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Review of The Shaggy Dog (Alan Menken)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you enjoy the similarly inventive and entertaining
approach of Alan Silvestri and John Debney to their larger comedy
assignments.
Avoid it... if no measure of strong, mainstream orchestral writing can compensate for your predisposed negative feelings about Alan Menken's hopelessly upbeat music.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Shaggy Dog: (Alan Menken) You know that Walt
Disney Pictures has sold out to the ultimate commercial lows when you
look at some of the classic live-action films from 40+ years ago that
they're attempting to remake. In some cases, their remakes have actually
been minimally charming and tolerable to sit through. By all accounts,
the 2006 remake of the 1959 film The Shaggy Dog is not one of the
brighter moments. In the CGI-laden update, Tim Allen is bitten by a
mystical dog from Tibet while serving as the prosecuting attorney
arguing a case against the evil doctor who kidnapped the dog and brought
it to the States for research into why it's supposedly 300 years old.
Allen has several problems in The Shaggy Dog extending above and
beyond the simple fact that it's difficult to carry on a normal life
when you're in a state of flux between humanity and the animal kingdom.
He's also tortured by a family that is far too dense to figure out that
their daddy and husband is now the awkwardly behaving mutt, and Robert
Downey Jr., whose hair-raised performance as the crazed researcher
overshadows Allen's own physical comedy acting in the film. The
stupidity of the movie is not questioned, and you'll be hard pressed to
find anyone who thinks this film is high entertainment, but it
predictably earned its faithful $60 million for Disney before
disappearing from public attention and resurfacing for Razzie
consideration. The only really notable aspect of the film is the
continued return of composer Alan Menken to the live-action scoring
scene, this time for the company for which he secured so many Academy
Awards in the early 1990's.
After years of curious inactivity since his musical contribution to 1997's Hercules was such a disaster, Menken teamed once again with Disney's animation branch for Home on the Range in 2004, with literally no new music debuting from the composer in between. Aside from Home on the Range, which actually featured quite a good score with a catchy k.d. lang narrative song and some unforgettable yodeling, Menken also scored the feature comedy/drama Noel and the television musical of A Christmas Carol in 2004, the latter of which earning an Emmy for the production of its songs and underscore. After an inactive 2005, Menken would provide The Shaggy Dog with his first major score for a feature film since the early 90's, and despite the moronic nature of the film, his contribution is outstanding. The film demands the kind of music that John Debney and Alan Silvestri can seemingly write in their sleep, and Menken reminds us that he is just as proficient in the genre, if not still superior. He highlights the physical comedy with an equally flamboyant score, matching the energy on screen with vibrant, active, funny, and entertaining music. Brightly orchestral and choral from start to finish, Menken concocts a myriad of themes, including a saccharin family theme that flourishes in the score's final moments, an addictively playful Western-rhythmed comedy theme for Allen's dog-like behavior introduced in "First Sign," and a faux-tip-toeing march for the evil doctor (given best treatment in "Magic Lab"), among others. Several motifs for the short magical moments of the film are represented by nothing less than gorgeous crescendos of choral harmony that populate the middle portions of the score on album. While some listeners may find the sensitive family theme to be a highlight of the score, its predictable lines are easily overshadowed by both the "playful" theme and "transformation" theme, the latter of which receives powerfully rendered performances in "Transformation" and "Breaking Through." The "playful" theme steals the score, though, whipping up a frenzy of rhythmic delight so infectious that you can't get the damn theme out of your head for weeks after you've last heard it. In a film like The Shaggy Dog, catchiness is an absolute necessity, and Menken nails that attribute better than anyone has in the last few years (across any genre, come to think of it). Surprisingly, the overall score plays well despite its occasional and haphazard slapstick movements, with the only distracting parody moment existing in the form of an obnoxious "detuned banjo string" sound effect at the end of "Kozak Gets a Tail." There's just enough quirkiness in this music to remind you of Danny Elfman's brightest harmonic joyrides in a cue like "To the Rescue." Perhaps the best assets of The Shaggy Dog are its orchestration and recording values. Menken and the very seasoned group of orchestrators employed for this score make such creative use of the percussion section that you'll find yourself intentionally seeking the more snappy, tingling, and clanging moments of the score simply for the pure fun of the wild soundscape. Assisting the percussion section especially is the remarkably crisp and well-balanced recording and mixing of Bruce Botnick. It's rare for an engineer to be able to take so much credit for a score's success, especially in the kind of ridiculous environment of this film's production, but Botnick's work causes the vivacious orchestration to shine in individual performances while also allowing the overall recording the bounce around the room with the wet, echoing atmosphere of a live recording. The choir is the only element seemingly placed in a more dry landscape, but the difference isn't particularly bothersome given that Menken's employment of the choir is typically aided by the depth of the orchestral ensemble. Overall, The Shaggy Dog is a reminder that some of the best music in any given year can come from the unlikeliest of places. If you are an Alan Menken detractor (and they still exist from his days of dominance in the 90's), but you typically enjoy the inventive and bright-eyed approach of Alan Silvestri and John Debney to their comedy assignments (along with David Newman, to an extent), then Menken will deserve another look. His score, on the surface, might seem like a venture best cut off at 30 minutes, as it is on the Disney album, though with so few weak points (after the first, rather mundane "Tibet" cue) and such unyielding tenacity in its personality, you almost wish for more. What nobody will contest --whether you can tolerate the score's attitude or not-- is that the songs collected for this album are hopelessly at odds with the score. Do the album's executive producers actually expect anybody to listen straight through the seven abysmally wretched hip-hop songs --all of which annoyingly overbearing in their incessant dog references-- and then the whole score in one complete sitting? Only one of the songs is actually featured in the film, adding to the stink of album's commercialization. The score, thankfully, is intact at the end of the album and will be an outstanding surprise for any fan of snazzy orchestral comedy or superior recording quality.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 52:41
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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