Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Each year we have the competition between either the animated stories coming of Disney or Dreamworks and the other computer visual storytellings of Pixar. Together they battle and mostly Disney falls flat on its face while Dreamworks survives. Yet, Sinbad didn't receive what Pixar and Finding Nemo did at the box office and so once more COMPUTER player 1 won. With the score it seems nonetheless that Sinbad is winning since Thomas Newman's score receives good but not great reviews. And in the case of hearing just Sinbad, they might be right. Harry Gregson - Williams has already found his way in Hollywood and is along with John Powell and Klaus Badelt the composer of MV that firmly took his future in the A-list composer seat. Yet, people will always go back to the days he co composed with John Powell on Shrek, Chicken Run and Antz, and people soon forgot he scored all by himself The Borrowers. But now, people wanted to know how good he was scoring just by himself an animated or computer production. The answer was simple, simply good. I knew that since I already heard The Borrowers and simply a tale of swashbuckling adventure with Sinbad crushing down monsters is any dream for a composer. Now, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas as a soundtrack also received the opportunity to show that to the fans since no song is discovered, and 60 minutes is released upon us. Together all these little signs made Harry Gregson - Williams' score sound the way we like it, its fun from begin to end and it has got the energy we wanted from those earlier ones'. What more could you want?

The score as said doesn't feature one song but in fact a hell of a tracklisting and one of its tiny downfalls is that its sometimes a bit short. But frankly, it had to deal with animation and so you can't control that animation the way you want to. 'Let the Games Begin' already opens splendidly, with The Borrowers immediately setting the stamp, playing its way further with the flute before a playful solo voice (that would later grow to become Eris theme) continues until the main theme arrives. As we wanted it, it is the kind of swashbuckling theme we wished for and for me lies in the same kind of style as Treasure Planet and The Road to El Dorado. Both those scores contained a killer theme and so does Sinbad, the theme gets terrific energy and pace and a flawless brass performance, just the way we like it. 'The Sea Monster' continues that trend, letting the theme appear even more with pride and energy. 'Sinbad Overboard' introduces us to the full seductive theme for vocal for Eris until a strong secondary brass theme unleashes its power in 'Syracuse', a short track that doesn't stumble under its length. 'Eris Steals the Book' returns with Borrowers like flutes and the solo voice returning to state further the deviousness of Eris. But from track 6 to 12 the score also gets non action fused, with lovely cello solos (and even a Egyptian reference to The Prince of Egypt) in 'Lightning Lanterns' before a fully fleshed and powerful Eris theme gives its powerful stamp in 'Sirens'. 'The Giant Fish' is an example of a too short track, overall fun because of the reappearance of the main theme but simply too short for a minute of pleasure.

While 'Surfing' and 'Heroics' all have an impressive opening minute, they don't fully end with that swashbuckling nature and so aren't fully impressive to end with. But 'Rescue!' is and it lets the main theme reappear again in full avant garde force, even with some guitar tinkerings out of The Road to El Dorado. While I said some tracks were considered short, 'Tartarus' gives us a 10 minute biggie and again it can't fully control my pleasure. Giving some terrific choral work (which appears more then enough on the background) and some great main theme statements, it somewhat stops around the 5th minute and only appears with amazing frenzy at the very end. 'Sinbad Returns and Eris pays Up' unleashes the main theme with heroic pride along with softer but beautiful thematic material, giving way for a climatic non main theme sounding finale in 'Into the Sunset' which ends the score powerfully. Actually there is a lot to enjoy from Sinbad, since it is basically The Borrowers but twice as fun. While The Borrowers overall had a bigger set of ideas and themes, Sinbad has that energy with orchestral momentum and some unique vocal touches which does more in the end. It also shows that both composers (Powell and Gregson - Williams) know how to handle either style of fantasy. While I don't agree this score outdoes the supreme brilliance of Chicken Run nor the total versatility of Antz, it does prove what a major entertaining adventure ride Sinbad is, and is definitely Harry Gregson - Williams jewel for a long time. Or will the future prove us wrong on that subject matter?!

\도도/

Tracks

Single Disc

1. Let The Games Begin (3.01) Excellent Track

2. The Book Of Peace (1.37)

3. The Sea Monster (3.28) Excellent Track

4. Sinbad Overboard (3.27)

5. Syracuse (1.16) Excellent Track

6. Proteus Proposes (1.12)

7. Eris Steals The Book (1.52)

8. Lightning Lanterns (1.28)

9. The Stowaway (2.34)

10. Setting Sail (1.40)

11. Sirens (3.19)

12. Chipped Paint (2.52)

13. The Giant Fish (1.06)

14. Surfing (3.05)

15. The Roc (1.58)

16. Heroics (2.11)

17. Rescue! (2.17) Excellent Track

18. Is It The Shore Or The Sea? (3.25)

19. Tartarus (10.10)

20. Marina's Love / Proteus' Execution (2.01)

21. Sinbad Returns And Eris Pays Up (7.44) Excellent Track

22. Into The Sunset (2.21) Excellent Track

Total Length: 64.52

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: Harry Gregson - Williams ===