Search - John Powell :: Robots: Original Motion Picture Score

A model children's score

Clark Douglas | Fayetteville, GA | 03/16/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"John Powell's score for Robots is an entertaining one, even if very bit by-the-numbers. Powell, in the course of forty-five minutes, manages to squeeze a little bit of nearly every musical genre into the score, reflecting the film's manic, cartoonish pacing. There a moments of tenderness, excitement, action, wonder, darkness, weirdness, and quirkiness, most of these moments coming and going in the span of no more than a minute or two. Powell was given a massive ensemble to work with, including a large orchestra, percussion from Blue Man Group, and a full choir. He uses all of these, as well as tossing bits and pieces of everything else, such as twenty seconds of surfing music here, and an Irish bagpipe tune there. The only real flaw here is that this score seems to be cobbled together from "Chicken Run", "The Road to El Dorado", "Shrek", and even "Paycheck", all of which Powell wrote or co-wrote. The one thing that gives "Robots" it's own personality, however, is the use of odd percussion and sound effects in places. On certain cues, you can hear screwdriver and other various mechanical sounds zipping around in motion to the music. There's a lot of cartoonish underscore that flaunts itself all over the album, but there's a good ten or fifteen minute suite of music just waiting to be compiled from this score. If you have enjoyed the scores to Dreamwork's and Pixar's computer-animated film, you'll likely enjoy this one. A fun, if a bit unoriginal, album."

Very hip and percussive...!

Brad Byers | Las Vegas, Nv. United States | 06/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As it should be, this score has every metallic sound available, but in a very exciting and rhythmic format, The long, crying, chord progressions of Hanz Zimmer gets old in no time, but this score has everything - of course you would expect nothing less from a cartoon featuring robots. I collect scores, and this is one of my favorites. Right on John Powell, more Blue Man Group. yea baby! Something different!"