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Review of We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (James Horner)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you're ready to get caught up in the whirlwind of James Horner's most spirited, overzealous, and orchestrally humongous slapstick effort.

Avoid it... if you value consistency and broad strokes of emotional heart in Horner animation scores such as The Land Before Time, a tone relegated to just a few minutes of time in this effort.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story: (James Horner) A Steven Spielberg-produced flight of fantasy, the 1993 animated film We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story basically follows four singing and dancing dinosaurs as they travel forward in time to New York and engage in activities that today would constitute a significant breech in American national security. Basic flat animation techniques and the inevitable involvement of a couple of children as supporting characters make this formula yet another yawn fest for adults. Movies like this were still being released to theatres in the early 1990's, the days before the straight-to-video market and the creation of Disney's heinous video sequel department pumped out such awful results on a regular basis without the need for theatrical distribution. Ironically, there were two films about dinosaurs in 1993 that were either produced or directed by Spielberg, and they couldn't be more stylistically different. One was Jurassic Park, for which maestro John Williams wrote one of the most popular scores of the 1990's. And then there was We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, for which James Horner tried to match Williams note for note in an effort to take a dinosaur horror score and twist it into a wildly outrageous slapstick variation. If a collector of Horner's works looks back at all of the children's music he wrote from 1988 to 1995, animated and live-action, a good head-scratching could result. But of all the somewhat bizarre projects on which Horner became involved during that era, none is stranger in content or musical result than We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. Whether or not Horner chose these assignments simply because of his association with the producers, there was one fact about a film like We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story that would explain his involvement; the composer did seem to have had a whole lot of fun when writing and recording some of these more imaginative children's scores. Without a doubt, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story is his most zany and energetic slapstick comedy entry. With sound effects and funky rhythms flying at breakneck speeds, this work is also Horner's response to Jerry Goldsmith's Gremlins 2: The New Batch. And given the complexity of much of the writing in We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, fans should be appreciative that the London Symphony Orchestra was once again Horner's performing group of choice, because the score makes some strenuous demands on those musicians during its wild ride.

On a technical level, Horner's composition here is more impressive than in any of his other animation scores. There are marvelous sequences of slapstick comedy that, when combined with the superior abilities of the ensemble, merit a listen simply for study alone. If you recall the most active and dense sections of The Pagemaster and Balto, imagine that demeanor cranked up another notch in intensity. One of Horner's few truly slapstick efforts, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story rips and snorts through countless thematic motifs and rhythms that will make your head spin. An appropriately cute title theme opens and closes the score, although it is the soaring secondary theme heard in "Flying Forward in Time" that draws broad strokes from The Land Before Time and offers its lush strings over brass support that will remind of John Barry's romantic style. The dominating spirit in the score is established in "Grand Slam Demons," however, when Horner lifts several elements from Danny Elfman's title sequence for Beetlejuice and begins to overlay the London Symphony Orchestra with his various specialty instruments, eventually including kazoos, a barrel organ, vibraphone, whistle, and a series of sound effects not limited to car horns, sirens, and duck calls. This creativity on a massive level extends to "Circus" and "Grand Demon Parade," and each of these explosions of sound is led by brass themes that play on famous classical and older film music melodies (including everything from The Godfather to The Phantom of the Opera); for people driven nuts by Horner's habit of ripping off his own material, be content in knowing that he quotes others' works far more than his own this time (though his standard four-note motif of evil does make a brief appearance). The most important aspect of We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story is that all the musicians, whether they play the muted trumpets or the inspiring percussion, embrace Horner's playfulness and respond with a sense of zeal that you rarely hear from studio performers. In "Grand Demon Parade," you even encounter a brass section intentionally playing the wrong notes. A customary, cooing female choir fills out the magical moments of a more sincere heart, highlighted by the first two minutes of "Flying Forward in Time." On the whole, as with most slapstick music, the score requires a very specific mood in order to fully enjoy it. Two variations on the "Roll Back the Rock" song co-authored by Horner don't help the package, the John Goodman performance in the first rendition functioning like a musical number. The album (a somewhat rare DAD recording) went out-of-print not long after its debut and will likely provide more smirks for a Horner collector than lasting enjoyment.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 59:23

• 1. Main Title/Primeval Times (4:14) • 2. Flying Forward in Time (5:48) • 3. Welcome to New York (2:26) • 4. First Wish, First Flight (3:48) • 5. A Hint of Trouble/The "Contract" (1:49) • 6. "Roll Back the Rock"* - performed by John Goodman (2:55) • 7. Grand Slam Demons (2:05) • 8. Hot Pursuit (3:18) • 9. Central Park (1:21) • 10. Screweyes' Circus/Opening Act (1:12) • 11. "Circus" (2:29) • 12. Fright Radio/Rex's Sacrifice (6:39) • 13. 'Grand Demon Parade' (7:39) • 14. The Kids Wake Up/A New Day (2:57) • 15. The Transformation (5:30) • 16. Special Visitors to the Museum of Natural History (2:12) • 17. "Roll Back the Rock"* - performed by Little Richard (2:56)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

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