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| Debney |
Inspector Gadget: (John Debney) Among Walt Disney's
Pictures' most disastrous attempts to resurrect an old cartoon into a
cash cow, 1999's
Inspector Gadget was so heinous that the studio
cut many of the scenes shown in the trailers from the finished product.
By the time Disney was done cutting the fat from David Kellogg's dismal
product, the film ran only an hour and fifteen minutes. And even at
that,
Inspector Gadget only served to bore children or irritate
young adults who still held some fondness for the popular 1980's
cartoon. Matthew Broderick's portrayal of John Brown and the evil clone
of the Inspector was wooden and Rupert Everett's problem as Mr. Claw was
the simple fact that he broke the primary rule of the cartoon by showing
his face. The one person who never seems to be bothered by such
technicalities of authenticity is composer John Debney, who by 1999 was
becoming a regular Disney composer and, more often than not, found
himself writing large-scale scores for films of exactly this quality.
His enthusiasm for seemingly any project would cause him to launch
himself at
Inspector Gadget with "Go-go-Debney-score!" attitude.
And you can clearly hear it. Debney pours significant energy and
creativity into this score, utilizing his full ensemble and a witty
collection of percussion to accompany the wretched action on the screen
with devilishly immense constructs. His music is heavily rooted in the
original "Inspector Gadget" theme, with the score as a whole serving as
one of the more satisfying adaptations of a cartoon theme in recent
memory. From this theme, Debney adapts significant parody techniques
from his just previous
My Favorite Martian and replaces the
other-worldly electric guitars and other synth effects with a with
percussion section meant to represent the many robotic parts of the
reconstructed character. You can't go wrong with a little Korngold
tribute here and there for the villain, either. The parody elements are
far more utilized in this work, with a wider selection of rhythmic
devices meant to more overtly convey humor. As a result of this absolute
barrage of wild pacing shifts and bizarre instrumental solos,
Inspector Gadget is easily a score that could make you pull out
your remaining hair.
While there are several recurring motifs, the main
Inspector Gadget theme dominates. This theme, with its "Inspector
Gadget" and "Go, Gadget, Go" female vocals, is the ultimate in
cheesiness and funk, destined to get stuck in your head at some point.
At three points during the score do these exclaiming female vocals
appear with the theme in full; the very last track contains the theme in
its complete original form. Debney takes a little bit of liberty with
the theme in his opening title cue, though most people won't recognize
the difference, and slighter references are made to it in the short "The
Operation" cue. Instrumentally, the title theme is present throughout
the entire score, receiving some truly interesting interpretations. Its
Georges Delerue treatment for "Tango" is one of many unlikely
adaptations from nearly every type of rhythmic movement. The "Battle on
the Bridge" cue is an absolute riot. Even moreso than in
My Favorite
Martian, Debney incorporates little snippets from other famous
themes and motifs for short comical or character cues in the film. In
this case, "Heroic Mission" takes pieces from
Mission:
Impossible,
Back to the Future, and the James Bond films and
rolls them over into a slightly less obvious parody of
Superman
in subsequent action cues. Pieces of Danny Elfman's
Beetlejuice
main title are unintentionally connected to the title theme here due to
some similarities in construct. The Disney logo music ("When You Wish
Upon a Star") is incorporated directly into the opening performance of
the title theme. Aside from these usages, the
Inspector Gadget
score offers the usual feel-good Debney hero's theme and a slight,
rolling piano theme for the love interest, both quite adeptly combined
into "Happy Ending." Overall, though, these thematic ideas are not as
well integrated into the score as those in
My Favorite Martian
were, and this score thus relies far more heavily on the title theme.
It's not as easy to enjoy as one cohesive sitting, though a good
argument could probably be made in favor of
Inspector Gadget over
My Favorite Martian if someone were actually willing to
overanalyze either. Like the previous score,
Inspector Gadget was
only available on a lengthy promotional album, and Debney's enthusiasm
for these zany projects is perfectly captured in the picture of him
decked out in an inspector's outfit on the back cover of the album.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For John Debney reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33
(in 56 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.09
(in 49,891 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
