The Amazing Panda Adventure (Promo)

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

At the time of The Amazing Panda Adventure, William Ross was more known as orchestrator than composer, and while today a little differently, its not still A being composer, B being orchestrator. Yet The Amazing Panda Adventure shows the confirmation Ross could handle the orchestra as well as he let them sound during that time. This adventure score is orchestrally lush with the main theme and equally ethnic lovely due to the Japanese influences of place and time. And Ross handles this well and shows especially the delicate balance between both in the entire score. Like the ever soft flowing nature of the main theme in 'Ryan and Ling', then the more orchestral fanfare is heard in 'Overture', with the Chinese violin taking center stage and letting the theme also end in full grandeur by the orchestra, which is nice but already one of Ross' trademarks then. 'Streets of China' and 'Village Celebration' show the ethnic quality supremely well, with dancing bells and chimes in what seems like a rapid influenced version of the main theme. I like these tracks a lot since it doesn't sound bad at all. One of the better tracks showing the typical growing fanfares of Ross at work is 'The Drive to the Reserve', this will especially show the beauty of the forest and landscapes and Ross his fanfares carry that extra spark of light emotion to it which makes them of course an easy winner to spot. Aside from the brief comic level in 'Leeches', its still some orchestral music up tempo and has the main theme appearing at the end of the track. Luckily the real comedic level is not reached since I hate each time the music takes on more humor then it can handle. One of the most noted track is 'Runaway Cart' showing again the good work of Ross with the fanfare touches at the end, but sadly another Element Ross has to face with in most of his scores, temp track influences.

This track sadly is linked badly to Michael Kamen's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and its track Escape to Sherwood Forest, and why because it sounds awfully like in rhythm, speed, tone and theme. You could simply listen to them because if feels like they listen exactly as long as each other. Anyway, its nice but why it always has to happen to good composers is beyond me. 'Lonely Panda' shows again the lovely Chinese violin, and lets the exotic nature handle softly its course. The main theme in 'Tractor Ride', and some good suspense music, leading to brass fanfares in 'The River' are more good moments. But its especially the wonderful mix of ethnic instruments to the brass fanfares that steal the show in 'The River' and works wonderfully. The last track 'Finale' of course as you could expect it shows the main theme with frontal galore, the adding of the violin and bells to signal the end of course even more. The Amazing Panda Adventure does nothing wrong, its another sign of a good orchestral crowd pleaser, but frankly we have lots of those and I kinda missed the real thrill around it all. Perhaps just because I heard those crowd pleasers before something unique should be added to it, I miss that here sometimes much. Still, as said it confirms Ross as a good orchestral composer and his voice may still limp behind some temp track cases during his scores, he has got potential to show also his thematic voice during it, and no difference with Panda and his friends in Hong Kong.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Overture (5.15)

2. Streets Of China (1.22)

3. Opening Montage (1.51)

4. The Drive To The Reserve (2.11)

5. Ryan And Ling (2.20)

6. Leeches (1.14)

7. Village Celebration (1.41)

8. Runaway Cart (2.49)

9. Lonely Panda (3.14)

10. Tractor Ride (2.55)

11. The Search (2.13)

12. The River (3.04)

13. Finale (4.25)

Total Length: 34.42

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=== Link to Composer Site: William Ross ===