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WE'RE BACK! - A DINOSAUR'S STORY
Playful, bouncy score is a blast
A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Music composed by
JAMES HORNER

Rating
* * * *



Performed by
THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
conducted by
JAMES HORNER

Song written by
JAMES HORNER
THOMAS DOLBY

Orchestration
DON DAVIS
ARTHUR KEMPEL
THOMAS PASATIERI

Engineered by
SHAWN MURPHY
Music Editor
JIM HENRIKSON
Produced by
JAMES HORNER

Album running time
59:16

Released by
MCA SOUNDTRACKS
Catalog number
MCAD-10986

Album cover copyright (c) 1993 Universal City Studios and Amblin Entertainment; review copyright (c) 2006 James Southall

In 1993, Steven Spielberg produced a family film about dinosaurs set in the present day.  You may have heard of it - We're Back! - A Dinosaur's Story.  Wait a minute - surely you weren't thinking of another film?  It's fair to say that this animation didn't attract quite the attention of the other Spielberg dino movie - indeed, it's main distinguishing feature may be that it was the first (and, believe it or not, last) animated film about dinosaurs in New York to feature no fewer than four punctuation marks in its title.  

Even by his standards, 1993 was a busy year for James Horner - along with We're Back, Horner scored ten other films that year.  While Ennio Morricone has probably scored ten films before breakfast in his time, Horner must be the only other major composer to do so.  Because of this, there were strong rumours at the time of its release that We're Back! presented just too much of a time challenge for Horner and he ended up having to ask his orchestrator Don Davis to write a lot of it - as far as I know, those rumours have never been confirmed by either party, so it's anyone's guess as to whether they were true or not.  The music certainly sounds like pure Horner.

It also sounds like good Horner.  There's a great, bouncy, playful main theme, which sets the tone - this is easily the most lighthearted of Horner's scores for animation.  It's a great tune, very catchy, vaguely John Williams-like in its boundless enthusiasm, sounding like it could easily come from Hook.  Horner does manage to put it in a much softer setting at times.  Along with the main theme and some typically manic comic music (we get whizzes and bangs, strange synthesised noises, comic tuba solos - and the full force of the London Symphony Orchestra!) Horner wrote some genuinely affecting material too - "Flying Forward in Time" is the score's highlight, one of the loveliest pieces ever to come from Horner's pen without any doubt.

There's one new song, written by Horner with Thomas Dolby (remember him?) - it's sung in the film by John Goodman, and over the end title by Little Richard.  It's frankly rather bizarre, a kind of rock-and-roll pastiche which is quite entertaining in its own way.  The Nino Rota-ish "Grand Slam Demons" is a case in point - it's an absolute blast, a real treat, but somehow seems to come from a different score.  "Hot Pursuit" is a great action track, very much like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (or, ironically, perhaps even more like its sequel, which was scored by Bruce Broughton) - nothing to be taken too seriously, but certainly something to be enjoyed.  As the score gets increasingly eclectic in its second half, there's even some circus music, in the imaginatively-entitled "Circus".  There's some grandiose horror music in "Fright Radio" which is wonderfully over-the-top.  

"Eclectic" becomes something of an understatement in "Grand Demon Parade", which is just plain strange.  I guess it's a bit like the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach of Jumanji, but this time there's a spooky choir, a big percussion section and a few rather curious synths joining the orchestra too.  It's a blast!  "The Transformation" is something different, a grandiose, sweeping piece full of pomp and circumstance, and hugely-impressive.  After the brief finale (which does everything you might expect) comes the Little Richard version of the song.  It's certainly not as impressive as some Horner animations, and the rather idiosynchratic nature of some of it makes for a slightly disjointed album, but nevertheless We're Back! is still a fine score, one well worth getting.

Tracks

  1. Primeval Times (4:14)
  2. Flying Forward in Time (5:48)
  3. Welcome to New York (2:26)
  4. First Wish, First Flight (3:48)
  5. A Hint of Trouble / The Contract (1:49)
  6. Roll Back the Rock (To the Dawn of Time) John Goodman (2:55)
  7. Grand Slam Demons (2:05)
  8. Hot Pursuit (3:18)
  9. Central Park (1:21)
  10. Screweyes' Circus / Opening Act (1:12)
  11. Circus (2:29)
  12. Fright Radio / Rex's Sacrifice (6:39)
  13. Grand Demon Parade (7:39)
  14. The Kids Wake Up / A New Day (2:57)
  15. The Transformation (5:30)
  16. Special Visitors to the Museum of Natural History (2:12)
  17. Roll Back the Rock (To the Dawn of Time) Little Richard (2:56)
    18.