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| Debney |
Jetsons: The Movie/Jonny's Golden Quest: (John
Debney) When Hanna-Barbera's
The Jetsons debuted in 1962, only 24
episodes were made before public attention moved back to the much-longer
running counterpart,
The Flintstones. Revived in the 1980's,
The Jetsons was given several new similarly-generated episodes in
1984 and 1987, followed by a handful of animated films late in the
decade. The only truly original film based on
The Jetsons was the
1990 Hanna-Barbera production of 80 minutes that opened and closed with
little fanfare. After thirty years, the concept had finally run its
course, though the film would benefit from an early score by composer
John Debney, whose career was just beginning to take flight in the at
the time. Debney would become the go-to guy for modern adaptations of
old television cartoons and live-action series, ranging from
The
Jetsons to
Doctor Who,
My Favorite Martian, and
Inspector Gadget. Whenever he could, Debney would adapt the
original theme from the series' previous incarnations into his feature
scores, giving them a flavor true to the concept. For
The
Jetsons, Debney would write a score that very much matches the jazzy
style of the theme and Hoyt Curtain's original cartoon music style
(which would become a standard in the industry). The clever jazz rhythms
and devious instrumental employment would cause the score for
The
Jetsons to stay close to the style of Danny Elfman in the same era,
but with more consistent fluidity. The first half of
The Jetsons
features unashamed, jazzy cartoon music not much unlike the high style
that Michael Giacchino would eventually conjure for
The
Incredibles. His humor would culminate in the "High School Marching
Band" piece that intentionally butchers its way to laughter. The latter
half of the score would approach some more serious ground, however, with
the electronic, Vangelis-like "Space Age Classical" leading to some
all-out orchestral bombast in "Grungies in the Works" that would
foreshadow some of Debney's full-blown action material later in the
decade. Overall,
The Jetsons is a competent, lightweight score,
though the title theme --complete with lyrics-- continues to
charm.
Less famous, but equally tapped for spin-offs and
sequels was the 1964 television series
Jonny Quest. Also from
Hanna-Barbera, this series only lasted through 1965 and featured two
dozen episodes. It depicted a family of scientific and technological
experts who, as a fighting force, would rescue people around the world
and ward off the usual collection of villains. The 1990's would bring
three television features that attempted, to varying levels of failure,
to revive the cartoon. The first of these was
Jonny's Golden
Quest in 1993, which addressed the main character's missing mother
for the first time. The problem for Hanna-Barbera Productions, though,
was that by the mid-1990's, animation had progressed so far beyond the
one-dimensional drawing technique carried over in these sequels that
people were simply bored by them. And while John Debney once again
attempted to beef up and modernize the sound of the franchise, as he had
done capably with
The Jetsons, his music for
Jonny's Golden
Quest wasn't quite as entertaining. A far more serious score,
Jonny's Golden Quest used a greater variety of synthetic and solo
accent instruments to represent the battles around the world. The
representation for the evil Dr. Zin would reside in the low electronic
ranges, offering false choral effects and deep, resonating bass
appropriate for any supervillain. As with
The Jetsons, Debney
would roll with the style of high jazz for most of the heroic pieces.
The original Hanna-Barbera title theme would be given large-scale
treatment once again in the opening and closing cues, with a hint of
Mission: Impossible throughout. The electronic nature of the
rendering hinders the score in its large action sequences, such as
"Destruction of Dr. Zin," and the drum pads specifically sound
frightfully dated. The majority of the score is rooted, strangely
enough, in the realm of cheap 80's sci-fi, placing the score at odds
with most of Debney's other scores. At least 30 minutes of music from
both
The Jetsons and
Jonny's Golden Quest would appear
together on Debney's first official promotional CD released in 1996, and
unless you're a significant fan of Debney's cartoon adaptation work,
this duo is among the least appealing.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Jetsons: ***
- Jonny's Golden Quest: **
- Overall: ***
| 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 49,879 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a short note about Debney and the two series.
