Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,261
Written 12/13/99, Revised 6/15/08
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Buy it... if you are passionate about Lee Holdridge's pleasantly
harmonic style for light dramas and also have an affinity for Mark
McKenzie's similar music in the genre.
Avoid it... if you prefer Holdridge's more diverse, orchestrally
robust adventure and drama work, most of which eclipses this Disney
television music in terms of stature.
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| Holdridge |
Heidi: (Lee Holdridge) The Johanna Spyri story of
"Heidi" has been adapted to screen countless times over many decades,
with no version as famous as the 1932 Shirley Temple classic. The Disney
Channel telling of the tale in 1993 was a two-night event, dragging on
for a lengthy 190+ minutes and starring Jason Robards and Jane Seymour.
The story of the girl who has to choose between living with her
grandfather in the Alps or with her disabled friend in the city is
largely preserved, though this adaptation was criticized for allowing
the decision process to drag on too long. A VHS release cut these scenes
down by almost thirty minutes, though an eventual, basic DVD release in
2005 restored the movie as it was seen on television. The series was
nominated in 1994 for a Golden Globe for "Best Mini-Series or Motion
Picture Made for TV," and still seems to be regarded as one of the
better adaptations of the story available. During that era, composer Lee
Holdridge was providing the kind of scores that Mark McKenzie and John
Debney would provide wholesome Disney pictures of relative obscurity,
and it's no surprise that Holdridge's score for "Heidi" sounds very much
like something either of those other two composers would write for the
occasion. Holdridge's score conveys the innocence of the story so well
that it was mixed very prominently in the film itself, to such an extent
that it even drew some criticism. That said, the standard dramatic and
romantic scores by Holdridge during this time were always a safe bet,
especially on album. In many ways, his career has been emulated by
McKenzie; both composers seem to have a natural knack for capturing the
flighty, child-like exuberance or light, whimsical wonder of a safe
environment. Holdridge, ironically, didn't actually write many standard
children's film scores at the time, and "Heidi" was largey an
afterthought for even collectors of his music. A fraction of the score
was released only as the sixth entry in Holdridge's personal promotional
CD series.
Holdridge's approach for "Heidi" is somewhat elusive in
its descriptors. Not really falling into any of the genres that fans
will be used to hearing from him, the score plays like a pleasant enigma
that takes motifs from his other efforts of the era and simply softens
them. The composer is well known for providing robust themes for his
assignments, and "Heidi" does feature one dominant idea to represent the
girl and the location in the mountains. That title theme resembles the
heart of a Disney setting very well, and unlike a few other scores done
for films from the same studio, Holdridge keeps just enough of a
dramatic edge in it to elevate this score above the usual fluffy and
cutesy mediocrity often heard in such situations. On the other hand, the
sappy flightiness of the title theme may not interest listeners much
beyond the "Overture," simply because Holdridge has explored similar
dramatic themes with more resounding results elsewhere. In other words,
why listen to the theme from "Heidi" when you can hear a vastly superior
(and ethnically more interesting) variant in
Old Gringo? As for
the rest of the score, there are really no submotifs worth mentioning.
The majority of material is saturated with Holdridge's usual harmonic
string and woodwind emphasis (highlighted in conversational cues by the
lengthy "Grandmother's Farewell"), and the listening experience plays
without much interruption for the entire duration of the album. The few
suspense and action cues (with two notable entries using a synthetic
choir that also makes a cameo over the last moments of the "Finale") are
adequate, though the brass of "Hanging on the Edge" does interrupt an
otherwise smooth conclusion to the album. The "Christmas Montage" offers
a traditional carol in its mix. On the whole, Holdridge's work for
"Heidi" is so well natured that it tends to become a tad bland and
repetitive after a while. The last track by itself would be an excellent
and sufficient sample from "Heidi" for those of you accustomed to
Holdridge's more adventurous scores.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Lee Holdridge reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.77
(in 14 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.34
(in 7,825 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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