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| Silvestri |
The Croods: (Alan Silvestri) At a time when
original ideas are in short supply in Hollywood, Dreamworks hit all the
right notes with its 2013 animated children's film,
The Croods.
Directors Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders were greeted by positive
reviews and surprisingly robust grosses for the project, earning the
concept an immediate television spin-off and feature sequel. The story
of
The Croods, written in part by famed British humorist John
Cleese, tells of a family of Neanderthal Cavemen going about their daily
lives in pre-historic times but battling through experiences that have
many parallels to modern life, including a significant amount of
interpersonal familial drama. When a more intelligent Cro-Magnon boy
disrupts the family with his inventions (including fire, shoes, and
other essentials), gaining the attention of a daughter who yearns for a
more exciting lifestyle, an overly protective father steps in to
reassert his conservative viewpoints. Funny, inventive sequences and
strange, mostly silly creatures abound in
The Croods, the film
aiming for an innocuous set of basic moral lessons that will satisfy
children and leave adults watching the clock. One thing that can be said
about the prior projects of DeMicco and Sanders is a tendency for their
finished products to feature better than average children's music. For
DeMicco, these films included
Quest for Camelot and
Racing
Stripes, and for Sanders, his successes have been highlighted by
Mulan,
Lilo & Stitch, and
How to Train Your Dragon.
For
The Croods, the production team turned to veteran composer
Alan Silvestri, who had collaborated with Sanders on
Lilo &
Stitch and had written decent, if not occasionally strong animation
music for that,
The Wild, and
The Polar Express, among
others. While the composer will likely always been remembered for his
intense action and thoughtful dramatic modes, his capabilities in
animation have often gone overlooked. His workmanlike efforts for the
genre may not have yielded any classics to the degree that John Powell
transcended with
How to Train Your Dragon, but Silvestri is
certainly capable of writing serviceable, entertaining scores in these
circumstances. In the case of
The Croods, he does just that,
executing a fun, carefree, large-scale orchestral score that is
appealing in nearly all of its parts while never really blazing through
new stylistic territory in the genre. The right ingredients are all
applied by Silvestri in this work, the orchestra joined by specialty
contributors to lend genre-bending infusions of character, a tasteful
and limited touch of choral majesty layered at the right moments, and
electronic embellishments held to a minimum.
The Croods is about as organic a score as most
listeners will hear in any genre during the 2010's, adhering to
traditional animation music techniques at times but also remaining
surprisingly true to Silvestri's adult-oriented works as well. The
Mickey Mousing is restrained, and the diversions into the jazz and Latin
realms are rare. One notable performance by a marching band does break
up the listening experience. Otherwise, there are significant portions
of
The Croods that, when not tapping the feel-good, light-hearted
drama that the genre demands, actually sounds similar to his roaring
action favorites. These portions are highlighted by "Piranhakeets," a
clear homage to
Predator with several bursts of that classic
score lifted with good humor for reference here. Despite this and other
impressive action cues, the best aspect of
The Croods is its
well-developed thematic base. Silvestri rotates through three or four
prominent themes in the score, one of which adapted for the obligatory
song. While the style and performance of "Shine Your Way" (obviously
aimed at teenagers with the tone of Minnesota band Owl City) will be
obnoxious to Silvestri collectors, the composer's underlying melody in
this song informs some of the prettiest portions of the score. Heard
immediately in "Prologue" and fleshed out in "Going Guy's Way" and "Star
Canopy," this theme is magnificently orchestrated in the latter half of
"Epilogue." The interlude sequence of this melody is especially
romantically appealing, wafting through "Going Guy's Way" in the string
lines. It's difficult not to appreciate the brass counterpoint to this
theme in "Epilogue," a heroic sendoff without trending towards
corniness. The score's own primary theme exists for the family at the
center of the story, its melody starting with superficial similarities
to John Williams'
Jurassic Park and its demeanor as redemptive
and positive as possible. Silvestri provides an excellent arrangement of
this idea alone in "The Crood's Family Theme," which follows similar
treatment for the "Cave Painting Theme." This likewise somewhat
anonymous but sufficient theme is utilized in the "Cave Painting" and
"Big Idea" cues in the actual score. Other motifs rotate throughout the
score, one of suspense in "Turkey Fish Follies" and "We'll Die If We
Stay Here" and another brightly optimistic and wondrous with
progressions that, by "Epilogue," will remind you of Hans Zimmer's
Backdraft. Much of
The Croods will strike film score
listeners as derivative, but Silvestri executes the expected formula
well enough to make the score an enjoyable listening experience should
you be seeking this atmospheric cheeriness. These scores are not as easy
to pull off as one might think, and the crisp orchestrations, the
thematic integrity, the neat
Predator references, and the right
balance of emotional and stylistic appeals make this one recommended
over many of its peers. A very strong 15 to 20-minute compilation
assembled from the long album awaits any enthusiast of children's
scores.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.46
(in 41 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.34
(in 39,968 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes lyrics for the song but no extra information about
the score or film.
