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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Ice Age (David Newman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you find yourself often revisiting David Newman's
predictable comfort zone of proficient, though not memorably spectacular
orchestral music.
Avoid it... if you expect the frenetic zeal of the many action sequences in Ice Age to form any kind of cohesive personality.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 34:28
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers, but no extra information about
the film or score.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Ice Age are Copyright © 2002, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/6/02 and last updated 2/17/09. |
