AN AMERICAN TAIL

JAMES HORNER

Rating:

Original Review: An American Tail was the film for which James Horner won his only major award to date, for the song 'Somewhere Out There', which he composed with Barry Mann and lyricist Cynthia Weil. The song, which was performed by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram, won a two Grammy Awards in 1986, for Song of the Year and Best Song from a Motion Picture and, it has to be said, is one of my favourite ballads of all time - of course, I didn't realise James Horner had written it at the time ( had never even heard of him in 1986) and knowing what I know now, I can see that my love of Horner was buried deep in my subconscious long before Legends of the Fall.

The song is presented in two versions here: the romantic commercial Ronstadt/Ingram version, and the cute and sentimental version heard in the film, performed by the child actors Philip Glasser and Betsy Cathcart, both of whom are woefully out of tune but are immediately endearing. The rest of the songs are pretty good too, ranging from 'There Are No Cats In America', which proves beyond doubt that James Horner has a wicked sense of humour, to the charming 'Never Say Never', which features Christopher Plummer doing a fake French accent.

As for the score: this is excellent too, with the 'Main Title' beginning with a beautiful, sweeping full-orchestra track; 'The Cossack Cats' is a rousing chase theme featuring a set of racing violins; 'The Storm' is an emotionally powerful version of the main title theme featuring a ghostly choir and elements of what would become the Tir Asleen theme from Willow; 'Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor' is a slow, melancholy piece portraying a sense of desperation and tragedy through its solo violin and almost spiritual chanting choir; and the final three cues, 'Reunited', 'Flying Away' and 'End Credits' are a wonderfully fitting conclusion to the score.

Horner's animated films, like The Land Before Time, this one, The Pagemaster and Balto, often produce memorable songs and scores, but this one has proved his most successful. I'll bet, though, that when the unknowing public bought copies of Somewhere Out There they didn't realise it was originally sung by two little immigrant mice as they gazed up at the moon longing to be reunited. Aaaah.

Track Listing: Running Time: 49 minutes 55 seconds

MCA Records MCAD-39096 (1986)

Voice Cast: Philip Glasser, Betsy Cathcart, Dom DeLuise, Christopher Plummer, Nehemiah Persoff, John Guarnieri and Warren Hays.

Original score composed and conducted by James Horner. Original song score composed by James Horner and Barry Mann. Lyrics by Cynthia Weil. Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra. Orchestrations by Greig McRitchie. Recorded and mixed by Eric Tomlinson. Edited by Michael Clifford. Songs produced by James Horner and Peter Asher. Album produced by James Horner.

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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1997. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.