This is a lively, vibrant score full of colour and good humour. As in Pleasantville Randy Edelman creates a warm score full of irony, rich characterisation and parody. There is enough variety too to keep the ear entertained through its 47 minutes duration except for, perhaps, a little repetition of material in the later tracks.

We hear Randy himself singing in the song, "The Time of Your Life" which is the first track but I guess we'll gloss over that one quickly and proceed to the score proper. "The Flick Machine" takes us back to the up-beat big band jazz/swing sounds of the 1940s and '50s - a sort of hangover from Pleasantville. "Seed to Tree" reminds us of the traditional Walt Disney twee and tripsy-whipsy music we all associate with very young animal cartoon-characters but with some added Newman spicy spin. "Red Alert" is cartoon capers chase music again with some nicely observed Newman nuances. "Hopper and his gang", the film's cricket heavies (in shape and character) get the heavy treatment with music suggesting their lumbering gait and grousy, overbearing manner. In such tracks as "Flick leaves" and "Robin Hood" we hear clever parodies of bold and brassy western themes and the heroic music of Korngold all overlaid with material still reminding us that these are bugs. "Circus Bugs" goes back to the exotic music of the 1920s with exotic Arabian jazz sounds - a sort of Ketelbey pastiche. The final "A Bug's Life Suite" includes homely, Americana music and material that one associates with the old silent cinema banana peel slapstick combined with sentimentality. We even get a quote from Psycho in the "Victory" cue when we hear those screeching shower murder chords to denote, I assume, the come-upance of Hopper.

I will admit to having got a lot of childish pleasure from this CD

Reviewer

Ian Lace

Reviewer

Ian Lace