DINOSAUR on Compact Disc

A robust musical score that survives very well on its own.

By Randall Larson     May 13, 2000

James Newton Howard (DEVIL'S ADVOCATE, FLATLINERS, THE SIXTH SENSE, STIR OF ECHOES) has provided a rich and emotive musical backdrop for Disney's high-tech computer animated reorientation of THE LAND BEFORE TIME, nicely preserved on this soundtrack CD. With a plaintive woodwind representing the lost dino hatchling, Howard includes an excellent use of choir to musically summarize the grandiosity of the film's prehistoric setting while also underlying the story's sense of drama. With vocal arrangements assisted by Lebo M (THE LION KING, THE POWER OF ONE), the music takes on the pleasing African musical sensibility that is in vogue these days, yet Howard puts it to excellent use in the score the prehistoric world of the dinosaurs and new mammals depicted in the film are, essentially, the equivalent of the African Savannah during this antediluvian adventure.
Known for his sense rhythm, melody, and the depth of his orchestration and use of large orchestra, Howard's music is evocative, likable, and powerful. The ethnicity of the arrangements adds to the freshness of its sound, and the frequent crescendos keep the material lively and involving as Howard paints a musical tapestry of prehistoric coexistence. But it's not typical Disney music. There are no tuneful TOY STORY or BUG'S LIFE shadings anywhere to be found. Howard's music is thoroughly symphonic without any attempts to be cute. His melody is lyrical and likable; the chanted choral pieces are merged eloquently with the orchestra to achieve a compelling musical texture, and the dynamic scope of cues like 'Raptors/Stand Together' are orchestrally motivating and ruthlessly assaultive.
DINOSAUR was an excellent project to examine Howard's compositional abilities in a story of broad parameters. The score may not have afforded Howard the kind of subliminal musical synthesis that he engaged in for THE SIXTH SENSE (and, by the way, the DVD of that film includes an excellent close-up look at the film's music and sound design, including an interview with Howard), but DINOSAUR is a straight-ahead adventure film, and Howard has given it a robust, straight-ahead musical score that survives very well on its own on CD.

DINOSAUR: Music by James Newton Howard. Walt Disney 60672-7, 16 tracks, 51:47 mins.