Buy it... if you want to hear an even more romantic arrangement of the music from The Blue Planet, with more consistent title theme performances.

Avoid it... if the symphonic material from The Blue Planet did not interest you for some reason, or if you detest massive IMAX-style documentary scores.

Fenton

Deep Blue: (George Fenton) At the start of the 2000's, the BBC television series The Blue Planet took the world by storm, featuring IMAX-sized visuals of the oceans' wonders and selling in great numbers once available. Richard Attenborough's narration and George Fenton's score for The Blue Planet, along with the wondrous vistas, made that film the success it was. For the 2004 expansion of the The Blue Planet concept, a major documentary feature film from BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media entitled Deep Blue was made as a normal cinema counterpart for the television series. The film has slowly been debuting across the globe and Miramax has reportedly acquired Deep Blue for North American release in early 2005. It is a $5 million production which used twenty specialized camera teams, shooting more than 7,000 hours of footage at over 200 locations around the world and descending as far as 5,000 meters in the most powerful submersible craft available. Sporadically used narration by Sir Michael Gambon replaces Attenborough's voice and critics of the film state that Deep Blue is nothing more than a big-screen rehash of The Blue Planet or, at the very least, a feature-length selection of highlights from the series. No matter the content, audiences have already embraced the film with great enthusiasm, especially in Japan, and once again George Fenton's score is key to that success. The five-time Academy Award nominated composer has slowed his feature film scoring duties and been conducting concerts of his still-popular The Blue Planet score around the world, from London to Hong Kong, Copenhagen, and Los Angeles. Fenton won Ivor Novello, BAFTA and Emmy awards for his score for the original eight-episode TV series as well.

His choice for the scoring duties of Deep Blue was not to be doubted, and this time, the score has taken a turn of historical importance for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany. Recording Deep Blue in 2003, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1882 and famous for its involvement in unusual projects, broke with its own tradition and recorded a film score for the very first time. For Fenton, Deep Blue would be an opportunity to both expand upon an already superb base of thematic material and, of course, record in Berlin. "To have the opportunity to record with the Berlin Philharmonic is a dream for any composer," Fenton states. "I couldn't name a greater orchestra. Their participation in the film brings a new dimension to the extraordinary and special journey that Deep Blue has been." If you are a fan of the music for The Blue Planet, then consider Deep Blue a sequel with much of the same thematic bravado and large-scale awe. On the other hand, if you for some reason did not care for The Blue Planet, then you might find nothing new or satisfactory with Deep Blue. Indeed, many of the subthemes from the television series are restated in the film, and with the same appearances of the same animals on screen, you often hear the same music. For instance, the exciting "Sardine Run" cue from the series opens the film's album. But three distinctions mark Deep Blue as an equal or (more likely) superior effort: first, Fenton re-arranges the series' recognizable themes for refreshingly new performances. Secondly, the 'beauty factor' is increased through romantic solos, and thirdly, the grand title theme is much more prevalent throughout the entire score.

	American 2005 Release: Only $9.99

Without a doubt, the title theme for The Blue Planet was a magnificent highlight of Fenton's career, and you hear another performance of that theme in full power at the end of Deep Blue. A slower, even larger performance of the theme dominates "The Beach in Patagonia" with brilliant emphasis, as well as a flowing reprise in "Free to Roam." But, more importantly, Fenton has integrated that theme much better throughout many of the subthemes. There are two or three more hip, electronic cues, as with the original (the fourth and fifth cues are the majority of this material in Deep Blue), but the fully orchestral cues fill more time in the film, culminating in the impressively expanded "Flying Emperors" cue. The chorus makes itself heard in the latter half of the score, offering enchanting depth to several cues. The overall performances of the Berlin Philharmonic are very strong, and the mere difference between their techniques and those of the BBC orchestra for the series' recording makes every theme slightly different. The title theme performance from The Blue Planet may be the best performance of any cue from both albums, but the album for Deep Blue has far fewer weaknesses as a whole. The complaints regarding the series album (lack of theme reprises and a significant amount of non-symphonic material) are more than satisfied in Deep Blue, with Fenton fine-tuning the concept to near perfection. If you have an opportunity to hear any of this music in concert, as many already have, then by all means do so. In the meantime, Deep Blue is an even better album than its predecessor, and unless you were offended by the music for The Blue Planet in some way, then Deep Blue is a highly recommended sequel expansion. Even with all of his strong work for dramatic feature films, Fenton seems to have ironically and rightfully staked his claim to fame in the genre of oceanic documentaries. *****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For George Fenton reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.64 (in 14 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.47 (in 15,812 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.