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| Mothersbaugh |
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle: (Mark
Mothersbaugh) With a fond following of nostalgic fans of the original
television series featuring Rocky and Bullwinkle, it was inevitable that
the two would end up in a digitally rendered live-action film. Director
Des McAnuff makes ample connections to the television show (including
the 80-year old voice of June Foray as Rocky), and Renee Russo, Jason
Alexander, Robert DeNiro overact with zeal in the roles of the Fearless
Leader and his cohorts, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. Like many
other cartoons gone live, though, Universal's summer 2000 adaptation of
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle was no less a disaster.
The mixture of the animated characters with the live action photography
is clumsy and no quantity of cameo appearances by famous actors and cute
in-jokes in the script could sustain 90 minutes of a concept that never
ran as remotely long on the small screen. Ultimately, the film was an
embarrassment to its talented cast, and with consistently wretched
reviews,
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle spiraled out of
the public light before it could even be adequately marketed.
Consequently obscured, therefore, is the film's score by Mark
Mothersbaugh, whose credits have included more than his fair share of
similar parody projects, including the just previous
Rugrats
film, which fared a bit better at the box office. With one listen to the
score for
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, it is easy to
understand what went wrong with the movie. Few film scores are so
saturated in the parody genre that their corny style and slapstick
attitude make for a nearly intolerable listening experience, with an
exaggerated punchline of an unpredictable nature waiting for your ears
every thirty seconds.
Technically, there's nothing to really fault with the
effort that Mothersbaugh put into this project, but its accuracy in
conveying the fractured attention of the script will test anybody's
patience when separated from the visuals. As you can expect, the score's
recording was divided into a massive jumble of countless dozens of
frightfully short cues. There proves to be very little need for the
composer to conjure new thematic material for
The Adventures of Rocky
and Bullwinkle, and he instead accentuates the silly and optimistic
tone of his orchestral filler material by quoting famous melodies by
others. The original "Rocky, The Flying Squirrel" theme by Frank
Comstock is rearranged enthusiastically by Mothersbaugh and put to
extensive use throughout the score, serving understandably as the title
identity. Other themes are used for individual transitions and
one-liners, including "Hooray for Hollywood," "America the Beautiful,"
"Secret Agent Man," and others. These interpolations are presented front
and center, meant for the obvious comedic value they could offer to the
film. Mothersbaugh's original cues, which are sometimes pieced together
to form five or so minutes of material absent of any borrowing, are very
reminiscent of the style of John Debney for such similar flops as
Inspector Gadget and
My Favorite Martian at roughly the
same time. A reasonably sized studio orchestra is combined with a wide
range of electronic effects to form the petty and often prancing
foundation of the score. Synthetic loops are sometimes used to set a
shallow rhythm with a slightly cool touch. A light choir is employed to
accentuate a few short-lived moments of wonderment.
Occasionally, Mothersbaugh lets the players rip with
full ensemble performances of a bar or two of rhythmically propulsive
music, making for thirty to fifty seconds of satisfyingly consistent
material. These moments, mostly contained in the consecutive "The Green
Light" and "Frenetical Action/Green Light Shines" (and, to a lesser
extent, "Rocky and Bullwinkle Save the Day"), are greatly outnumbered by
the ridiculous slapstick cues that occupy the rest of the work. The pop
song at the end, tailored to the theme of the film and performed by Lisa
McClowry, is an undemanding highlight. The construction of the album
took some work in order to piece so many very short cues into any
semblance of a listenable format. For the most part, these splices are
not recognizable, and their assembly should be commended; the only sharp
cut to conclude a cue exists at the end of the "Secret Agent Man"
statement. The album is a promotional release by the now defunct Super
Tracks group, never being widely available. The product does certainly
suffice as a mighty testament to Mothersbaugh's abilities, however, and
it will be of interest to listeners who regularly enjoy Debney's similar
parody sensibilities. The majority of film score collectors (and even
those nostalgic for the original show's theme) will likely be highly
annoyed by the cliche-ridden music that sustains no mood from minute to
minute. The album does prove that with his talents, Mothersbaugh could
very easily have composed something resembling the complexity of
Chicken Run had the opportunity for more mainstream work come his
way, but unfortunately the composer's career never headed in that
direction.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
