A veteran of the super-hero genre in the mainstream is composer John Ottman, whose assigning to the score for Astro Boy was certainly more adept than the choices for most of the actors plugged into the speaking cast. Ottman, despite stirring up a significant amount of positive, major-key bravado for CGI-enhanced action films throughout this decade, had never tackled a straight animated feature film until Astro Boy, and he availed himself of the opportunity to merge his familiar super-hero blend with a touch of Carl Stalling and Raymond Scott in traditional mannerisms and even John Powell in his style of haywire musical creations for very similar contemporary animations. If Ottman's Orphan earlier in the year featured the composer in plainly evident auto-pilot mode, Astro Boy comparatively plays like it was a labor of love for the composer, a description he would probably agree with. Ottman debuted the final product with a flash (and a very early one at that), with two cues from the score performed enthusiastically at a July, 2009 film music festival in the Canary Islands of Spain. Even several months prior to the production's theatrical release, it was clearly evident that Ottman very successfully adapted his previous super-hero sound into a flighty and sentimental atmosphere of innocence. Accomplishing this style without becoming trite is difficult, and the reason for Ottman's triumph is primarily the robust depth of the performances and cues of lengthy development that allow consistency in structures. In other words, unlike most children's adventure scores with dashes of humor abounding, Astro Boy never degenerates into a series of slapstick irritations. It also helps that Ottman was himself clearly enthusiastic about the score, a trait that does shine through in the finished result. After so many morbid assignments through the years, who could blame the man?

There will indeed be several characteristics of the score that will remind veteran film music collectors of Powell's considerable work in the genre; the title theme begins with a fanfare of pure Ottman optimism, though the primary melody to follow flows with the rollicking movements that have often generated so much enthusiasm in Powell's like scores. That main theme is well articulated in all of the boy robot's exploits, receiving perhaps the most memorable performance (outside of the title and suite arrangements that bookend the score) in "Saving Metro City." This theme and its surrounding structures take some time to congeal into a solid narrative flow, but the final four or five cues of the score feature better, more explicit musical climaxes and a general sense of momentum that is often condensed to just a matter of seconds in equivalent Powell efforts. The instrumental applications in Astro Boy, while taking few chances by using typical orchestral and choral elements, are better realized in this music than some of Ottman's seemingly more procedural super-hero scores. From the rhythmic flute flourishes in the opening title theme to the percussive barrage leading up to the thunderously harmonious closing of "Final Sacrifice," this score is very well rounded. Slight enhancements to the bass region are tastefully handled and the choir offers an especially lovely set of performances in the score's final cues. The London recording is flawless. A slight Japanese tone in the woodwinds of "Cora's Call" is perhaps a nod to the concept's origins. A few moments of outward humor exist; "Undercover Robots" is a throwback to the quirkiness of Goodbye Lover and the bonus inclusion of the infomercial music at the end of the album will be a crowd pleaser. Overall, Ottman has sometimes produced robust action music without a convincing heart in the past, but his impressive creation for Astro Boy is both resoundingly cohesive and emotionally satisfying.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download