• Composed by Stephen Edwards
• MovieScore Media / 2011 / 45:13

Cool Dog is a film about (spoiler alert) a cool dog.  In fact, the dog is so cool, he makes his way from small-town Louisiana all the way to New York City in order to be reunited with his ten-year-old owner.  The film hasn’t attracted the best reviews and it sounds like fairly standard fare, but it does mark the second film directed by Danny Lerner whose main character is a German shepherd (as in the breed of dog, not as in a Teutonic livestock farmer) following Finding Rin-Tin-Tin.  That film attracted a lively score from composer Stephen Edwards which was released by MovieScore Media; by way of contrast, this film attracts a lively score… OK, you get the point.

It does seem rather churlish to complain that the score for a film like this is somewhat predictable – of course it is – so I won’t.  (But it is!)  Instead I’ll concentrate on the lovely main theme, heard in several variations, which contains a winning Americana sound; and the family-friendly action music, not a million miles away from (say) Bruce Broughton’s two Homeward Bound scores (hmm, what was the plot in those?).  True, if you’re not a fan of mickey-mousing you’d better steer clear, but if you’re a fan of warm-hearted, tuneful, orchestral adventure music (and I suspect that few people reading this website are not) then you’ll enjoy it.  For sure, there’s nothing particularly revelatory here (though the amusing comedy music of “Bug the Exterminator” is great), but it would take a person of very heavy heart not to get a warm glow from the sweeping finale.  Edwards is a talented composer and it’s nice to see this label give his music more attention – I won’t claim that Cool Dog is outstanding, but it’s highly entertaining – and sometimes, what more can you ask?  ***