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Review of Atlantis: The Lost Empire (James Newton Howard)

2001 Regular

2001 Limited

2001 Promo

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you seek a predictable, but accomplished and appropriately epic fantasy score with bold brass fanfares and majestic choral performances of harmony.

Avoid it... if you require your expansive orchestral fantasy music to feature a dynamic mix, an intangible element missing from all but this score's several Waterworld-like sequences.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Atlantis: The Lost Empire: (James Newton Howard) Back for their third venture with Walt Disney Pictures, directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise turn away from the musical format that was dominant in the animated film genre when they made Beauty and the Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame and instead follow a trend set by Dinosaur that established the genre as capable of supporting a more traditional adventure format. With no character songs and far more explosive action than seen before in a Disney film, Atlantis: The Lost Empire explores the idea of an early 20th Century expedition to find the sunken city in a fashion that merges plotline concepts from Indiana Jones and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Instead of turning to their previous collaborator, mega-Oscar winner Alan Menken, for the music for Atlantis, Trousdale and Wise were handed composer James Newton Howard, who was in the middle of a multi-picture scoring deal for the studio's animated features at the time (extending to the following year's Treasure Planet). Atlantis joined the ranks of not only Disney's Dinosaur, but competition from Pixar and Dreamworks (including Chicken Run and Shrek) that was also employing mainstream Hollywood composers to write non-musical orchestral material for the genre. The Hans Zimmer hoard of Media Ventures ghostwriters had become attached to many of these films, though Howard, who only maintained a peripheral relationship with Zimmer's organization, was arguably producing the most appealing music for animated films during this era. Fans were not only dazzled by the sharp animation of the previous year's Dinosaur, but also by the score, which many believed to be among the year's five best. From a standpoint of construct and instrumentation, not much is different between that project and Atlantis, but the latter entry allowed Howard to reincorporate some of the eclectic instrumentation that was heard more frequently in his earlier projects. In scope, the performances for Atlantis are rendered similarly to those for Dinosaur, though Howard raises the bar in terms of the amount of choral and percussive creativity for the latter film.

The score and its commercial album both begin with arguably their weaker halves, with the obligatory song followed on the album by somewhat discouraging selections that skirt the impressive material heard in spurts throughout this portion of the film. The music for these sequences, as audiences are introduced to the zany crew of the expedition, hails back to the style of Alan Menken's silly comedy material. Only upon the entrance of the submarine does Howard fully state his marginally swashbuckling title theme on brass, and only once the journey reaches Atlantis itself does the score begin to sweep the listener into the action with diverse material of sustaining interest. Howard's majestic theme for the lost civilization is a slowly rising idea that often reaches a choral crescendo in the fashion of Alan Silvestri's The Abyss. The primary brass theme of enthusiastic action is not as pronounced or mature as the one that sparked so much controversy in Dinosaur (and more specifically, the cue "The Egg Travels"), but at the same time, there is no plagiarism issue with the more generic ideas for Atlantis. In fact, the pedestrian nature of Howard's main theme for this score means that the performances of that idea are not the highlight of the work. More appealing is the vibrant majesty that Howard reserves for the various scenes of wonderment in the latter half of the film. The collection of cues following the discovery of Atlantis and accompanying its fantastic scenery are a sibling of the exotic underwater music that Howard wrote for Waterworld. Howard's knack for writing simple, harmonious chord progressions, always substantiated by a strong bass of strings and brass, is flavored with an array of solo vocalists. Female soprano voices are well employed on their own and supported by chorus to represent the majesty of the seas, and the fuller adult chorus alone reflects the ghosts of the empire's citizens with haunting beauty. The mix of the score, while somewhat flat and leaning too heavily on the dry side of the equation, improves when the chorus, orchestra, and synthetics are merged late in the score.

Howard's electronic accents never overwhelm the orchestral ensemble in Atlantis, and his exotic touch of percussion throughout the second half of the score includes chimes, bells, and synthesized metallic elements not much different from those heard in Waterworld. When combined with the orchestra and chorus, these tones are nothing short of magnificent. Howard also captures the adventurous, chasing spirit of the journey's resolution with ambitious snare rhythms heard in the trio of cues spanning "Going After Rourke" and "Just Do It" (though the lengthy "Dogfight" in the middle is missing from the commercial album). There is a certain amount of overblown fantasy in the score that may cause it to sound too childish and heroic for listeners expecting a plethora of subtleties, but given the genre of the film, it would be difficult to find music more appropriate for Atlantis. It was easy to see why Disney switched to Howard over Menken for these films, all of which required an enormous scope of epic proportions that Menken was never as accomplished in producing. The commercial album for Atlantis offers exactly 50 minutes of Howard's score, which was generous considering Disney's past disregard for the presentation of orchestral music off the screen. Ironically, the album was released on the same day as the one for Pearl Harbor, and the Zimmer score stole almost all the spotlight away from Atlantis. The song for the Disney film, performed by Mya, is far less engaging than the Faith Hill song that Diane Warren also wrote for the end credits of Pearl Harbor. There is no doubt that the score for Atlantis is a more inconsistent listening experience on album than Pearl Harbor, but the latter score doesn't have half of the amount of appropriate energy that Howard provided for Atlantis. A numbered limited edition album from Disney, with a special 3-D insert, contained the same contents. Fans were treated to a 73-minute promotional album from Disney almost immediately, pushing unsuccessfully for an Oscar nomination but inevitably resulting in countless identical bootlegs. Outside of about five minutes of superior additional material (including the massive opening, "Atlantis Destroyed"), the complete presentation is mostly redundant. Still, Atlantis is an accomplished work for its genre.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

2001 Regular and Limited Albums:
Total Time: 54:04

• 1. Where the Dream Takes You - performed by Mya (4:00) • 2. The Submarine (3:20) • 3. Milo's Turned Down (1:48) • 4. Atlantis is Waiting (2:41) • 5. The Leviathan (3:25) • 6. Bedding Down (2:33) • 7. The Journey (3:22) • 8. Fireflies (2:11) • 9. Milo Meets Kida (1:46)

• 10. The City of Atlantis (2:48) • 11. Milo and Kida's Questions (2:59) • 12. Touring the City (2:51) • 13. The Secret Swim (2:46) • 14. The Crystal Chamber (3:45) • 15. The King Dies/Going after Rourke (5:12) • 16. Just Do It (3:18) • 17. Kida Returns (3:10) • 18. Atlantis (1:59)

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2001 Promotional Album:
Total Time: 73:09

• 1. Atlantis Destroyed* (1:49) • 2. The Smithsonian* (1:52) • 3. Late for Presentation (1:50) • 4. Milo Meets Helga* (0:30) • 5. Arriving at Whitmore* (0:39) • 6. The Book* (1:08) • 7. Whitmore Hires Milo (2:44) • 8. The Submarine (3:20) • 9. Exterior Lights* (0:35) • 10. Leviathan Battle (3:35) • 11. Breaking the Surface* (1:10) • 12. The Journey (3:24) • 13. Bedding Down (2:31) • 14. Fireflies (2:14) • 15. Atlantis Discovered (1:45) • 16. Milo and Kida Speak** (3:31)

• 17. Milo & Kida's Questions (3:04) • 18. Tour of Atlantis (2:53) • 19. Secret Swim (2:45) • 20. Adventure Capitalists* (2:12) • 21. Storming the Palace* (1:40) • 22. Kida Transforms (3:49) • 23. The Crew's Conscience* (2:12) • 24. The King Dies (3:35) • 25. Going After Rourke (1:48) • 26. Dogfight* (5:01) • 27. Just Do It (3:29) • 28. Kida Returns (1:39) • 29. Goodbyes* (1:40) • 30. Atlantis (2:00) • 31. End Credits* (2:22)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The commercial album inserts contain extensive credits and an advertisement poster for other products related to the film, but no information about the score or film. The promotional album's packaging is sparse.

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Atlantis: The Lost Empire are Copyright © 2001, Walt Disney Records (Regular and Limited), Walt Disney Pictures (Promotional) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 5/21/01 and last updated 1/25/09.