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That Christmas
(2024)
Album Cover Art
Composed and Produced by:

Conducted by:
Gavin Greenaway

Orchestrated by:
Tracie Turnbull
Peter Michael Davison
Shaun Crawford
Daniel Keane

Additional Music by:
Batu Sener
Anthony Willis
Markus Spiegel
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LABEL & RELEASE DATE
Netflix Music
(December 4th, 2024)
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
Digital commercial release only.
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AWARDS
None.
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   Availability | Viewer Ratings | Comments | Track Listings | Notes
Buy it... to hear John Powell in his wheelhouse, this score residing among the composer's most charming and rousing animated genre works.

Avoid it... if you become overwhelmed by the intensity with which Powell expresses his dramatic ideas, the enthusiasm and sappiness applied in thick layers of holiday spirit.
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EDITORIAL REVIEW
FILMTRACKS TRAFFIC RANK: #2,264
WRITTEN 1/19/25
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Powell
Powell
That Christmas: (John Powell) Absolutely saturated with English sensibilities, the 2024 Netflix animated film That Christmas is a wholesome tale of a seaside town that confronts a series of weather and character-related challenges to ultimately bring its people together in harmony. It has elements of teen angst and coming of age balanced with more serious parental issues and a somewhat clumsy but vital Santa Claus and plenty of associated magical charm. The story follows several sets of characters, mostly youngsters, as a massive snowstorm around Christmastime compounds all of their relational problems, leaving adults stranded on the roads, turkeys threatened with mass slaughter, and the cancellation of the town's normal holiday celebrations. The project marked the major directorial debut of a lead animator from How to Train Your Dragon, and the style of the visuals is largely similar. Although audience reaction to the children's movie was mixed, it allowed film music collectors the opportunity to hear composer John Powell unleash a full-fledged score for the genre, featured against an Ed Sheeran song, "Under the Tree," that is compellingly pretty but does not lend its melody to Powell's work. For the composer, 2024 represented a significant return to broader production, ranging from the monumental adaptation of the songs in Wicked to both That Christmas and Thelma the Unicorn in the animated realm. Powell has a very long history with such films, using the genre to supply some of this silliest but at times most impressive music for decades. With That Christmas more so than Thelma the Unicorn, he builds upon the increasing maturing sound he conveyed in the prior year's Migration. Whereas the composer's animated assignments of the 2000's and 2010's tended to stray towards the ridiculous at times, the influence of the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy has clearly marked a push, whether intentional or not, towards a more dramatically-inclined heart in these scores.

Not only do scores like Migration and That Christmas emphasize melodrama to a greater degree, even in the action and comedy portions, but they also offer an increasingly technically adept handling of themes and performance inflection. The latter is particularly successful in That Christmas, every aspect of the orchestral performances heightened to overemphasize emotional reach. Whether that's inherent in the writing or the directive of the conductor may be up for debate, but there is passion to the recording that brings an additional appeal to an environment that often times is adequate but stale in small screen animations from the many less experienced composers writing such music. Also to be commended once again is the mix of this score, the balance of the soloists and ensemble very well handled and a satisfying amount of reverb adding to the magic of the concept. Instrumentally, Powell provides his expected dose of creativity but largely focuses it on Christmas-related percussion and acoustic guitar on top of his full orchestral ensemble. There is no significant role for synthetics or choir, though there are a few moments of modernism with electric bass and percussion during "Wellington-By-The-Sea" and "Officially Nice." Another singular moment is a sideshow in The Call of the Wild flair with banjo touches during "Parents Leaving." Ultimately, though, it's the piano, harp, and woodwinds that bring home the familial element with efficiently attractive heart. The sum of these contributors is a score that is not only universally tonal from start to finish but also frequently fun, its demeanor inviting during soft moments and outright exhilarating in the action portions. The latter sequences offer some of the composer's best adventure writing outside of the How to Train Your Dragon scores, especially when Santa's sleigh is making its magical rounds. Expect the thematic narrative to dominate almost every corner of the work, too. The longest snippets of unique material outside of the themes come in the long climax, "Searching and Finding," but otherwise Powell mostly relies upon his many themes and motifs to drive every cue.

While Powell is no stranger to creating complex thematic narratives for animated films, he has a tendency to combine them with excellent results in That Christmas. The two main themes overlap each other in at least four moments, each quite impressive, and the lesser motifs often exist under the two main themes as well. One of the reasons Powell has been so successful in his thematic writing in recent years has been due to a technique he's employing more often with great appeal; he often conjures rather simplistic melodic structures but then varies the chords underneath to set up both anticipation and resolution within these alternating chord sets. It's a technique that made the main flying theme of How to Train Your Dragon so memorable, and this usage is especially pronounced in That Christmas. (Incidentally, Kris Bowers applied the same strategy with fantastic results in The Wild Robot earlier in the year.) Powell infuses both his two main themes such tonal gravity, the first of which being the film's primary identity for Christmas and Santa. This highly versatile tune, which shares some descending phrasing with a traditional carol, "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," is heard right away as the town's lighthouse guides Santa through the storm to his destination. Opening "Meet Our Heroes" with heightened anticipation, this idea achieves full fanfare mode on brass at 0:40 for several massive renditions with wild counterpoint as the sleigh successfully pieces the storm. It's toned back at 1:43 for woodwinds and strings, and a clarinet interjects into the other main theme, that for love and the townsfolk, with this idea at 2:47. The main Christmas theme extends out of the love theme at 0:18 into "Wellington-By-The-Sea" and enjoys a really nice contemporary acoustic guitar, string, and percussion moment at 1:00. (This passage also accompanies the closing moments of the film.) It builds at 0:40 into "Snow Arrives," turning outright vivacious and playful at 1:22, and becomes even more accelerated with positive spirit at 2:11 with outstanding presence. A quick explosion of humor for the idea emerges at the end of "Doggy Prank," and the theme launches into several exuberant, almost Western-flavored renditions of the The Call of the Wild flair influence in "Parents Leaving."

The main Christmas theme in That Christmas achieves more monumental expressions of force as the score progresses, including perfectly appropriate Chicken Run rambunctiousness (with a wink and a nod from the composer, no doubt) at 1:44 into "Turkey Heist." The theme rambles several times in "Parents in Trouble," becoming massively swashbuckling at 0:56 and continuing that stature at 0:17 into "Santa Arrives" in full fanfare mode, the sea-worthy adventuresome spirit exploding again at 0:55 before reducing to its prettier incarnations at 1:48. It overlays the magic motif early in "This Rarely Happens," exploring lovely variations on piano late in the cue before continuing tentatively on solo piano at 0:25 into "The Twin's Christmas" and in light business mode at 0:09 into "Officially Nice," building to several good renditions and a contemporary burst of coolness at 1:43. Shifting to sadness to open "Bernie's Our Christmas" with dramatic gravity, the main theme is very slightly cyclical on harp at the outset of "Danny Left Alone" and serves as counterpoint to the love theme at the end of "Visiting Trapper," shifting to silly exuberance at 2:05. The idea lets rip for one diversion late in "Calling Miss for Help" and is lush on strings and fantasy chimes at 0:41 into "Hide and Seek," where it flows directly into a counterpoint role for the love theme and segues to a trumpet-led tribute at 2:33 that is a nearly military-like salute. In the monumental "Searching and Finding," the Christmas theme barely touches the first minute but launches into full action at 1:53 with new secondary phrasing of victory, and its redemptively dramatic moment at 3:36 comes with newly expressive chord progressions. In that long cue, the melody swaps heroic statements with the love theme at 4:43 and takes over at 6:00. For the feared death at 6:54, overweight tragedy and gloom occupies the theme, but that dread is fleeting, as the idea returns to its baseline light tones at 7:31. To close the score, the theme begins "Boxing Day" with very warm cello and piano treatment, violins taking the idea with more volume at 0:39 before a soaring counterpoint role against the love theme. The merging of these two main themes in That Christmas yields remarkable highlights in each instance, though some of that appeal extends out of the fact that the love theme Powell conjured for this film is among his better career identities.


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VIEWER RATINGS
127 TOTAL VOTES
Average: 3.58 Stars
***** 32 5 Stars
**** 43 4 Stars
*** 27 3 Stars
** 17 2 Stars
* 8 1 Stars
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Glad to hear Powell in this genre again
Mark S - January 24, 2025, at 3:48 p.m.
1 comment  (117 views)
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Track Listings Icon
TRACK LISTINGS
Total Time: 57:45
• 1. Meet Our Heroes (4:51)
• 2. Washington-By-The-Sea (1:53)
• 3. Sticky Notes (0:58)
• 4. Snow Arrives (3:24)
• 5. Doggy Prank (1:00)
• 6. Snow People (1:46)
• 7. Building the Igloo (1:41)
• 8. Parents Leaving (1:09)
• 9. Turkey Heist (2:24)
• 10. Shop Romance (2:05)
• 11. Parents in Trouble (2:09)
• 12. Santa Arrives (3:12)
• 13. This Rarely Happens (2:28)
• 14. The Twin's Christmas (1:14)
• 15. Officially Nice (2:19)
• 16. Bernie's Our Christmas (2:50)
• 17. Danny Left Alone (1:02)
• 18. Visiting Trapper (2:43)
• 19. Calling Miss for Help (3:55)
• 20. Hide and Seek (3:14)
• 21. Searching and Finding (9:29)
• 22. Boxing Day (1:59)

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NOTES AND QUOTES
There exists no official packaging for this album.
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or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from That Christmas are Copyright © 2024, Netflix Music and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/19/25 (and not updated significantly since).
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