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Review of Jetsons: The Movie/Jonny's Golden Quest (John Debney)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you are an enthusiast of the original
Hanna-Barbera productions or the multitude of John Debney's 1990's
adaptations of the genre.
Avoid it... if you expect the action music in these two scores to match the more robust orchestral output later in Debney's career.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 67:54
* contains the "Jetsons Theme" by William Hanna, Joe Barbera, and Hoyt Curtain ** contains the "Jonny Quest Theme" by William Hanna, Joe Barbera, and Hoyt Curtain
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a short note about Debney and the two series.
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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 Jetsons: The Movie/Jonny's Golden Quest are Copyright © 1996, Promotional and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 11/4/99 and last updated 6/11/07. |
