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Review of The Emperor's New Groove (John Debney)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on Disney's commercial album if you seek a surprisingly
comprehensive selection of music written for both versions of this
film.
Avoid it... on the Disney promotional pressing of Debney's score, because it doesn't even feature the same amount of material as on the commercial product.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Emperor's New Groove: (John Debney/Sting) Anxious to
recapture its glory days of the romantic animated musicals of the early
1990's, Walt Disney Pictures gave the green light to Kingdom of the
Sun. Director Mark Dindal labored in production with that template,
working with songwriter Sting and composer Marc Shaiman to provide the
musical numbers and score for the film. Unfortunately for all involved,
the studio abruptly decided to completely change the entire storyline
and focus of the film, insisting that it become the first full-fledged
comedy to come from the studio in the era. A South American emperor
survives the script edits even if two other major characters did not; in
the version that would become The Emperor's New Groove, the
selfish emperor is accidentally turned into a llama during an execution
attempt by the story's bumbling villain, and in the process of stirring
up a bunch of funny one-liners, the character learns about the virtues
of goodness. Despite cautious advance word and awful trailers, The
Emperor's New Groove turned out to be quite a decent film. The
situation with its vast production changes took its greatest toll on the
music, however. Sting had written several songs for Kingdom of the
Sun while Shaiman had written his score and begun to record it. When
news struck of the total changes in production, Sting decided to stay on
board and write new material for The Emperor's New Groove.
Shaiman, however, jumped ship and left the studio in an understandable
panic. They turned to trusted veteran John Debney to step in and, in
just a matter of a few weeks, adapt Sting's new material into his score.
As Debney recalls, "I heard a bit of what Marc Shaiman had written, but
he'd only recorded about eight minutes. A situation like that can be
sticky, but this was very smooth. It was really his decision at the end
of the day, and Marc was completely gracious about it." The style of
music that Debney was asked to write was relatively easy for the
composer, for without the usual complexity of the structure of musicals,
he could provide the standard sound that had defined his children's
movie scores to date. His total contribution ran about 65 minutes in
length, and after writing most of the score in three weeks, he recorded
it with a 95-piece Los Angeles orchestra.
The overall soundtrack resulting from the last minute efforts of Debney, Sting, and the studio is rather plain, but it suffices in each of its tasks. Sting contributed two new songs, one performed with gusto by Tom Jones at the start of the film (the closest the production comes to a musical number) and the other performed by Sting himself. The latter, "My Funny Friend and Me," appearing at the end of the film, earned the artist an Oscar nomination, but of more interest to Disney collectors will be the fact that the studio decided to include two of Sting's songs for Kingdom of the Sun on the album, too (as well as "Walk The Llama Llama"); judging from "Snuff Out the Light (Yzma's Song)" and "One Day, She'll Love Me," the musical would have been fine in its original form, especially considering the potential that Shaiman would have had integrating these songs into his score material. Debney does work pieces of the two later, upbeat Sting songs into his score, but not with great appeal. He claimed that he wanted to write music "in a much more classical vein than recent animated films," merging "a very Russian sound" and "South American influences with a lot of acoustic guitar." That statement is a bit odd, because while there is a definite, tender touch of acoustic guitar in "Pacha's Homecoming" and a wild viola throughout several cues that could be considered Russian in origin, few of these accents that Debney was talking about really shine through. The most vibrant and memorable score cue is "Run Llama Run," a retro big jazz piece that is definitely comical in every sense (though it doesn't match the rest of the score). Debney's action material in "The Jungle Rescue" and "The Great Battle" is largely anonymous in his career, stirring up surprisingly little volume and not really going anywhere. Disney produced an Academy promo of 17 minutes of Debney's work for The Emperor's New Groove, the highlight of which is easily the 30-second "Main Title." It's a rare case when the commercial album contains more score material than the promo, and fans should be advised to seek the regular Disney product to hear the majority of Debney's score and Sting's two pairs of songs. Overall, Sting and Debney did what they needed to in order for The Emperor's New Groove to float, but their finished product is not as memorable as the story behind its creation.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Commercial Album::
Total Time: 48:58
* score material by John Debney Promotional Album:: Total Time: 17:15
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes lyrics and extensive credits, but no extra information about
the film or score.
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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 The Emperor's New Groove are Copyright © 2000, Walt Disney Records (Regular), Walt Disney Records (Promo) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 11/19/00 and last updated 8/5/08. |
