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| Debney |
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| Rodriguez |
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams: (Robert Rodriguez/John
Debney) Once again an extension of Robert Rodriguez's "dream come true," the
Spy
Kids franchise moved effortlessly into its second installment. Flaunting many
of the same parody traits as its predecessor,
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost
Dreams was hailed as a worthy follow-up and yet another plug in the general
void of Hispanic heroes on screen. Almost the entire cast and crew from the 2001
film returned for this 2003 sequel, and Rodriguez once again saved money in his
rather slim $40 million budget by serving as producer, writer, director, editor,
special effects supervisor and composer for the production. The first
Spy
Kids score was a truly collaborative effort, built upon a foundation laid by
Rodriguez and Danny Elfman, with several composers from under the roof of Hans
Zimmer's Media Ventures business filling out the majority of the score. At the last
minute, action and children's film veteran John Debney was brought in to flesh out
some of the orchestrations, expand upon Elfman's material, and write some of his
own additional flair for that score. The result was campy but serviceable music for
the genre. While it functions well enough in its pieces, its weakness exists in its
fragmented lack of focus. The tone is different for
Spy Kids 2, which, as
Rodriguez states, is a Ray Harryhausen kind of flick full odd monsters and grand,
ancient settings. Unfortunately, most of the thematic and instrumental devices from
the previous film are absent in the subsequent scores. In fact, this project is
such a turn in a different direction that it marked the first ever performance of
the newly assembled Texas Philharmonic, consisting of musicians from around the
state assembled for this recording. With the Media Ventures artists and Elfman out
of the equation for
Spy Kids 2, Rodriguez set out to write the majority of
music for the picture himself, though as before, he asked John Debney to score the
remaining, arguably more complicated portions of the film. The resulting combined
score mirrors the attitude of the film with ease; because the
Spy Kids
concept is aimed at the fantasies of kids, the score thus plays to several cliches
in action and thriller music that the two writers figured would appeal to kids.
That leaves adults at something of a disadvantage, though seasoned film score
collectors aren't the primary target of this album anyway.
While the appeal of the first
Spy Kids score rested in the
clear diversity of the various talents involved in perpetuating the spirit of funky
adventure,
Spy Kids 2 has the feeling of a stock action/adventure work that
one would expect from John Debney himself, with the unpredictable elements thrown
in by Rodriguez. It is not difficult to see why Rodriguez originally approached
Danny Elfman for the franchise, given that Rodriguez's own cues pay great tribute
to Elfman's now classic
The Nightmare Before Christmas sound. Thankfully,
though, the Alan Cumming performance of "Floop's Dream" on this soundtrack isn't
as offensively derivative. Sadly absent from this score is Harry Gregson-Williams'
robust and melodic family theme from the first score, replaced by themes written by
Rodriguez that are consistently employed but not orchestrated or performed in a way
that would make them memorable. While Rodriguez provides the light-hearted
personality for
Spy Kids 2 (such as in the spoof tracks "R.A.L.P.H." and
"Floop's Dream" and the song, "Isle of Dreams"), Debney's action music features the
brawn of the score. The highlights of the score are roughly five to ten minutes of
Debney's material, but collectors of the composer's works will recognize these
sounds from
Inspector Gadget and many of his other comedy-oriented scores
from the mid-1990's. The interesting aspect of
Spy Kids 2 is that
Rodriguez's cues, while not possessing the same complexity of sound as Debney's
music, are structurally very similar to Debney's style. It's difficult to say if
that is because Rodriguez's talents in composition are particularly strong or if
Debney's adaptation and expansion of Rodriguez's ideas is that precise. Their
combined efforts to mimic the style of Bernard Herrmann (a professed goal) are
slightly evident in "Romero's Creatures/SpyBeach" but otherwise fail. In any event,
the teenage buyers targeted by both this film and soundtrack will mostly likely
appreciate the James Bond-style song with actress Alexa Vega's vocals at the end.
For film score fans, you will have heard this Debney music before (countless
times), and if you value creativity in your children's adventure scores, the first
Spy Kids score is the better choice. The soundtracks in the franchise became
increasingly less engaging as each film rolled along, and Rodriguez's solo effort
for
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over the next year loses the remaining coherency in
the series' music.
*** @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 49,879 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a note from Rodriguez about the score and film, as well
as extensive credits.
