highly energized, Goldsmith-like cues. The title theme
is slightly underdeveloped, leaving the listener of the album without a clear
identity to remember. Despite all the ruckus stirred up by the full ensemble in
Ice Age, its most memorable parts are those representing humanity and the
baby that travels with the group of animals until its return at the end of the
story. The soft, lofty theme heard in "Humans," "Baby Walks," and "Giving Back
the Baby," passed between woodwind elements but rooted in an exotic flute, is
nothing less than beautiful. A piano solo opening that final track is equally
appealing.
Much as he did with
Galaxy Quest, Newman employs a very
light, high-range chorus to provide accents to his orchestra during the few moments
of tenderness, and while they often add vital flavor to some of the cues of
underscore, that singing group is sadly underutilized. Other than the occasional
flutes, chorus, and the quirky rhythmic personality with banjo and guitar in the
undeniably smile-inducing "Opening Travel Music," the instrumentation of
Ice
Age is rather mundane, with only a few creatively percussive moments in an
otherwise straight forward orchestral effort. The lack of a truly memorable motif
or instrumental element in
Ice Age was especially surprising at the time
because of the composer's wide range of unique mixing and ensemble colors in his
just previous
The Affair of the Necklace. In general, while impressive in
the sheer orchestral sound that it sometimes creates,
Ice Age doesn't offer
anything that film score collectors hadn't already heard. It's a step above the
animation music that you hear on television, but it doesn't attract the kind of
attention to itself that feature animation scores typically do in the 2000's. Its
overarching style of pseudo-Western flair with lively singular motifs and slight
parody material isn't particularly distinctive when compared to other Newman works,
either. Despite housing five to eight minutes of solid, enjoyable material on this
30+ minute album, the score presents nothing so spectacular as to warrant a great
amount of excitement. Some viewers of the film purchased the album for the song
"Send Me on My Way" by Rusted Root (from the album "Cruel Sun") only to discover
that it is not included on this score-only product (resulting, inevitably, in many
of the poor marks the product receives in asinine customer reviews you find at
major outlets). Collectors of David Newman's many promotional releases will likely
appreciate his stylistically comfortable music on this commercial product, though
its unremarkable constructs and instrumentation (outside of the few highlights)
won't make it a frequent visit.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For David Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.17
(in 12 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.27
(in 19,638 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a list of performers, but no extra information about
the film or score.
