Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you long ago lost your patience for Mark Isham's seemingly endless supply of moody synthetic droning, the opposite of which is the brightly optimistic, mostly organic tone of Dolphin Tale. Avoid it... if you expect to hear more than just a shadow of Isham's classics in this genre of film, Fly Away Home and Racing Stripes, in the pleasantly wholesome but comparatively tame narrative of this score. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Dolphin Tale: (Mark Isham) Entertainment doesn't get much more wholesome than the family fluff packaged in 2011's Dolphin Tale, a film inspired by a real-life experiment to fit an injured dolphin with a prosthetic tail. When the animal was discovered off the coast of Florida, its tail had been mangled in a crab trap, and a group of veterinarians and employees of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium took the dolphin, then named Winter, into their care. With the assistance of a scientist who designed the prosthetic tail, Winter eventually regains the ability to swim. For the purposes of the cinematic adaptation of the story, several plot elements were embellished or altered for dramatic purposes, most obviously including children into the plotline when none existed as integral to the actual events. The film also came under some minor heat for casting Morgan Freeman in role of the scientist, who in real life is not black. Still, the project was hailed as a tremendous success by Christian groups because of its friendly PG-rated personality, and it's hard to knock any project in the 2010's that tosses Kris Kristofferson onto the screen. Critics agreed, and the movie recouped its production budget after only two weeks in the theatres. Handling the composing duties for actor-turned-director Charles Martin Smith is Mark Isham, whose career is not littered with too many projects that anyone could misconstrue into being "wholesome." Known primarily for his introspective dramatic and electronically grating horror music, Isham has delved into the children's genre at times in the past, though, often with great success. It's refreshing to see the composer return to this style of writing, especially after his rather predictable and often substandard approaches to The Crazies and The Mechanic just prior. Film music collectors will recall that arguably his two top career achievements remain Fly Away Home in 1996 and Racing Stripes in 2005, both projects aimed at children and involving wayward animals. While Dolphin Tale does not compete favorably with those two prior efforts in direct comparisons (both of which contain a fair amount of five-star material), it does reach for the same emotional appeal through orchestrally tonal innocence. Isham leaves behind the moody half of his array of synthesizers for all but the most mild faux-choral ambience for the darker moments of Dolphin Tale, instead writing a chipper, organic series of light-hearted cues that flourish into ensemble crescendos of joy when necessary. It's actually slightly disappointing that Isham did not attempt to better emphasize his vast synthetic libraries to support his music for Dolphin Tale in the same way that Basil Poledouris succeeded so greatly with Free Willy, though perhaps avoiding such emulation was the intent. Instead, Isham plays it extremely conservatively. The meandering ambience aided by soft synthetic tones early in the score creates a somewhat watery environment, non-offensive despite being non-descript. Isham occasionally addresses the water itself in more direct ways, including undulating figures in impressive rhythmic form at the outset of "The Coming Storm." The funk factor is avoided until "Clay Changes His Mind," in which light percussive rhythms offer a spirit of affable excitement to the score. Only rarely does Isham attempt to traverse into darker melodramatic territory outside of his synthetic ambience, the timpani passage in "Winter Tries Another Tail" a rare deviation. Later in that cue, he extends the synthetic melding of strings and pipes (think James Horner's Titanic but extremely restrained) into a duet with piano. While that instrument has a few notable moments of sentimentality, the majority of interesting instrumental colors in Dolphin Tale is provided by the woodwinds. The flute in particular has a few evocative moments, though not as memorable as in prior Isham triumphs in the genre. The energetic full ensemble moments are the score's most endearing, and they also include some outstanding usage of brass. Both "Sawyer and Winter" and "The New Tail" serve as previews of the full expressions of theme that eventually explode in "Swim." These passages recall the most brightly optimistic and heroic portions of Racing Stripes, but not in sustained enough quantity to solely base a recommendation of the entire score album upon them. Unquestionably, "Swim" is the highlight of the score should you be in search of only cue with which to represent the score. In "Dolphin Dance" and "Dolphin Tale End Credits," Isham bookends the score with more sappy emotional variations on the thematic core, the latter a good summary of the instrumental techniques heard throughout the album. While the score for Dolphin Tale does hit the right feel-good chords in the most important moments of familial closeness and scientific achievement in the story, its overall narrative isn't as strong as it could have been. The adversity sequences are seemingly underplayed in the music, and the themes, while clearly evident, aren't spectacular in and of themselves. It's still a nice diversion back to happier times for Isham, one that, like the film, will not offend a single soul. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 52:03
All artwork and sound clips from Dolphin Tale are Copyright © 2011, Varèse Sarabande. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/6/11, updated 10/6/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2011-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
