Composed and Conducted by Bruce Broughton

For the 1996 Disney sequel, Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, the urban setting brought fresh challenges for composer Bruce Broughton, whose score for the previous film had been tailored to its grand vistas and bucolic charms.  The composer reflected:

“I had themes set up from the first picture, but they didn’t always fit so snugly for the second. Primarily it was the scope of the film that influenced the way the music went. The first film took place mostly outdoors and the music, like the scenery, was bigger in scope, and more dramatic. It also had at times a bit of a country feeling. For the sequel, the locations were more congested with urban neighborhoods, streets, alleys, cars, vans and people everywhere. There was also a romance, so the music had a slightly different feeling, even when the original themes were used. The original film focused more on the personalities of the three animals, whereas the sequel focused a lot on the situations they found themselves in.”

The Walt Disney label issued a CD containing 35 minutes of selections at the time of the film’s release in 1996. That album represented roughly half of the finished score. While it was a rewarding blend of important highlights, the album necessarily omitted many important cues, all of which have been restored in this expanded Intrada release. A highlight of this restoration is the exciting action sequence at the airport when the familiar pet trio breaks loose from their travel cages and makes their desperate escape across the flight deck, a terrific group of three connected cues, none of which were previously available. Courtesy the Walt Disney Company, this Intrada CD is presented from all-new digital mixes created from the original 2″ 24-track recording session masters made by Armin Steiner at Paramount Pictures Scoring Stage M in February 1996.

In Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco the Seavers—father Bob (Robert Hays), mother Laura (Kim Greist) and children—have moved to a suburban home in the Bay Area. Determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past (as documented in the first film), they decide to take their pets with them on a family trip to Canada. But Chance fears that they are being returned to “the bad place” (the pound) and busts out with Sassy and Shadow just in time to watch the Seavers’ plane take off. Escaping into San Francisco, the three pets must navigate hostile and unfamiliar terrain—and cross the Golden Gate Bridge—if they are to return safely home. Fortunately, they befriend a gang of streetwise strays, including alpha dog Riley (Sinbad) and the independent-minded Delilah (Carla Gugino), who serve as guides to the pleasures and perils of life in the city.

Bruce Broughton’s warm, exciting score for Homeward Bound II gets the royal treatment on CD! Following the considerable success of his soundtrack for the first movie (also available on Intrada), Broughton took his primary themes, gave them fresh new trappings and added an abundance of all-new material to envelope everything in rousing new musical garb. Walt Disney Pictures produced a major audience crowd-pleaser with Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey in 1993. In 1996, they brought the cast back to further their adventures, this time in San Francisco. Back as well, of course, were Shadow, Chance and Sassy, two incredible dogs and one extraordinary cat that began their famous journey as real-life pets in Sheila Burnford’s 1961 novel, shortly thereafter in Disney’s live action 1963 film. Broughton fashioned one of his all-time most endearing themes with his broad Americana melody associated with elderly Shadow and the journeys inherent in both films. Themes for Sassy the Siamese cat, Chance the younger Labrador retriever also have their say.

In addition, Broughton now composes an all-new “puppy love” theme for Chance and his new friend, Delilah. New highlights include the rousing airport escape music, the warm, seductive material for Chance and Delilah and a lengthy van attack sequence. Disney’s label released an album in 1996, featuring roughly half of the score. Now, courtesy that label and the entire Disney Music Group, Intrada was given access to the complete 2″ 24-track scoring session masters made by Armin Steiner at the Paramount Pictures scoring stage in February 1996. Hear now an incredibly vibrant new presentation of Broughton’s expanded soundtrack with twice as much music! Previously unreleased material abounds! Of notable interest are two distinct “End Credits” pieces: each are rousing medleys of the familiar themes mingling with Broughton’s new love theme, but one offers the tune seductively on soprano sax, the other plays it sweetly serious, courtesy gentle oboe over strings. The former version made it into the picture, it and the latter version are both featured on this CD! Bruce Broughton conducts.

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