The Wild [Original Soundtrack]

Most soundtrack albums either feature a collection of pop songs or the background scores to their films. The Wild, a Walt Disney animated children's feature, splits the difference. Disney contract act Everlife contributes a revival of the '50s hit "Real Wild Child," which in this context sounds so in keeping with the Disney oeuvre that it's just surprising it hasn't been used before. Lifehouse and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy are tapped for songs that are typical of their musical styles -- the Lifehouse song is a mopey folk-rock number about lost love, while the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy number is in their familiar jump blues mode. Then comes "Really Nice Day," a song by erstwhile Monty Python member Eric Idle and John Du Prez (the same team who wrote the Broadway musical Spamalot) in a vaguely African style. The following nine excerpts from Alan Silvestri's score show that the composer was hardly reinventing the wheel this time out; his orchestral cues sound like the sort of thing that could have come from any Hollywood adventure movie since the beginning of the sound era. The result is an unremarkable souvenir soundtrack album.