: (Hans
Zimmer/Bryan Adams) One of the more anonymous animation films of the
2000's is
, a generic
horse-related tale that relates well to young girls but offers little of
intellectual interest to adults. Other than strong animated visuals, the
film's only redeeming aspect resides in the fact that animals in this
story cannot speak for themselves. With minimal dialogue from only three
human characters, the Wild West tale relies more on its soundtrack than
many of its contemporary counterparts. Some consider
to be a musical, which isn't entirely accurate since
the characters in the film aren't actually shown singing. But the most
memorable aspect of the film for most viewers will be the perpetual use
of Bryan Adams' voice to narrate the film through his songs. The
production turned out to be a vehicle for the artist, whose career had
lost some its steam by 2002. Marking his regular return to the genre of
animated filmmaking, Hans Zimmer co-wrote some of the songs and provided
most of the score material (along with some of the usual Media Ventures
help) in an attempt to recapture the popularity and success of his
premiere such effort,
. In the series of popular
merging of pop culture music artists and major animated films,
(Phil Collins),
for which the pop artist combines efforts with the traditional film
composer to write the songs for the musical. Zimmer had produced work
for both pop music animated films and more orchestrally-inclined
endeavors, with
serving as a enduringly
popular example of the latter. If the balance between story and music is
well enough maintained, then Zimmer can flourish in both settings,
whether or not a pop artist is involved in the project.
Zimmer's own experience in the rock genre affords him the
vocabulary, connections, and talents to mingle well with big name solo
artists. The raspy-voiced Adams, whose younger-sounding and defiant
style of singing lent him well to the spirit of the stallion, was a
suitable match for this occasion. The choice of Adams as the pop artist
for
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, however, while deemed by
multiple critics to be an obnoxious source of irritation within the
film, is not alone the reason why the music for the film strikes all the
wrong notes. In these animated pictures with pop music, the success of
both the music and the film depends upon the balance of the weight of
one over the other. In films such as
The Lion King and
Tarzan, for instance, the needs of the film dictated the
structure and instrumentation of the songs. When choosing the vocal
inflections, the background acoustics, and the introductory and ending
structures of the songs, the film's storyboard was the center of
attention in that creative process. The best comparison for this film is
Tarzan, for which Phil Collins had to speak for the characters
through his own voice. In that score, Collins and Zimmer associate Mark
Mancina created songs that fit the context of each scene, and they later
rearranged those songs to fit the needs of the album release. For
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, it's easy to get the impression
that the exact opposite happened. In other words, the Adams songs sound
as though they were written as fully intact album-arranged
presentations, and then the film was brought in to supplement them.
Thus, the needs of the songs outweighed the needs of the film, and that
causes the film score listener to wonder if the album wasn't produced
before the animation process even commenced. The songs, for the most
part, are decent, typical entries for Adams, with no smash hits, and
only one driving guitar in "Get Off My Back" that breaks the combined
attitude of the other songs.
On the whole, the songs are streamlined and
predictable, a delight most certainly for Adams' fangirls and likely a
bore for everyone else. The over-commercialization effect of Adams'
songs is a major contribution to the tedious nature of the overall
musical package for
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, but
Zimmer's contribution is unfortunately flawed as well. Zimmer did have a
hand in the creation and sound of some of the songs (and it should be
noted that beginning with "This is Where I Belong" on the album, the
songs do follow a more normalized musical format), though any hint of
the enthusiasm or epic size that was evident in
The Lion King or
The Prince of Egypt is completely missing here. Perhaps the most
confusing part of the score for
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
is how a predominantly Western-themed film ended up with
faux-
Gladiator music that has been mixed with such a heavy dose
of Media Ventures testosterone that it sounds synthetic rather than
orchestrally dynamic. For instance, the recording of "The Long Road
Back" is so "popified" that it sounds like a clone of the highly
rhythmic battle hymns in
Toys. In this cue, Zimmer inserts about
a minute of fiddle performances, but aside from some rather somber
accompaniment from Gavin Greenaway's orchestra, this is the only
distinctly fresh and authentic-sounding orchestral instrumentation to
appear in the whole project. If you're going to a film to watch horses
(animated or otherwise) gallop across a grand view of the Western
American Rockies, then why does the music sound like it was pulled from
The Peacemaker? Zimmer's attempt to produce a Western score is so
dependant upon his heavy mixing techniques, led by an overwhelming bass
region, that even with small tidbits of rhythm stereotypical to the
genre thrown in once in a while (as well as a nod or two to Zimmer
favorite Ennio Morricone), the package is a failure. There are several
sequences in the score that are very enjoyable in usual Zimmer fashion,
yes, but they don't fit with the songs and they certainly don't fit with
the genre.
The album was obviously viewed by the label as a
potential commercial juggernaut at the record stores. And for Adams
fans, it remains as something of a solo album for ample enjoyment. But
for the same reasons of conflicting interests and inappropriate song
structure,
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron was never going to
capture the same kind of rush of popularity from film score fans and
parents of children that
The Lion King or
Tarzan
attracted. It's a major disappointment for those hoping for Zimmer to
break out of his rut of providing historically inaccurate music (which
had been so painful in
Pearl Harbor the previous year). It didn't
help that the production had elevated expectations by rousingly using
Jerry Goldsmith's themes from
Rudy in its early trailers. The
only connection between Goldsmith and Zimmer's work here is Zimmer's
adoption of Goldsmith's electronic swishing sound from the early 1990's
(famous in
The Shadow) as means of replacing the cymbals during
transitional or accented notes. Overall, nearly everything about
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is saturated with the
commercialization of Adams' contribution, his voice attached to 11 of
the 15 tracks of the album, and too many of those songs are
disassociated from the film to be affective with Zimmer's contribution.
Die hard Zimmer fans will find cues of merit in the 20 minutes of score
for
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron presented on the album,
including the opening titles ("Homeland"), even though they sound like
the bastard child of the themes from
The Rock and
Toys.
Such enthusiasts often trade a 40 to 50-minute bootleg of score-only
material from the film, containing additional music and film versions of
these cues. But there's nothing new enough here to gain the interest of
general film music collectors. All you have to do is take a look at the
supposedly sexy picture of Adams in the insert to immediately understand
why people who listen to classic Western film music consider items like
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron to be a waste of time.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.85
(in 128 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.96
(in 299,193 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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