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Lauras Stern (Laura's Star): (Nick
Glennie-Smith/Hans Zimmer/Henning Lohner) Slipping under the radar for
most American viewers in 2004 was
Lauras Stern, a German feature
animation film from Warner Brothers' European division. For Europeans,
the story of
Laura's Star is well known; based upon the wildly
popular children's book of the same name by author Klaus Baumgart, the
lovable tale follows the tender emotional journey of seven-year-old
Laura as she adapts to her family's move to the big city. Missing her
garden and friends she left behind in the countryside, Laura becomes a
loner until one day a star falls injured out of the sky. Communicating
through its magical ability to make her stuffed animals talk, the star
teaches the girl how to fly while she, in turn, helps mend its injuries.
In the end, of course, the star has to go back to the heavens, but the
good cheer of the tale is a standard diversion for young children in the
audience. While the popularity of Baumgart's book could very well have
enticed the top-name composers of the Remote Control music production
house (just having changed its name from Media Ventures) to flock to
Lauras Stern, there is little else connecting this project to
Hans Zimmer specifically other than his nation of origin. The only major
previous project by the writers and producers of
Lauras Stern was
the similarly popular animated German film
The Little Polar Bear
in 2001, which has no musical crew connections to
Lauras Stern,
though
The Little Polar Bear 2: The Mysterious Island in 2005 did
reunite them with the Zimmer group. On
Lauras Stern, Zimmer, Nick
Glennie-Smith, and Henning Lohner collaborated to write a charming score
performed by the German Filmorchestra of Babelsberg in Berlin and
featuring few of the characteristics that have defined the composers in
the major efforts during their years of work in America. The bulk of the
score's material was largely the responsibility of Glennie-Smith, whose
simple but lovely primary theme for the titular character inhabits the
majority of the score. While the three composers split many of the
writing duties from cue to cue, their music maintains strong continuity
from start to end, largely the result of Glennie-Smith's compositional
and conducting influence over most of the project. To dismiss the music
for
Lauras Stern as a lightweight would do some injustice to the
consistently pleasant quality of the score, especially given that his
material, along with similar efforts still to come from Zimmer and his
associates, represents some of the most evocative music to ever result
from their collaborations.
Glennie-Smith's main theme for
Lauras Stern is
performed by woodwinds and strings in several cues, often with the same
sensitivity of James Horner's children's writing of the early 1990's.
Much of the lyricism in the simple thematic constructs of this score
will remind you of
Once Upon a Forest or
The Pagemaker in
its sole focus on soothing the heart of a child and imply a touch of
magic in its instrumentation. While resorting to some light prancing in
a handful of circumstances, Glennie-Smith's rhythms avoid the pitfalls
of slapstick imitation and instead flow with the same woodwind and
string dancing often heard in Rachel Portman's scores of the era. Amidst
the score's midsection, there really is no standout piece to describe in
any great depth, testimony to the score's fluid conceptualization
between the composers. As more of Lohner's contribution is heard in the
latter half of the score, a strikingly ambitious choral approach is
provided for flying sequences; the brass applications in "Flying in the
Rain" are also noteworthy. For American listeners only familiar with
Lohner due to his involvement with the franchise of
The Ring,
there cannot be any greater of a contrast in style. The contribution by
Zimmer seems to exist in a secondary lullaby that is introduced later in
the score and is performed by cello in the final track on the main album
release (Zimmer's only solo credit here). The score lacks the heavy,
neo-classical dramatic touch that often defines Zimmer's writing. While
Glennie-Smith's lovely primary theme will likely maintain your interest
in the first half of that album, it is the grouping of cues with
Lohner's work that truly causes this score to soar with charming grace.
A suite forming the "Finale" sums up Glennie-Smith's material and throws
in a performance of Zimmer's lullaby in at the end. Two English-language
songs performed by the girl-duo "Wonderwall" are streamline pop
injections, however the second of them, "Touch the Sky," is partially
based on material by Zimmer and Glennie-Smith. The first is a tad
annoying, but the more relevant second song fits reasonably well with
the demeanor of the score. On album,
Lauras Stern was released in
two forms in Europe by BMG/Warner. One album contains 14 tracks of score
with substantial dialogue and that one is to be avoided. A 23-track
score and song album is free from dialogue and provides a very
satisfying selection for film music collectors. That product was only
available commercially in Europe and has since gone completely out of
print, fetching prices in America as high as $150 by the end of the
2010's. Overall,
Lauras Stern endures as a consistently beautiful
and spirited diversion from the usual output of Zimmer's production
team, a healing potion for much of the synthetic muck to result from the
same people.
**** Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
The insert contains extensive credits in German but no extra information
about the score or film. The track titles were natively labeled in English.
