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Peter Pan on DVD
• Soundtrack featurette • Dolby Digital 5.1 More DVD info... |
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Peter Pan on DVD
• Soundtrack featurette • Dolby Digital 5.1 More DVD info... |
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you enjoy James Newton Howard's standard of strong, orchestral and choral music for children's films. Avoid it... if you were hoping for a majestically soaring score that could compete with John Williams' Hook on a massive scale. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
This isn't to say that Howard plunged straight from an upper level window into the street, but his music for Peter Pan skips along with a grand vision and makes all the right moves while somehow failing to build itself an identity or personality. A somewhat weak collection of themes may be the culprit here; if any film needed themes of splendor and adventure on an elevated scale, Peter Pan would be it. Howard indeed provides plenty of thematic ideas for Peter, Tinkerbelle, Hook, and others, but none of them is performed with the gusto and energy necessary to carry your imagination. If you were looking for brassy statements of elegance heard from the opening prologue of Hook, then you'll be disappointed, because Howard has taken a more low-key approach to his magic. The score tingles with pleasant rhythms and string themes, but stops short of exploding with the kind of sustained magic that we heard in his previous scores in the genre. Even the choirs for children and adults are restrained from the awe-inspiring statements of theme in Atlantis, which is an even greater disappointment given the rarity with which an ensemble like this is assembled. The middle portion of the album is sustained by a wandering harmonic spirit that functions as a very pleasant background underscore. This section is abruptly ended by Howard's one unique touch in Peter Pan: an electric base and drum rhythm. Heard in "Flying" and "I Do Believe in Fairies," this contemporary motif is followed by the full, swinging title theme. There is surprisingly little swaggering, swashbuckling action in Peter Pan, with Howard pulling out familiar, almost cartoonish music from the stock bin to replace any notion of swash or buckle. The final three cues seem constructed with best intentions of majesty in mind, and they are indeed beautiful thematic outbursts. But their lack of a crisp, spirited edge perhaps raises questions about a lackluster performance by the Los Angeles musicians. For such a massive ensemble, they often sound undersized, which could also, perhaps, point to mixing problems. At any rate, the lightweight Peter Pan score, while nearly getting off the ground in many cues, never really takes flight, and anyone comparing it to Hook will be vastly disappointed. ***
The insert includes extensive credits in a colorful booklet, but no extra information about the score or film. The rock portions of this score would eventually be used in widespread TV advertisements for Disney theme park travel packages. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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