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PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Arthur Christmas (Harry Gregson-Williams)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if heart-warming orchestral fantasy music for the
holidays raises your spirits all year, because Harry Gregson-Williams'
last minute replacement score contains a steady stream of engaging
action and awe-inspired beauty.
Avoid it... if you consider many rousing children's scores to be blandly tonal sonic wallpaper, in which case this well executed music may not contain enough unique thematic structures or other characteristics to distinguish itself.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Arthur Christmas: (Harry Gregson-Williams/Various) Slipping
under the radar in America's 2011 holiday season was Arthur
Christmas, a critically acclaimed animated story about the high-tech
procedures of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve that prevailed over
production woes to retrieve over $120 million in grosses for Sony and
British animation house Aardman. Featuring an impressive cast of major
and cameo voices, the feel-good family adventure reveals the extensive
operations that go into delivering presents from Santa to so many
children around the world once per year, including the use of
imaginative technology to streamline the process to perfection. Santa's
sleigh is actually a massive UFO-like vessel that is commanded from a
space-age control center at the North Pole, and all goes well until a
glitch in the system causes one present to go undelivered. In the
aftermath, the elves panic upon learning of this wayward mishap, but the
real trouble arises when the Claus family argues with itself about the
solution. The older generations of current and previous Santas is tired
and feels no need to rush about rectifying the error, while the two sons
who both seek to become the next Santa are also at odds. While the
clinical, older son is anxious to helm the technology and take control
from his father, his younger brother, the titular Arthur, is relegated
to answering letters to Santa but actually has his heart in the better
place. Those intentions lead him on an adventure when he attempts to
deliver the final present the old fashioned way: using reindeer. Over
the course of the three years of active production that went into
Arthur Christmas, there were reports of problems and lowered
expectations for the film, and one area in which there was confirmed
disagreement was the soundtrack. Ultimately, Justin Bieber's version of
"Santa Claus is Coming to Town" made most of the headlines by not only
being utilized for the end credits but also appearing as a music video
exclusively shown before the film in theatres. The composing duties for
the score were originally assigned to Michael Giacchino, who was slated
to share credit for the work with Adam Cohen, who has orchestrated some
of Giacchino's scores and is pursuing his own solo career. Near the end
of post-production, and after Giacchino and Cohen had written material
for the film, discord between the composers and filmmakers (there are
indications that the novice director, Sarah Smith, had difficulty
grasping the kind of music that the picture needed) caused the studio to
seek a last-minute replacement. Harry Gregson-Williams, whose
association with Aardman dates back to Chicken Run in 2000,
stepped in with about a month remaining to provide a dynamic orchestral
score.
The prospect of writing Christmas-related adventure music for the animated realm attracted Gregson-Williams to the challenge of Arthur Christmas, and he (with help from his usual assistant writers) delivered impressively. Much of his music resides in the "wholesome orchestral tonality" department, moments of grandiose awe for full ensemble and choir balanced by driving, rhythmic action cues that remain accessibly organic in most cues. Whereas a listener could imagine Giacchino or John Powell taking this score into a jazzier, pop-oriented direction, Gregson-Williams limits that kind of infusion to just one facet of his work. The technological operations aspect of Santa are treated to a merging of symphonic force and contemporary loops and snazzy little sound effects in "Operation Christmas" and "Bring Them Home," but since Arthur's well-meaning personality eventually dominates the movie, you hear the battle between modern and traditional elements clearly won by the latter. The ensemble contains all the tubular bells, sleigh bells, and other elements of tingling magic for the holidays as expected, though they don't overwhelm the soundscape. Thematically, Gregson-Williams centers his music around one extremely warm and malleable idea that also takes over the identity of the whole to the same degree as the main character. Teased in the first third of the score but later frequently stated, this idea churns with subtle beauty in "One Missed Child" and "Arthur's Sadness" before exploding with immense harmonic scope in "Dash Away," "Serengeti Escape," and "Christmas Morning." It's not a particularly unique melody, but its execution is so well handled that its basic structure doesn't bother much. The consistency of quality in the composer's arrangements keeps the score engaging from start to finish, his flourishes of sentimentality with choir reminiscent of James Newton Howard's Disney scores from ten years prior ("Mission Control" especially). There are, as expected, moments of humor and homages mixed in as well, starting with some Alan Silvestri suspense in "Waker!," a John Williams crescendo near the end of "Dash Away," a wild theremin in "Paris Zoo?" a la Powell's Mars Needs Moms, and some faux-Western spirit in "The Wrong Trelew" that recalls Gregson-Williams' own Cowboys & Aliens. A few Christmas carols are interpolated as well, and the Bill Nighy performance of "Make Someone Happy" for the conclusion of the end credits is funny when considering that someone will eventually place the cut into a parody of the Underworld franchise. Overall, Gregson-Williams did an admirable job for Arthur Christmas. The thematic attributions don't seem as complexly layered as they could have been, probably due to time constraints, but the 47-minute album is breezy entertainment that surpasses most of its peers in the genre. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 46:54
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Arthur Christmas are Copyright © 2011, Sony Classical (Europe), Madison Gate Records (America) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/13/12 (and not updated significantly since). |
