When perusing the items for sale in obscure CD shops in university cities, as one is prone to do, one occasionaly picks something up, buys it and then wonders exactly why. While Robert Folk seems to attain modest popularity with fans, his music has always struck me as well wrought, but not exactly imbued with huge amounts of distinct personality. I remember one film muisc critic commenting along the lines that people who said something like "look out John Williams, here comes Robert Folk!" were frankly a bit mad. Indeed, you only need to compare the amount of innate style in something by Williams to realise that for all the orchestral opulance of Folk's music, it really doesn't compare very well.
Arabian Knight was evidently an animated film with a lengthy past, that took decades to finally make it to completion and even then, it was only released on video. Judging by the couple of pictures on sleeve for the album, it frankly looks terrible, but director Richard Williams is apparently an extremely accomplished director of animated movies. Whatever the merits of the film itself, the score and songs are a variable, but fractionally bland affair. The lyrics to the songs are by Norman Gimbel who evidently wrote many famous songs, but the efforts here aren't terribly exciting. The opening ballad, Am I Feeling Love? is a nice sub-Alan Menken type affair, sung extremely well by Bobby Page and Steve Lively. She is More is another ballad type affair; nice, but not terribly memorable. Bom, Bom, Bom, Beem, Bom comes across like an appauling version of Menken's Friend Like Me from Aladdin. It manages to just scrape above absolutely hideous, but isn't terribly good and seems horribly out of place. It's So Amazing is another poppy ballad, nicely sung but as unmemorable as the others.
Songs Rating ~ 
Folks actual underscore is somewhat better than his songs, but isn't exactly the most striking thing I've ever heard. The Opening Title promises quite an interesting, pseudo ethnic, orchestral score, but soon gives way to something far less interesting. The Brigands sounds like it's escaped from Lethal Weapon, with brass and electric guitar providing a metropolitan groove that sounds totally out of place in context. Club Sahara is another similarly styled piece, only this time a kind of Arabic evacuee from Austin Powers. The more romantic sections are rather lovely, So Incredible is a lovely pop instrumental (not a promising description) and while it isn't as indelible as A Whole New World or similar, the whole thing sticks out as being a superior interlude. The latter tracks feature a few extremely entertaining action cues, with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performing their little hearts out. Ahhh.
For a film that took so long to finally be released, it's something of a shame that the score and songs are such a disappointment. When compared to Alan Menken's songs, the efforts here positively feeble and don't blend with the underscore much either. The score itself has so many anacronystic and unwisely out of place attempts at sounding modern that it never really achieves the kind of epic or romantic sweep a film of this type surely requires. Despite a few good moments, most notably the early and latter score cues, the whole thing just attempts to be modern, rather badly. Alan Menken may not be everyone's cup of tea, but he's a master at his craft and when compared to imitation, his talent is asl too obvious. I think with a more adult approach to the songs and score, the whole thing could have been excellent, the ingredients are there, but they are just half baked.
Score Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 44:49