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Review of The Pagemaster (James Horner)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on the improved 2015 album if there is no limit to your
patience with James Horner in his tendency to regurgitate material in
his children's scores of the late 1980's and early 1990's.
Avoid it... if you have already tested the waters in Horner's ventures into the animated genre and you found nothing of interest in superior highlights like An American Tail and The Land Before Time.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Pagemaster: (James Horner) Despite its noble
intentions, The Pagemaster 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 An American Tail 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 The Pagemaster.
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 An American Tail and The Land Before Time in
the 1980's to Casper and Balto 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. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
1994 Fox Album:
Total Time: 72:11
2015 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 70:13
* previously unreleased
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1994 album includes a rambling note from the film's producer, as
well as extensive credits. That of the 2015 product contains more detailed information about
the score and 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 The Pagemaster are Copyright © 1994, 2015, Fox Records, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 9/24/96 and last updated 3/23/16. |
