An animated kiddies' thing which, to my untrained eye, looks scarily like Rugrats, this is set in the African wilderness. And has elephants in it. So you don't need to trouble your inner genius to work out that Peter Gabriel, Youssou N'Dour and Paul Simon will feature. "Father And Daughter" is the latter's first song for a film in 15 years, and he can still turn a lyric and craft a tune like an unlikely deft demi-god. He can even mumble "trust your intuition, it's just like goin'fishin'" and sound wry. It's no "Mrs Robinson" but it's warm as a puma's gums.
New Yorker Carter Burwell scored Velvet Goldmine, which would be a coincidence (see above) if I didn't diligently plan these things ahead. He's also done most of the Coens' movies and, as he beautified Being John Malkovich, lands the return gig on the new Jonze-Kaufman headfuck. His new-school, indie sensibilities show from the dark opening title piece (remixed by Fatboy Slim), and he relishes working with titles like "The Slough Pit Of Creation" and "The Unexpressed Expressed" (who wouldn't?).
Like everyone else, if I crave the society of other adults, I'll have to pretend this is abhorrent. (Really, it's just so-so). Yet, if the Beeb had had the balls to spotlight the rebels in the camp instead of pushing the show into a karaoke niche none of the kids fancied, it could've been more grotesquely compelling than Big Brother's Jade in her porcine pomp. Ainslie, for one, had it in him to be an irritating iconoclast of some pluck, and even the toothsome David was drunkenly bitching like a trouper till he twigged he was actually going to win the thing and played safe.
