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| Jackman |
Strange World: (Henry Jackman) Plenty of adventure
stories have involved a group of main characters journeying through a
bizarre world that turns out to be something unexpected on a larger
scale. Such remains the case in the 2022 Disney animated romp,
Strange World, though the host is sadly not Donald J. Trump's
brain. Rather, a group from the secluded land of Avalonia ventures out
to determine what's going wrong with local power source, and it takes
about two minutes of story time for any audience to determine that all
these actions are taking place within a living organism. The main family
of explorers, the Clades, is joined by other misfits from Avalonia in
search of truth and energy, and they ultimately help save the host and
bring balance to their "land" by the end. The touch of existential
perspective is saved as a revelation for the gang near the conclusion.
Reasonably received by critics,
Strange World was quickly labeled
a box office failure, one piece of a larger industry problem in late
2022. But also working against the film was its absence from theatrical
releases in much of the world, a necessity caused by Disney's insistence
upon a homosexual teen character that is considered unsavory in even
stranger worlds on our own planet. Reuniting with the filmmakers for yet
another animation entry is composer Henry Jackman, though
Strange
World offered a different strategy from the norm for the composer in
this genre. While his animation music had often been defined or at least
accompanied significantly by synthetic elements, some of them distinctly
retro, this film provided Jackman (and a healthy team of ghostwriters)
with the opportunity to dive into more traditional symphonic
swashbuckling. Having grown up in the age of John Williams at his
height, Jackman was excited to emulate a Williams-level of motific
development for an orchestra along with a pretentious adventure sound,
citing James Horner influences as well. On top of that, the rhythmic
aspects of the music for
Strange World find their roots in Alan
Silvestri's action scores.
Such 1980's influences are music to the ears of any
learned film score collector, and Jackman succeeds in creating a really
well-balanced, thematically tight narrative with more than enough to
charm and adventure to serve the story. Jackman's approach to
Strange
World is almost entirely organic, the work's orchestral prowess
aided by some slight electronic augmentation for two of his themes. A
touch of synthetic choir was added to a real choir to give the vocals an
extra, other-worldly tone of mystery. As he had done in his
Jumanji scores, the composer supplies more contemporary sounds
for the safety of the "real" world at the start and end of these
journeys, though these elements don't define much of
Strange
World. There are some Carl Stalling mannerisms filtered through a
Horner lens in cues like "Skin in the Game" and other lightly comedic
moments, tuba and woodwinds handling these brighter moments. But the
true attraction in this work is Jackman's application of an unusual
blend of melody and harmony for his main theme. Rather than maintain a
sense of awe and fantasy via unique instrumental coloration, he instead
uses the traditional ensemble to generate harmonies that owe much to
Jerry Goldsmith's late 1970's and early 1980's fantasy suspense music in
their ability to suggest both beauty and danger at once. On the other
hand, there's a fair amount of straight forward, brass-led swashbuckling
adventure for the main characters, and the pleasant, contemporary
portions are appealing in their own way. The score is very heavily
thematic, rarely a moment passing without a reference to at least one of
the major themes or their derivatives. The "End Credit Suite" contains
every significant theme in snapshot succession, though the more
discerning ears of film music collectors will be better engaged by
Jackman's "Strange World Overture," which is a concert-like arrangement
of his main identity that was assembled first and used to sell the
filmmakers on the composer's conceptual approach. It's a fascinating
theme because of its intentional harmonic imbalance in true Goldsmith
fashion, a lovely and alluring construct while maintaining the
challenging atmosphere of a foreign world of hidden dangers.
Everything rooted in the strange world itself has elements
derived from Jackman's early suite arrangement of the main theme for
Strange World, secondary characters related to the biosphere
adopting passages from this material. While this main theme is
symphonically compelling, Jackman does apply subtle synthetic layering
to its fluid background lines to augment the fantasy tone, yielding a
truly unique and enjoyable approach to a score that could have
functioned just as well with more conventional techniques. The main
theme debuts these distinctly Goldsmith-like tones of alien whimsy at
0:18 into "Strange World Overture" with more than a touch of the late,
effects-driven sequences in
Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Designed to be lush but slightly inaccessible, the theme shifts to big
fantasy strings at 0:51 and on brass at 1:57 with even more swirling
layers. In the score proper, the theme or its underlying chord shifts
are everywhere, occupying most of the space in between the other themes'
statements. It opens "A Conflict of Visions" mysteriously, informs
"Searcher's Quest" with synthetic influence, takes a more organic,
softer route early in "The Descent," and defines "Abundance of Life" in
full choral majesty. The progressions of the main theme are accelerated
for "Crazy Creatures" before a large, ominous statement, and the idea
envelopes other material throughout "The Misadventures of Ethan Clade"
and the start of "The Tale of Jaeger Clade," becoming uniquely comedic
later in the cue. This lighter version of the main theme emerges more
frequently as the strange world becomes more defined and navigated by
the leads, a more friendly tone in "Flesh and Blood" on flutes
continuing its lighter tone in "Voyage to the Heart" and playfulness
shining in "Skin in the Game" before turning darkly mysterious on choir.
The theme shifts into an oddly comedic waltz in "Flight of the Poot
Pickles," turns suspenseful and elusive in the first half of "The Heart
of Pando," enjoys new life on woodwinds in "Change of Plan," and nicely
compliments other themes in "A Great Effort." It is accentuated to
massively grand melodrama in the middle of "The Fate of Strange World"
after becoming a little more harmonically streamlined in the revelation
scene of "An Eye-Opener."
As expected, the main theme for
Strange World
returns to its original form in "Resurrection" and at 0:24 into
"Farewell to Arms" with slower, more majestic wonderment that suggests
additional existential discovery on the horizon. Those seeking a little
more harmonically straight-forward exploration of the melody will
appreciate the performance at 1:22 into "A New Perspective" as the theme
punctuates the final moments of the closing fanfare. In "End Credit
Suite," this theme is presented at a faster pace at 0:26 and in the
interlude sequence at 1:36, its constructs struggling a bit more here to
adapt to the accelerated movement of the other themes. Jackman's
handling of this theme is truly exemplary, as its challenging harmonies
make it difficult to adapt into lighter or more heroic variants. He
manages to succeed well at this task, though, using the identity in
unexpectedly adept ways throughout all corners of the score. Although
the main theme is the most intellectually interesting, Jackman's other
three primary identities are all equally sufficient at their task even
if less memorable. The Clade family theme is adapted into an
adventurous, retro march in the two "They're the Clades!" songs, and it
informs the children's element of the score. Militaristic in the
cymbal-happy action at 1:10 into "A Conflict of Visions," it turns to
solo noble horn against the strange world theme's harmonics, and faint
echoes haunt the end of the cue. It enjoys momentum at 0:34 into "The
Tale of Jaeger Clade" against the main strange world theme, sparks an
action burst at 0:12 into "Attack of the Reapers," conveys friendly
optimism at 0:45 into "Voyage to the Heart," and persists at 0:37 into
"Winning Ways" in prancing stateliness. The Clade theme is reduced to
sensitivity on strings in "Like Father, Like Son," joined by the main
theme, but heroic statements punctuate the latter half of "The Heart of
Pando" and middle of "Change of Plan," solo horn version returning near
the end of the latter cue. It's propulsive in the middle of "A Great
Effort" against the main theme, announces a heroic conclusion early in
"The Fate of Strange World," and becomes wholesome and redemptive
against the main theme in the middle of "Farewell to Arms." After its
fanfare closes on brass at 1:35 into "A New Perspective," the family
theme opens "End Credit Suite" and returns at 1:52 in pompous
glory.
Meanwhile, the Avalonia theme for their homeland in
Strange World is meant to sound safer and contemporary, with
electric bass, keyboarding, and guitar lending familiar warmth. Hinted
in the latter half of "A Conflict of Visions," the theme's ascending,
five-note patterns develop throughout "Avalonia Part I" and consolidate
to more fluid movements in "Avalonia Part II" and a big statement on
brass at 0:29. The Avalonia theme becomes an action motif in the second
half of "The Descent," offers momentary soothing late in "Winning Ways,"
and is slight at the outset of "Resurrection," where it mixes well on
brass with the main theme later. It is sensitive to open "Farewell to
Arms," shifting to piano at 0:44, and goes back to its contemporary
stylings in "A New Perspective." The idea adopts the Clade theme's
swashbuckling brass at 0:55 into "End Credit Suite." The final theme of
importance in
Strange World belongs to both the leader of
Avalonia, Callisto, and a general sense of adventure. Opening with a
four-note phrase and answered by a spritely, five-note secondary phrase,
this melody is the closest thing to a true swashbuckling theme in the
score. Teased in quick references in the middle of "The Descent," it
re-emerges late for the rescue in "Crazy Creatures," becomes subdued as
a light march in "Callisto," and offers some quick moments of bravado in
"Attack of the Reapers." Its fragments inform the action in the middle
of "Winning Ways" and early in "A Great Effort," mixing with the Clade
theme in "The Fate of Strange World." In "End Credit Suite," this theme
is heard on brass and choir at 1:10. Overall, though, it's the main
strange world theme summarized in "Strange World Overture" that will
tickle the fancy of listeners tired of otherwise effective but mundane
children's adventure music. The remaining elements in
Strange
World are adequate to the task and at times admirable, though the
two vocal performances of the Clade theme's song over the opening and
closing moments of the film are a tad obnoxious in their intentionally
bloated exuberance. Most importantly, Jackman's narrative is extremely
well maintained in his themes, and the balance of orchestral and
synthetic layers is superb. On the 67-minute, score-only album, a
lossless presentation illuminates the intriguing harmonic layers of the
strange world theme in ways compressed alternatives cannot. This entry
is more intelligent than most of its peers in the genre, a welcome
engagement for the mind.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Henry Jackman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.8
(in 25 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.79
(in 7,757 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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