“The main thing for me was to never feel like I was writing music for a ‘cartoon’… I wanted Wonder Woman to sound like a 200 million dollar summer blockbuster?”
- composer Christopher Drake

Although written for the animated feature film Wonder Woman and scored using orchestra instrument samples, Christopher Drake’s score is one of the most ferocious action scores in recent years, exploding with a massive array of percussion and eerie choral samples.

Drake’s expertise with big orchestral sounds was evident in Batman: Gotham Knight (2008), but WW is his best work to date because of its unrelenting tempo, rhythmic density, and an unwavering sense of anguish.

This is the world of Wonder Woman and Paradise Island?

Well, not quite.

The opening track, “The Battle / Origins” (nearly 9 mins.) establishes the score’s gloomy tone, emotional scope, and repeated onslaughts of mortal threats. Drake evokes the big sound of Alan Silvestri (plus a squirt of steroids, perhaps) in the action cues, be they short (wooden hits and Kodo drums in “Sparring”); two-parters (“Dog Fight,” where Drake recaps the desperate tenor of “The Battle”); a combo of mystical / thunderous percussion (“Manhunt”); or titanic Ray Harryhausen terrors (“At the Gates of Tartarus”).

To counter-balance the action, there are a few moments of respite, such as the lovely “Origins” theme, first carried by solo female voice, and traded on to a chorus and choir. Drake gives his WW score a lament in “Ares Imprisoned,” which quickly shifts to ominous chords and icy piano hits.

Much like his music for Batman: Gotham Knight, Drake likes to recap his themes with grandiose finales, and his portrait of WW is fully three dimensional: wounded, desperate, vengeful, and heroic, which is a far cry from the cartoonish live-action incarnation that starred Lynda Carter in the late seventies.

Although Drake explains in the booklet’s liner notes that his use of instrument samples stemmed from the production’s tight budget, the gear has evolved to a point where one may still be able to pinpoint synthetic components, but the scope of instrument samples is getting awfully close to a real orchestra. The trick is knowing what to do with such a vast array of sounds and possibilities. Drake’s a fine craftsman, and it’s obvious WW was built with great care.

A solid score for action fans, and a CD that must be played really, really loud.

© 2010 Mark R. Hasan