Who Framed Roger Rabbit (3CD Expanded Original Soundtrack)

Everything was fine

We seem to be living in a "golden age" for score releases from the 80's and 90's, when it comes to Alan Silvestri, we have so far been blessed with both Predators, all 3 BTTF's, the Mummy Returns, and now Roger Rabbit. Roger Rabbit is fascinating, a curious mishmash of cartoon scoring, jazz, and the frenetic Silvestri action music for which he is so well known. The best thing about this release is you get to hear more of the Roger Rabbit action music. Particularly "Strange Bedfellows" (track 18, disc 1), and "The kick" (track 3, disc 2). I really enjoy the motifs for the weasels and Judge Doom. It's like hearing his action music from Predator and BTTF on steroids, everything is so wildly and gleefully over the top. Silvestri knows how to write action music that is loud, fast, rhythmically interesting, and thematically varied enough to maintain interest without becoming dull. This release, compared to the original soundtrack which I had been listening to for many years, was a revelation. Everything is included, even the full Dueling Pianos sans dialogue, an extended Smile Darn Ya Smile, and the cartoon shorts by Bruce Broughton (pretty good, not as good as Silvestri's music) and James Horner (just kind of 'meh'). I'm sorry to say that Horner's contribution is quite forgettable unfortunately. Overall the CD release truly shows the amazing talent of Alan Silvestri. Robert Zemeckis says in the liner notes that he thinks Silvestri is the greatest composer living, which is an exaggeration, but not far off the mark now with Jerry Goldsmith passed and John Williams on the verge of retirement.

Awesome soundtrack, the expanded sections are great to hear as well as some music that didn't make the final cut of the film. There's also all the music from all of the original Roger Rabbit shorts!