"Treasure Planet" is James Newton Howard’s third score for a Disney animated feature, following "Dinosaur" (2000) and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" (2001). Howard excites every swashbuckling atom in his listeners’ brains with the rousing themes and soaring harmonies of his "Treasure Planet" score. "It’s very much in that wonderful tradition of Korngold and Tiomkin and Steiner," says Howard. "Those composers have such a legacy of spectacular music that there was an expectation that the music really had to perform on a classic level." And perform it does: high adventure explodes from cues like "12 Years Later" and "The Portal", while the Mercurial spirit of Gustav Holst enlivens "Silver."

Howard’s recent scores have included all three of M. Night Shyamalan’s blockbusters "The Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable" and "Signs." He earned Academy Award® nominations for "The Fugitive," "The Prince of Tides" and "My Best Friend’s Wedding," and two of his songs, "Look What Love has Done" from "Junior" and "For the First Time" from "One Fine Day," have also been nominated. For television, Howard composed the themes to shows "Gideon’s Crossing" and "E.R.," winning an Emmy for the former and a nomination for the latter.

For a crucial sequence where Jim is finally beginning to shine on his own, the Disney team commissioned a song from John Rzeznik, lead singer and songwriter for multi-platinum-selling band Goo Goo Dolls. What they got back was nothing less than a cri de coeur, a shout from the rooftops: "I’m Still Here." Rzeznik didn’t have to dig too deep to find the emotion behind this track, the unspoken soundtrack of Jim’s rebel-with-a-cause angst: "It was easy to relate to Jim, you know?" says Rzeznik. "I felt a lot like that when I was his age."

Rzeznik’s second song for "Treasure Planet" is the uptempo number "Always Know Where You Are", which runs during the movie’s closing credits. On the soundtrack the tune is performed by platinum-selling Hollywood Records artists BBMak. The band, composed of co-lead vocalists Mark Barry, Christian Burns and Stephen McNally. Their latest album is 2002’s "Into Your Head," which was co-produced by Rob Cavallo, producer of Rzeznik’s "I’m Still Here".

There’s an embarrassment of riches in the "Treasure Planet" cast, which features the voices of Brian Murray (John Silver), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Jim Hawkins), Emma Thompson (Captain Amelia), David Hyde-Pierce (Doctor Doppler), Martin Short (B.E.N.), Patrick McGoohan (Billy Bones) and Roscoe Lee Browne (Mr. Arrow). "Treasure Planet" will open the same day in both regular and IMAX theatres, a first in Disney history, on November 27, 2002.

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SOURCE: Walt Disney Records