The latest smash-hit animation not from Disney continues the current trend of making such movies smart and contemporary, reflective of modern attitudes, something which may not have begun with Shrek but was certainly exacerbated beyond belief by it.  While many of them are entirely satisfying and entertaining, I can't but think that their distinctly modern approach will ultimately lead them to be remembered far less than even the less successful Disney movies being produced now, let alone their classics of the past or Pixar's timeless pieces being produced time after time.  However, they have opened up a genre of film music which was traditionally never filled by mainstream film composers, with assignments usually going to songwriters who were entrusted to broaden their repertoire by writing some orchestral music to go alongside the inevitable songs.

One of the chief beneficiaries has been John Powell.  I was very surprised to read that Robots is his first solo effort for an animation, given that he seems to have been scoring them for years, but his previous assignments have all been collaborations with Harry Gregson-Williams for the delightful scores for Chicken Run, Antz and - of course - Shrek.  He also received an "additional music" credit for Hans Zimmer's The Road to El Dorado and I would suspect he probably wrote the bulk of it.  Robots is probably more impressive than any of them.  

It may be slightly predictable, but Powell's decision to use a lot of percussion (including the famous Blue Man Group) to create a metallic sound to the music works brilliantly.  Powell often uses almost-constant percussion in his action scores to add a constantly-moving, effectively propulsive feel and he does the same thing here, though thankfully (and obviously) he doesn't opt for the more modern sound, but relies instead largely on acoustic creation of the effect in Robots.  Coupled with some fine orchestral writing, the score certainly contains the magic and excitement you'd expect such a film to inspire.  Melody abounds and while - as usual with the composer - there isn't a single truly memorable theme, there's a lovely, infectious quality to the melody which makes it completely satisfying all the same.

As is often the case with this sort of score, it is completely frenetic, forever changing pace and style at the drop of a hat, but somehow Powell manages to turn it into very coherent music and it never seems to lose focus.  "Bigweld Workshop" contains everything but the kitchen sink (though perhaps it contains even that, given the kinds of household objects usually favoured by the Blue Man Group) - some frantic action music, some choral wonder, what seems to be an homage to the famous Pulp Fiction music, and lots besides.  Some people will be put off by that - as indeed I would be, frequently - but in Robots the composer holds everything together remarkably well.

At first I was disappointed that the makes (who previously did Ice Age) weren't renewing their acquaintances with David Newman, but in truth Powell's score is excellent.  He frequently brings a level of energy and excitement to his music which makes for compelling listening, and has - by some margin - easily produced the most consistently entertaining music of all the ex-Media Ventures composers.  I'm still not sure I really hear his own voice in his music, but nevertheless, Robots is extremely good fun and comes highly recommended.