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The mix of Mancina's performers for The Sea Beast never sounds completely comfortable with its breadth, the personality of the work engaging in several moments but not consistent throughout. The boisterous Celtic spirit in early cues is almost completely lost in the remainder of the score, and the swashbuckling quotient doesn't fare much better. The challenging synthetics layered into the suspense cues cause the score to drag and annoy ay times in its midsection, starting in the second half of "Jacob into the Sea" and downright ruining Crow's Betrayal" and the second half of "Wear It Down." Mancina employs a non-descript groaning effect in these cues that is a 180-degree turn from the ambience of the swirling strings and bold brass that otherwise announces the high seas adventure. The use of the taiko drum slapping is discordant as well. The solo female choral accent for the mystery of "Gwen Batterbie" is underplayed but that makes sense given the confines of the character. Thematically, The Sea Beast offers four major recurring ideas, though Mancina has tremendous difficulty expressing them individually or relating their purposes. A Celtic theme exists to generally address the genre, a theme for the wholesomeness embodied by the young girl, Maisie, serves as an interlude to it, a soaring sailing theme is extended to Red, the main sea monster, and, most obviously, a villain's identity growls along with all the various doers of evil in the tale. The Celtic theme is heard wholly in only the first half of the score, suggesting that it's a representation of the hunting spirit that eventually yields to the villain's theme as the story clarifies. It opens "Prelude to the Sea" with exuberance and returns at 0:32 before slowing to a drawn-out version on flute and reconstituting on that instrument at 1:52. The idea opens "Someday" with full Celtic flair but diminishes from there, fragments informing the action throughout "The Hunters Code," the tone frantic in the action at 0:20 into "Jacob into the Sea," briefly opening "Crow's Betrayal" on naive flute, and lending some flair to the otherwise suspenseful start to "Wear It Down." The zest of this material is thereafter represented mostly by flute performances of other themes.

In early cues of The Sea Beast, Mancina applies a heartfelt, ascending melody as a smartly functional interlude to the Celtic theme, and this idea eventually comes to represent Maisie. This soft and friendly, string-led theme is heard first at 1:14 into "Prelude to the Sea" and later takes the form of a solo horn. It tries to peek through without success at 0:38 into "King and Queen," shifts to a more determined variant at 1:51 into "One More Try" (and evens out to its original form later in the cue), offers a light moment at the outset of "Gwen Batterbie," and gains more of a traditional adventure stance at 2:00 into "Wear It Down" before returning to interlude duties again at 2:31. After taking a back seat for the climactic rescue, the Maisie theme returns at 0:46 into "Maisie's Speech" with tenderness but obscured progressions. Better renditions follow in the pleasing opening to "Wherever the Wind Takes Us," the theme picking up some character at 0:39 and thereafter, striving but not really succeeding in forming a fanfare to close out the score. Arguably the main theme of the score is the one that initially represents the thrills of sailing and later gravitates towards the primary monster, Red. It's a really good theme that never enjoys the rewarding enunciation it deserves. Introduced on whistle at 0:39 into "The Sea Beast," the idea turns bustling with excitement and fuller on brass at 1:21. It opens "Jacob Evolving" on flute, infuses resolve at 2:16 into "The Hunters Code," and builds to a rhythmic bagpipe figure at the outset of "One More Try." Its position as the main theme solidifies in a major performance for the ensemble at 0:19 into "Red," the identity challenged into a suspense mode at 0:51 into "Wear It Down" but back to swashbuckling form at 2:24 in that cue. The sailing/Red theme enjoys an ultra-brief comedy burst to open "Blue and Maisie" and becomes fully redemptive for the ensemble at 1:56 and lightly conversational later. Mancina fails, however, to provide this theme, or that related to the Celtic material, in any kind of satisfyingly evolved resolution at the end. Despite the victory by protagonists, their jauntier material is simply replaced by lightly dramatic representations for Maisie, and this choice by the composer is highly disappointing.

Where Mancina succeeds a bit better is in his application of the villains' theme in The Sea Beast, though foreshadowing of this idea could have been better developed. The composer throws a red herring at the audience with a brief announcement of the theme at 0:21 into "The Sea Beast" on brass, but it becomes keenly attached to the evil monarchs in "King and Queen," opening the cue on low strings and becoming elegantly dark at 1:03 and effectively ominous at the end. Two phrases on brass follow at 0:40 into "The Fight of the Giant Crab," the idea large and fragmented at the end of the cue. Metallic grinding effects join the brass for the theme's performances at 0:22 and 1:04 into "Crow's Betrayal," and that style extends to seemingly faux-choral depth and metallic groans under massive, menacing brass for the theme at 0:57 into "Red." The taiko drums and foghorn-like bass strings lead into the theme at the end of "Gwen Batterbie," and it receives a quick reminder at 3:13 into "Wear It Down." Mancina's handling of this idea is functionally fine, but he doesn't develop it into an interesting, longer identity that can stew with the temper of the villains. Likewise, it never thrashes or admits defeat as necessary in its dying moments. Both the themes and the Celtic stylings of the score offer significant promise that Mancina never delivers upon. There are bursts of music, sometimes only 20 seconds long, that are highly appealing. In the end, you want to root for the music The Sea Beast (and Mancina, himself, for that matter), for it has all the right ingredients and occasional personality to excel as a memorable, swashbuckling adventure score. But the composer struggles throughout to pull all of these elements together in a thematic narrative. The final cues are particularly frustrating, as the resolution of themes and possible reincorporation of the early Celtic flair is never achieved. As such, the score simply ends with a whimper and leaves you wanting more. On album, 47 minutes of score includes the jovial sideshow of the "Captain Crow" song, which will likely receive the most attention from the masses but is fairly jarring compared to the surrounding Mancina material. An avid lover of swashbuckling music could assemble ten to fifteen minutes of affable and engaging music highlighted by "Prelude to the Sea," but don't expect those bright spots to be defined by memorable themes.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Mark Mancina reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.27 (in 15 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.11 (in 10,875 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 46:50