: (Alan Silvestri) It took until 1999
for the 1945 literary classic "Stuart Little" to be adapted to the film,
mostly because special effects technologies hadn't matured enough to do
so. The novel's basic premise remains intact; a young boy in the form of
a mouse can talk and behave just like a human teenager but is, of
course, a mouse. The parents of the Little family of humans seek to
adopt a brother for their own lonely boy and do the naturally logical
thing: bring home Stuart the mouse. The boy initially rejects the mouse,
as does the household cat, Snowbell, which spends much of the film
trying to dispatch the newcomer. But Stuart's personality and positive
affect on the boy endear him to the family, and after some adventures
involving the local cat mob and other threats that initially drive him
to run away, a sappy reunion is called for. A financial success with a
notable cast,
spawned several cinematic sequels and
a television series in its short-lived moment in the sun during the
early 2000's. There are plenty of songs incorporated into the film, and
weaving his way through these placements is composer Alan Silvestri, who
provided the original music for the first two films in the franchise.
The demeanor of these scores is about as harmless as one could imagine,
Silvestri exercising his children's genre mode to near perfection as he
balances the quick comedy elements and wholesome dramatic ones. Despite
being known for his ballsy action music at the time, he maintained a
successful career providing music for family and other
interpersonally-oriented comedies during the 1990's, work that sometimes
dabbled into the contemporary romance realm at times, too. There is a
bit of Carl Stalling-inspired "Mickey Mousing" to be heard in his
approach to
, but not as much as you might expect.
The outwardly funny, parody-informed passages in the score are
definitely there, but they don't define the appeal. It's ultimately the
tandem of positive themes for the mouse and family that take center
stage and bring good cheer to the proceedings. The performing group is
brightly orchestral with no impactful synthetic elements, Silvestri and
his all-star group of orchestrators once again taking every opportunity
to apply metallic percussion like chimes to infuse both charm and
fantasy to the concept. Woodwind solos are also a notable aspect of the
work.
Not surprisingly, Silvestri weaves a satisfying tapestry
of themes into
Stuart Little, and each has its own appeal. The
main theme for Stuart is wholesome to the max, reminiscent of James
Newton Howard equivalents at the time. It's sometimes preceded by a
rising figure of yearning mystery to address the fantasy, which opens
the score in "Adoption Day." Often punctuated by the aforementioned
metallic percussion, the main theme is expressed with undeniable charm
by the ensemble several times in "Adoption Day," interspersed into
"Stuart Appears," and chipper again in multiple parts of "Midnight
Rambler/Washing Day." It achieves fuller dramatic presence at the
outsets of "New Wardrobe" and "A Lot of Littles/The Gifts," but its
inherently natural exuberance returns at the beginning of "Final Check"
with nice renditions of its secondary phrasing. The theme lets rip in
retro form in "Wild West Mouse" but diminishes from there as the
narrative becomes more serious. It has the life sucked out of it in the
solo piano of "The New Home" and is slowed considerably on strings and
woodwinds in "The Truth/Cat Chat" prior to a huge performance at 2:17
with cymbals for emphasis. Stuart's theme continues lightly in defeat at
1:05 into "Snowbell's Lies/Stuart Leaves" and doesn't really factor
until it becomes massive for a single phrase at 2:53 into "Final
Confrontation," its progressions shifting for more dramatic effect at
1:36 into "Happy End." Taking this theme's place by the end of the
picture is the identity for the Little family, the more heartful
representation of the story. Delicately previewed in "The Orphans," this
theme is lightly whimsical at the end of "Stuart Appears," a bit sadder
for a moment early in "George's New Brother," and tender at the start of
"Midnight Rambler/Washing Day." It follows the main theme early in "New
Wardrobe," supplies a nice woodwind late in "A Lot of Littles/The
Gifts," and twinkles throughout "Something's Missing." As Stuart's
influence on the family deepens, this theme is offered to strings in
"Roadster" with more depth before woodwinds take over, and the melody
provides some relief at the end of "Final Check" and during "Broken
Remote." It explodes at 4:09 into "The Boat Race" in symphonic glory for
the action centerpiece and closes the cue softly, and Silvestri wisely
stunts its progressions in the subdued "Mr. & Mrs. Stout" as a clue of
the mistruths associated with the scene.
The typically lovely family theme in
Stuart
Little comes to dominate the soundscape in the final third of the
film, quietly contemplative early in "Negotiating/Stuart's Departure"
before major renditions, and the secondary lines for the theme in
"Stuart's Departure" in particular are a highlight. This idea strives
for some hope at 0:57 into "The New Home" and returns in full form at
the end of "Stuart Makes It" for strings with brass counterpoint.
Silvestri affords it celeste care at 2:18 into "Snowbell's Lies/Stuart
Leaves" and returns to it for a quick moment at 0:55 into "Happy End"
before the obligatory major ensemble expressions at 2:01 and 2:40 in
that cue. With this theme comes the narrative satisfaction that both
Howard and James Horner often employed in their similar works at their
culminations, though the family theme's dominance over the main Stuart
identity doesn't allow the latter the same closure despite appropriately
signaling the mouse's changed perspective on life. (Silvestri manages
the same issues with these two themes in his sequel score a few years
later.) Three secondary themes grace
Stuart Little, the weakest
of which may be the composer's victory fanfare that he applies whenever
Stuart does something noble or brave. It also comes to represent the
unyielding optimism of the mouse. Debuting at 0:18 into "George's New
Brother," this identity develops further at the start of "Baseball/Time
to Go" and is transformed into a brazen sporting identity in "The Boat
Race" with eye-rolling but understandable similarities to Michael
Kamen's
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It reduces to snare rhythm
and supported brass blurting in "Stuart Makes It" while influencing the
main theme on lone trumpet late in "Final Confrontation." For Stuart's
antics and associated comedy impacts, Silvestri coins the most engaging
theme of the score, and some listeners may find it more attractive than
the pair of wholesome identities on album because of its sheer divergent
personality. The idea espouses some retro 1920's style for clarinet and
muted brass at its best, introduced at 0:31 into "Stuart Appears" and
persisting at 2:14 into "Midnight Rambler/Washing Day." It bursts into
chase mode several times in "Mouse Hunt" while clarinet toys with it
lightly in "The Wasp." The comedy material then erupts with style at
3:31 into "Cat Chat," announces the action at 0:52 into "Central Park
Chase" before a more upbeat passage at 1:21, and takes its spirited
revenge with snazzy intent near the beginning of "Wet Cats."
Countering all these themes for protagonists in
Stuart Little is Silvestri's pair of themes for the cats, the de
facto villains of the story. Most prevalent is a danger motif for
Snowbell and the mob cats that consists of a cascading series of three
notes used as stingers throughout. This motif is all over this score
after Stuart's arrival in the household, all the way up to "Wet Cats."
The actual mob villains receive the more memorable identity, though, a
lazy, swinging theme that often slurs its notes for gangster
connotations. Briefly introduced at 4:25 into "Midnight Rambler/Washing
Day," the cat theme develops its underlying rhythm in "Monty the
Mouth/Odd Snowbell" before saxophone takes the melody. Even sleazier
connotations emerge from the shadows with acoustic bass, drums, and
brass in "Mob Cat." This material is generally eluded to in the martial
passage of "Police Examinations" but flows more cohesively out of the
comedy theme late in "Cat Chat." Its instrumentation hinted early in
"Final Confrontation," the theme closes "Wet Cats" with humor and
continues at 0:59 into "Happy End" in the same form. While most of the
score for
Stuart Little rotates faithfully between these themes,
Silvestri extends some singular character diversions as well, including
a moment of light contemporary rock in "Midnight Rambler," elevator
music for breezy jazz in "New Wardrobe," and a
Welome to
Marwen-like military mode for snare in the middle of "A Lot of
Littles/The Gifts." Further in the parody realm, he applies harmonica
for faux Western flavor in "Wild West Mouse" and metallic horror slashes
and dissonance in the first minute of "Central Park Chase." Overall,
Stuart Little is a totally competent and charming children's
score with the expected dramatic interludes. Film music collectors will
find nothing unusual in this equation, and it makes for a very easy
listening experience. Aside from two tracks on the song album, the score
was never released commercially. A promotional album with 35 minutes of
highlights was aimed at awards voters in early 2000, but the film's DVD
came with an isolated score track that was widely bootlegged to extend
the presentation to over an hour. The tracks on the promo largely match
the bootlegs' equivalents, though "Final Showdown" is a combination of
"Final Confrontation" and "Wet Cats." The score is better appreciated in
the longer form, especially with the expansion of the early renditions
of the main theme, and the bootlegs' common track titles are those
utilized for this review. This music is Silvestri's light comedy and
drama at total comfort in the genre, and he continued developing the
same set of themes in the similar sequel shortly thereafter.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.36
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