Dick
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- May 22, 1999
- Messages
- 9,938
- Real Name
- Rick
Adam Cohen & Tim Williams' beautiful 28-minute score for BLUE HORIZONS AT SEA WORLD has me on the offensive. Had I heard it without knowing what it was underscoring, I'd have simply thought it was a very pleasant, repeat-listen half-hour of music.
But it was composed for a dolphin show at Sea World.
What we (all should) know by now is that these beautiful and incredibly intelligent animals are being badly exploited for the sake of entertainment, like salt water versions of circus elephants. They are confined to small tanks and "trained" to perform a variety of tricks they would never display in the wild. They often die prematurely in captivity, and even kill their trainers out of pure frustration.
So, Cohen and Williams, two obviously talented composers, were commissioned to write a score for one of these goddamn Sea World shows, and they come up with cues such as "Aurora's Dream Flight" and "Fly, Dive and Frolic."
In other words, anthropomorphism is alive and kicking our country. Disney certainly made a killing with this practice, but to their credit mostly confined it to animation or the clever editing of live-action "True Life Adventure" footage. This Sea World crap is something else again, and I find it repulsive.
Listen to the score, if you can find it.
It is loaded to the hilt with gorgeous and melodious themes, and the celestial choir now so obligatory -- and cliché -- in modern films. There are even a couple of songs that sound like they came straight out of a Disney musical. What this music suggests is that, yes, dolphins are remarkable animals, but more specifically, they are remarkable on our terms... i.e. funny, talented, well-trained creatures who live only to perform for us. People watching this show live and hearing this score are being directed to feel a certain way about these animals...the music deifies them to make it seem perfectly okay that these dolphins are abused and imprisoned, as long as they can be seen performing all these neat little tricks to the sound of a glorious music score. Damn it, these are (or should be) wild animals! I find this score to be a full-on affront to nature. I think of lyrics from Pink Floyd's THE WALL... "Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone!" Just change a word or two and you have, "Hey, shitheads, leave those fish alone!"
Yes, I'm a tree-hugger, and proud of it. Who would have thought I'd be ranting about a music score...but I just can't listen to this otherwise lovely music score without feeling a bit nauseous. Sad.
But it was composed for a dolphin show at Sea World.
What we (all should) know by now is that these beautiful and incredibly intelligent animals are being badly exploited for the sake of entertainment, like salt water versions of circus elephants. They are confined to small tanks and "trained" to perform a variety of tricks they would never display in the wild. They often die prematurely in captivity, and even kill their trainers out of pure frustration.
So, Cohen and Williams, two obviously talented composers, were commissioned to write a score for one of these goddamn Sea World shows, and they come up with cues such as "Aurora's Dream Flight" and "Fly, Dive and Frolic."
In other words, anthropomorphism is alive and kicking our country. Disney certainly made a killing with this practice, but to their credit mostly confined it to animation or the clever editing of live-action "True Life Adventure" footage. This Sea World crap is something else again, and I find it repulsive.
Listen to the score, if you can find it.
It is loaded to the hilt with gorgeous and melodious themes, and the celestial choir now so obligatory -- and cliché -- in modern films. There are even a couple of songs that sound like they came straight out of a Disney musical. What this music suggests is that, yes, dolphins are remarkable animals, but more specifically, they are remarkable on our terms... i.e. funny, talented, well-trained creatures who live only to perform for us. People watching this show live and hearing this score are being directed to feel a certain way about these animals...the music deifies them to make it seem perfectly okay that these dolphins are abused and imprisoned, as long as they can be seen performing all these neat little tricks to the sound of a glorious music score. Damn it, these are (or should be) wild animals! I find this score to be a full-on affront to nature. I think of lyrics from Pink Floyd's THE WALL... "Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone!" Just change a word or two and you have, "Hey, shitheads, leave those fish alone!"
Yes, I'm a tree-hugger, and proud of it. Who would have thought I'd be ranting about a music score...but I just can't listen to this otherwise lovely music score without feeling a bit nauseous. Sad.
