| |
Dragon's Domain Records presents the original motion picture soundtrack for EVIL TOONS, featuring music composed by Chuck Cirino for the 1992 horror comedy directed by Fred Olen Ray (CYCLONE, HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS, DINOSAUR ISLAND) and starring David Carradine, Arte Johnson, Dick Miller, Monique Gabrielle, Suzanne Ager, Madison Stone, Barbara Dare, Don Dawe and Michelle Bauer.
EVIL TOONS tells the story of four young ladies who work as housecleaners for Burt Wentworth (Miller) and are tasked to clean up an isolated house on the edge of town. When one of them blithely reads an incantation from an ancient book, she unleashes an evil demon who terrorizes them all.
Inspired by Jessica Rabbit and WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, producer/director Fred Olen Ray made EVIL TOONS, a fun 1992 amalgamation of live-action/cartoon-animation, horror, comedy, and bare-breasted bimbos. Ray arranged to film the movie in only eight days, re-using a set from previous films and combining the project with reshoots he was helping another filmmaker with. He hired actor friends David Carradine, Dick Miller and Arte Johnson to take small but pivotal roles. The primary cast was then filled with local actresses including Monique Gabrielle, Ray's then-girlfriend Suzanne Ager, and soft-core adult movie actors Barbara Dare and Madison. The cast was completed with Dan Dowe and scream queen Michele Bauer. A pair of New York-based animation studios provided the animation, with Streamline Film Manufacturing creating the animation cells and Kenimation handling the composite photography to combine the animated cells with the live action backgrounds that Ray had filmed on set.
Chuck Cirino has scored 16 films with Fred Olen Ray as director, of which EVIL TOONS was his seventh. The film came to him in a hurry in between scoring 976-EVIL II and MUNCHIE, both for Jim Wynorski. Ray needed a score composed and recorded in little more than a week. This kind of post-production rush could not provide the ingredients of a great film score, but in Cirino's hands it produced an effective one. Using the same electronic set-up with which he'd scored 976-EVIL II – Prophet 2000 sampling keyboard, Roland D50 synthesizer, and a key-less, rack-mounted Yamaha TX81Z – Cirino composed and recorded the EVIL TOONS score using a classical-styled orchestration created with these early 1990's synths.
Chuck Cirino did not start his career as a composer, but rather as a programmer in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania for a Public Access cable TV station, where he learned how to create TV shows by himself, without a crew. In his spare time, he experimented with the station's video equipment and created a series of genre productions that allowed him the opportunity to learn how to incorporate special effects into his work. After relocating to California, Cirino transitioned into directing high-end special effects television commercials. His first work as composer was for the 1980 cult film GYPSY ANGELS, which starred Vanna White and Richard Roundtree. Since then he has scored films for Roger Corman, directed music videos for bands like Earth, Wind & Fire and The Dickies' KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE, and has recorded over 40 music soundtracks for feature films including SORCERESS, HARD TO DIE, TRANSYLVANIA TWIST, and many others. Most recently, he has scored A DOGGONE CHRISTMAS, A DOGGONE HOLLYWOOD and A DOGGONE ADVENTURE.
Chuck has worked as a producer, director, filmmaker, videographer, animator, special effects technician, editor, and composer. He executive produces and directs WEIRD TV, a television series featuring weird Americans, bizarre news, unbelievable events and outlandish skits. Chuck's credits also include executive producer and director of the Sci Fi Channel projects, WORLDWIDE WEIRD and WARPED IN SPACE, and BABERELLAS, an independent Sci Fi feature distributed by Xenon Pictures.
Dragon's Domain Records is excited to bring EVIL TOONS to compact disc for the first time, mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland with exclusive liner notes by author Randall Larson, with the participation of the composer.
- BSX
|
|
