proves that the only way to use a
movie to help convince children to read more books is by being based on
a popular series of books to begin with. The plot of the film takes a
dreary and fearful Macaulay Culkin and forces him into a mysterious
library run by the always magical Christopher Lloyd. Through the
imaginative power of the books in this library, the boy becomes an
adventurer in each of the stories he encounters. It's at this point that
the production turns from live action to animation, and through his
journeys in and out of each book, most of which common standards that
kids will be familiar with, he learns to overcome his timid nature and
discover how wondrous reading and life can be. Two years of development
went into the merging of live action, flat cel animation and primitive
CGI effects for the project, but the film still bombed, mostly due to
the corny animated cel portions and the force-fed moral of the story.
For the project, composer James Horner rejoined collaborators that went
back to
for a rip-roaring adventure score
recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, a group that performed many
of the composer's greatest adventure scores in the prior decade and with
whom Horner was working far less frequently in the 1990's as recordings
in Los Angeles became a necessity. With the London performers already
familiar with Horner's trademark mannerisms, they would hear very little
fresh material from the composer while recording
.
Horner, through those years in particular, suffered more than any other
composer in his habit of regurgitating his previous ideas, and in no
genre is this pesky habit as prevalent as in his children's genre
scores. From
in 1995, Horner rotated
between easily recognizable motifs in a fashion destined to drive away
fans otherwise interested in his music for a more adult subject matter.
Never mind the fact that this particular score is actually very well
crafted on a technical and performance level.
Unfortunately for
The Pagemaster, Horner reached
a bit too deep into the same treasure chest of his children's score
techniques, lessening the importance of the score in the long run. The
only overarching aspects of the score worth exploring are the
incorporation of some swashbuckling material in its middle third and a
handful of wilder ideas that would be developed further in
Casper. Other than these few perks,
The Pagemaster is
deserving of legitimate criticism from Horner's detractors. He uses his
"Main Title" cue to introduce the score's four major themes and motifs.
The first of these ideas is the rising and falling of the light choir
heard at the start and end of
Willow. This three-note motif is
almost abused in its frequent use in
The Pagemaster, though
hearing the brass get involved with the motif later in "The Library...
The Pagemaster" is a highlight. A noble fanfare following the choral
introduction in "Main Title" is the basis of Horner's Grammy-nominated,
score-related song, "Whatever You Imagine." It's an adventurous theme
suitable for significant adaptation to various situations in the film,
but it won't win any fans by itself. The third theme is the lushly
romantic idea that seems, against the logic of the remaining score's
presentation, that it should be the actual title theme. Its progression
mirrors the dramatically intense cue heard during the preparations for
the storming of Fort Wagner in
Glory before flowing into a
secondary stanza straight out of
The Land Before Time. This theme
unfortunately appears only two more times in full in the score (ending
the film in "The Wonder of Books" and "New Courage"). A prancing theme
for lighthearted situations concludes "Main Titles," and this dancing
piece also references the playful sequences from
The Land Before
Time. Individual moments in the score are directly connected to
other Horner works in a less thematic manner; the motif for the
character of Fantasy receives some jazzy swing that would be embellished
upon in
Casper as well. The end of "Loneliness" features some
flighty ruckus from
The Rocketeer. One of the only really unique
parts of the score is "Towards the Open Sea..." and "Pirates!," both of
which offer a Erich Wolfgang Korngold-inspired spirit of swashbuckling
adventure not often heard in Horner's works.
The adventure material in
The Pagemaster does
suffer from some cartoonish parody moments, however, cheapening the
overall experience. Among two of the more curious faults of the score is
Horner's seemingly misplayed identities for the characters of Adventure,
Fantasy, and Horror, the last of which seems to be badly underscored.
Additionally, the involvement of the choir is integral to the bookending
cues, but when the film switches from live action to animation, Horner
strangely diminishes the involvement of the singing group. The score
also finishes somewhat poorly, succeeding the two performances of the
romantic title theme (of sorts) with one last blast of the noble fanfare
before following that nasty habit of Horner's by allowing the score to
simply meander off into nothingness for a few minutes. The score's
highlights are the three cues ("Main Titles" and the final two) that
feature the romantic theme reminiscent of
Glory as well as the
early "A Stormy Ride to the Library," which offers a frustratingly short
twelve seconds of perhaps Horner's most militaristically rambunctious
snare-ripping action music ever. Later portions of this cue (and "The
Library... The Pagemaster...") could use some trimming to place about
ten solid minutes from
The Pagemaster on a compilation of
Horner's best children's music. The two albums for the score once again
feature impressively lengthy cues for an animated film and thus could
use some amateur rearrangement for your own enjoyment. The 2015
expanded, limited La-La Land product adds a few nice filler cues ("Dad
Builds Treehouse" and "Library Card" are a bit redundant with other
material on the score but both are percussive delights), along with
alternate edits. More importantly, the album seemingly cleans up the
sound quality significantly, allowing the instrumental expressiveness of
the score to really shine. The two light rock songs included on both
albums (of which Horner only co-wrote "Whatever You Imagine;" the other
is a Diane Warren entry) are non-offensive and represent the conclusion
of Horner's days in the children's film song business. Overall,
The
Pagemaster is a very decent score with some remarkable highlights
sprinkled throughout. Many reviewers place the score in the four-star
range, but it simply makes too many references to previous Horner scores
without much attempt by the composer to mask the usage. Approach it on
the splendid 2015 album with optimistic caution.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 108 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 203,344 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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