Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you are looking for the themes and lightheartedness of the Shrek score expressed with much more consistent instrumentation and rhythm. Avoid it... if you preferred the more slapstick comedy styles of the original Shrek score or if you're primarily interested in the songs. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Shrek 2: (Harry Gregson-Williams) Riding the wave created by the monumental success of Shrek a few years before, this direct sequel begins right where the first tale left off. Several new peripheral characters adorn Shrek 2 with even more eccentric humor than before, and despite a tendency for such sequels to have the many straight-to-video kinds of production faults, Shrek 2 suffers no such problems. While purists will cling to the original film to the very end, Shrek 2 was both a critical and popular success, not only continuing the massive fiscal success of the now-series at the box office, but gaining a surprisingly positive response from hardened critics as well. The music for the first film was very much a mirror of the story's pop-culture range, with Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell providing an orchestral punch-line comedy score. While popular and successful in and of itself, that original score provided some challenges when enjoyed apart from the film; the slapstick nature of the film translated directly to the music, making for an inconsistent sound from jump to jump. Gregson-Williams and Powell have collaborated on these children's films a few times now, though their careers have begun to spin both artists off into a niche of their own. While Powell has headed for the shinier pastures of mainstream action, Gregson-Williams has kept a firmer foot in the door of the children's realm, with a vivacious and energizing score for Sinbad just over a year before this Shrek sequel. Gregson-Williams takes over the reigns by himself for Shrek 2, extending many of the same themes and flavors experienced in the first film. Any time you have the same characters and themes in a sequel, whether the composers are the same or not, you do have the opportunity to hear those themes developed in new ways and in greater depth. You get this and more in the score for Shrek 2. The musical style of Gregson-Williams for Shrek 2 is just as much of an extension of Sinbad as it is of the original Shrek. A very welcomed consistency of sound is now present in the music for this series, with Gregson-Williams maintaining a solid base of rhythms, themes, and instrumentation from start to finish. He still manages some of the slapstick elements, and in "Far Far Away," you're treated to the 'dissolving orchestra' trick as the players comically drop off as they would in a performance suddenly cut short. In "The Ball," you hear a big band jazz performance of the title theme, and in "Tonight on 'Knights'" there is a funked-out techno-rock rendition of some theme (hard to tell, really). A brief mention of Mission: Impossible style graces "The Mission" with the action theme from the first film rearing its daring character; we're also given the full treatment of this theme during the "Dragon!!" cue at the very end. It is still difficult to figure how Gregson-Williams and Powell couldn't have had Rabin's Deep Blue Sea theme in their head when composing this, and the blatant rip-off/curiosity continues here in these short passages. But for the rest of the length of the score, the orchestra shines with more complete and better developed expressions of other themes from the first film. The pseudo-scary rhythmic opening to "The Factory" is a delight. The scenes dealing with Fiona's personality receive special treatment, often producing moments of emotional and magical awe, highlighted by "Fiona's Room" and "Magic Tea." Instrumentation is largely related to base orchestral elements, though the Spanish guitar insertion in "By the Ol' Oak" is a welcomed deviation. The choir is not as pronounced in Shrek 2 as Gregson-Williams had used it in Sinbad, but it provides a few moments of movie magic that fans of Chicken Run's finale have come to expect from these projects. The overall clarity of the recording is definitely something Gregson-Williams did carry over from Sinbad; the orchestra is crystal clear, with superior mixing of each element and tremendous balance across all ranges. Across the board, Shrek 2 is an improvement over its predecessor. **** Track Listings:
Total Time: 40:35
All artwork and sound clips from Shrek 2 are Copyright © 2004, 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 1/7/05, updated 1/8/05. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2005, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
