Varèse Sarabande Records release Zoë Poledouris-Roché and Angel Roché Jr's score for The Hero of Color City. Each night, when Ben falls asleep, his Crayons jump into their magical Crayon Box, which transports them to their home in Color City, a world of dazzling hues, soaring fantasy and the whimsy of childhood. This land is fed by an enchanted rainbow and waterfall that provides the City and its citizens with color. When Yellow, our timid heroine, is accidentally left behind in Ben's room, she inadvertently awakens two Unfinished Drawings: King Scrawl, a huge, powerful, mute monster -- and Gnat, Scrawl's motor-mouthed, overactive sidekick...

Zoë Poledouris-Roché and Angel Roché Jr's score for The Hero of Color City is not one for adults. It's full of annoying songs that very young children will love, but adults will hate (after the 400th time of listening to them over and over again).

'Heave Ho (Boat Song)' is easily the most annoying and has a similar delivery (and singer) as those compilation albums of favourite kid's songs - like 'The Wheels on the Bus'...

What was interesting though was the fact that the composers have borrowed a musical technique from Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. In this instance each colour crayon is represented by their own instrument: Yellow (Trumpet); Blue (Trombone); Green (Bassoon); White (Clarinet); Black (Tuba) and Red (Saxophone).

The album contains 28 tracks (45 min, 52 sec) of songs and music from the film and while I'll admit that this isn't a score I'd want to listen to again, I'm not the target audience, and so for the very young fans of the movie this will be an excellent addition to their album collection.

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Darren Rea