Music Composed by John Powell
Rating: *** 1/2

Years ago, John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams burst out of the Media Ventures school with a series of spectacular collaborative scores for Dreamworks’ animated comedies (Antz, Chicken Run, and Shrek for the three of you who weren’t following). Despite the two composers’ disparate styles, the results meshed brilliantly, with Powell’s quirky energy complementing Gregson-Williams more grounded affinity with melody perfectly. The intervening years have seen both composers go their separate ways and while many would argue that both have gone on to bigger and better things, I’ve personally never heard anything from either composer as an individual that matches the magic they created when they worked together. With Robots, however, John Powell comes pretty damn close, with a frequently witty and inventive piece of musical exuberance, only occasionally hampered by genre formulas.

Despite the project’s large budget, Robots is far more cartoony then any of Powell’s Dreamworks projects, which means you can expect a great deal of Mickey-Mousing in the score. Within the space of one minute, Powell might easily go from soft tenderness, to manic Leonard Bernstein pastiche, to Latin grooves, to the clinkety-clanking percussion potpourri of The Blue Man Group (as he does in the opening “Robots Overture”). Many may be put off by the way Powell keeps picking up new ideas and dropping old ones on the fly, but as I have the attention span of a gnat, I find the approach delightful. Brining the Blue Man Group into the equation was one of Powell’s most inspired ideas – their eclectic assortment of bells and whistles adds the perfect level of quirky spunk to the score, and establishes the “robot” feeling without resorting to any tired robot clichés (i.e. synthesizers, mechanical rhythms, etc.).

John Powell

And yes, despite the schizophrenic nature of the score, there are several clearly developed themes. Two in particular seem to dominate, one tender and mellow to carry the story’s requisite sentimental baggage, the other a trifle more spunky and upbeat. The tender theme probably gets its fullest treatment in “Train Station”, while the spunky theme seems to pop up in every other track. To be honest, neither theme is especially memorable taken alone (the “Train Station” theme is particularly bland), but when Powell spins them through his endless cycle of quirky variations, you’ll be having too much fun to notice. The spunky theme is particularly infectious when Powell briefly cuts out the orchestra and allows the Blue Man Group to work their inspired lunacy over the theme by themselves in “Wonderbot Wash.”

For roughly 20 minutes, the score is one delightful charm after another. For some reason, however, somewhere down the midway point Powell begins to rely on the Blue Man Group less and the orchestra more. While many listeners would consider this a blessing, the straightforward orchestral approach actually looses most of the quirky charm that made the opening half so much fun. Certainly the orchestra has no shortage of energy, but without that extra spark of the Blue Man Group, the music doesn’t have a whole lot to separate it from your standard animated fare. You hear a little of the John Powell who contributed so much gold to the Dreamworks films, but not enough to transcend the formulas with anything truly memorable. We move from one big manic climax (“Escape”) to the next big manic climax (“Butt Whoopin’”), until we finally arrive at the requisite triumphant swelling of the main theme (“Homecoming”) – it’s never less than entertaining, and “Escape” is frequently thrilling, but you could really insert this into any standard animated comedy and nobody would notice the difference. Powell makes extensive use of his various themes, but they’re all too generic to hold up when he isn’t sending them through any imaginative variations. It doesn’t help that the final cue trails off so aimlessly, the unfortunate side effect of a film that uses a pop song for its finale.

Still, the score on the whole is a winner. The first half is a constant delight, and the second half is at least entertaining, if not inspired. Robots still lacks the spark of any of Powell’s animated collaborations with Gregson-Williams, but you’d have to be a pretty big curmudgeon not to just a little charmed with this gleeful romp. (Originally posted on May 8, 2005).

Music Composed, Programmed and Arranged by John Powell; Orchestra Conducted by Pete Anthony; Orchestrated by Brad Dechter, Bruce Fowler, Walter Fowler, Randy Kerber, Suzette Moriarty, John Ashton Thomas, Mark McKenzie and Jon Kull; Recorded and Mixed by Shawn Murphy; Featured Percussion Performed by Blue Man Group; Availability: In print; Label (Catalogue): Varèse Sarabande, (302 066 640 2); Release Date: March 15, 2004

01. Robots Overture (4′02)
02. Rivet Town Parade (0′54)
03. Bigweld TV/Creating Wonderbot (2′45)
04. Wonderbot Wash (2′08)
05. Train Station (3′50)
06. Crosstown Express (1′19)
07. Wild Ride (1′37)
08. Madam Gasket (1′00)
09. Chop Shop (1′50)
10. Meet The Rusties (2′07)
11. Bigweld Workshop (3′13)
12. Phone Booth (1′29)
13. Gathering Forces (3′28)
14. Escape (4′42)
15. Deciding To Fight Back (1′13)
16. Attack Of The Sweepers (1′27)
17. Butt Whoopin’ (3′42)
18. Homecoming (1′33)
19. Dad’s Dream (1′25)

Total Playing Time: 43′44