Race to Witch Mountain
Trevor Rabin
" Escape from Soundtrack Experience "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the download only release
Director Andy Finckman (She's the Man and The Game Plan) re introduced the people with the 2 little children of Witch Mountain in the reboot of Escape from Witch Mountain. It's not necessarily a remake considering it doesn't fully follow the path of the movie of 1975. It uses the camper briefly near the end and it has the fan favourite moment of inserting the child actors of the original movie in the middle of the film, but apart from that it all sounds new. The names of the characters are different, the story's different and this version is action packed from start to finish. It's enjoyable to a degree, but I'll bet Trevor Rabin's score will work on the nerves during the film for several people.
Trevor Rabin isn't a stranger to the Walt Disney pictures, but Race to Witch Mountain is hardly inspiring stuff. The wonderful orchestral period he had during 2006 has long past our memories, and today the YES composer is churning out at times enjoyable fare, at times frenetic stuff. Race to Witch Mountain is the latter. It appeared in 2009 as a download release from Walt Disney Records.
Apart from the average opening trio of songs, Race to Witch Mountain is all about Trevor Rabin's score. Opening with "Into the Fridge", we discover that Rabin's churning it out fast and familiar. This opening track has enough electronic SFX to question if it's gonna be like this the entire time. And sadly the answer is yes. The tempo is fast, the action music is standard and the threatening Alien motif works quickly on the nerves.
Luckily there are exceptions, and despite being discovered in the begin, it's the final score track of the film that saves the grace of this release. Nothing earth shattering but at least containing some kind of familiar Rabin theme and structure, "Long Goodbye" at least builds to some kind of momentum. Rabin's light magical (and Goonies inspired) material in "Make me a Believer" follows that acceptable path as well.
But rest assured that Rabin will go for his lesser style quickly after that. Surely people will find the awkward alienating droning and up tempo action music in "Siphon Searches" irritating, and I'm sure "Jack and Kids Escape" will soon follow that same fate. "Burke's Deal" is suspenseful but hardly memorable all the while "Tracking the E.B.E.'s" continues the trend of putting the Alien motif through a series of fast paced action rhythms without any melodic structure whatsoever. The main theme after a tiring action rhythm in "Tunnel Flight" and Rabin's over excessive Alien electronics in "Excess Baggage" show you just how irritating this score can become.
The problem of the entire score is that it's fast paced Rabin, both in tone as in construction. Trevor Rabin brought much more enjoyable material than this, and once it starts annoying you during the movie itself, you need to respond. Race to Witch Mountain works more on the nerves that expected and churns out Rabin on uninspired autopilot. There was a reason why G-Force became the better experience. It was practically the same Rabin sound, but that score turned out to be a whole lot more enjoyable. I'm a Rabin fan, but I can't enjoy what is uninspired and irritating. I quote Monty Python on this one: Run AWAY!
Tracklisting
1. Emergency: Steve Rushton (2.59)
2. Boogie Woogie Saturday Night: Brokedown Cadillac (3.30)
3. Southern Nights: Brokedown Cadillac (3.53)
4. Into the Fridge (6.50)
5. Long Goodbye (3.01)
6. Siphon Searches (4.00)
7. Make Me a Believer (4.09)
8. Bump and Run (1.14)
9. Unidentified Main Titles (3.10)
10. Jack and Kids Escape (2.58)
11. Tell Mr. Wolf I Meant It (0.50)
12. Train Wreckage Survey (0.46)
13. Burke's Deal (4.19)
14. Tracking the E.B.E.'s (2.13)
15. Stand Off (1.48)
16. Tunnel Flight (2.17)
17. Excess Baggage (2.07)
18. Convention Escape (3.12)
19. Meet the Press (1.36)
Total Length: 54.52
Trevor Rabin isn't a stranger to the Walt Disney pictures, but Race to Witch Mountain is hardly inspiring stuff. The wonderful orchestral period he had during 2006 has long past our memories, and today the YES composer is churning out at times enjoyable fare, at times frenetic stuff. Race to Witch Mountain is the latter. It appeared in 2009 as a download release from Walt Disney Records.
Apart from the average opening trio of songs, Race to Witch Mountain is all about Trevor Rabin's score. Opening with "Into the Fridge", we discover that Rabin's churning it out fast and familiar. This opening track has enough electronic SFX to question if it's gonna be like this the entire time. And sadly the answer is yes. The tempo is fast, the action music is standard and the threatening Alien motif works quickly on the nerves.
Luckily there are exceptions, and despite being discovered in the begin, it's the final score track of the film that saves the grace of this release. Nothing earth shattering but at least containing some kind of familiar Rabin theme and structure, "Long Goodbye" at least builds to some kind of momentum. Rabin's light magical (and Goonies inspired) material in "Make me a Believer" follows that acceptable path as well.
But rest assured that Rabin will go for his lesser style quickly after that. Surely people will find the awkward alienating droning and up tempo action music in "Siphon Searches" irritating, and I'm sure "Jack and Kids Escape" will soon follow that same fate. "Burke's Deal" is suspenseful but hardly memorable all the while "Tracking the E.B.E.'s" continues the trend of putting the Alien motif through a series of fast paced action rhythms without any melodic structure whatsoever. The main theme after a tiring action rhythm in "Tunnel Flight" and Rabin's over excessive Alien electronics in "Excess Baggage" show you just how irritating this score can become.
The problem of the entire score is that it's fast paced Rabin, both in tone as in construction. Trevor Rabin brought much more enjoyable material than this, and once it starts annoying you during the movie itself, you need to respond. Race to Witch Mountain works more on the nerves that expected and churns out Rabin on uninspired autopilot. There was a reason why G-Force became the better experience. It was practically the same Rabin sound, but that score turned out to be a whole lot more enjoyable. I'm a Rabin fan, but I can't enjoy what is uninspired and irritating. I quote Monty Python on this one: Run AWAY!
Tracklisting
1. Emergency: Steve Rushton (2.59)
2. Boogie Woogie Saturday Night: Brokedown Cadillac (3.30)
3. Southern Nights: Brokedown Cadillac (3.53)
4. Into the Fridge (6.50)
5. Long Goodbye (3.01)
6. Siphon Searches (4.00)
7. Make Me a Believer (4.09)
8. Bump and Run (1.14)
9. Unidentified Main Titles (3.10)
10. Jack and Kids Escape (2.58)
11. Tell Mr. Wolf I Meant It (0.50)
12. Train Wreckage Survey (0.46)
13. Burke's Deal (4.19)
14. Tracking the E.B.E.'s (2.13)
15. Stand Off (1.48)
16. Tunnel Flight (2.17)
17. Excess Baggage (2.07)
18. Convention Escape (3.12)
19. Meet the Press (1.36)
Total Length: 54.52