Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you reliably relax to lyrical, orchestral children's scores that feature lovely themes and a charming demeanor. Avoid it... if you demand a set of balls to go with any album containing music by Hans Zimmer and his production house associates, especially an album as rare as this one. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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. **** Track Listings:
Total Time: 68:58
* contains music by Hans Zimmer ** contains music by Nick Glennie-Smith *** contains music by Henning Lohner All artwork and sound clips from Lauras Stern are Copyright © 2004, BMG/Warner (Germany). 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 3/18/05, updated 10/27/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2005-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
