The Pagemaster

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

In the Horner canon, animation mostly comes off as the most surprising and often original form of composing, but there are of course examples of music where things can become a little different then first imagined. Take The Pagemaster for instance, a largely forgotten film crossing live action with animation and starring none other then Macaulay Culkin. However, the story was one of most interesting promise, with dragons, fantasy, pirates and all kind of unique storytelling ideas wrapped into one concept, surely this would be the dream come true for a composer and without doubt animation king Horner. But things turned out quite differently. While The Pagemaster is without doubt a fun and good score, I simply don't listen to it often and if I do, I get a certain satisfaction from it, but not a great one. Its not Balto and I love other animation scores more, even though this soundtrack has merit. The first two tracks are by the way commercial attraction songs and lack mostly a heart to win audiences over. Not like winning songs from An American Tail or The Land before Time, the two songs are normal but nothing more. Sadly, the second 'Whatever you Imagine' is a part of that, the better of the two and actually quite good but not totally a winning favorite. And I mentioned sadly because it supports the main theme of Horner, a good but equally non spectacular theme. 'Main Title' opens with the main theme in the style ala Land before Time and Legends of the Fall, with underscore ala Casper. Altogether amazing scores but not reaching any classic standard of those mentioned soundtracks unfortunately.

If you seek highlights we have several that do stick out, 'Swallowed Alive! / The Wonder in Books' is the main highlight, a long fantasy ride covering the main theme with emotional sounding strings, light choir and a secondary theme that is so reminiscent of Glory, its unbelievable it sounds this effective in context. Of course, Horner is Horner but I felt the theme was working but not that well chosen as borrowed theme. 'The Flying Dragon' has some rollicking adventure play that doesn't last long unfortunately, 'A Narrow Escape' has urgent but excellent dark versions of the main theme with another reappearing theme namely one of the sub themes of Mighty Joe Young, also appearing with effect first in track 8. The rest is basically either darker material like 'Horror', which is non bombastic and uses the shakuhachi's as heard in Jumanji, or more lively, based on a playful theme heard fully and best in 'Meeting Adventure and Fantasy' and 'Towards the Open Sea ...'. Sadly this theme is half based on the main theme of Homeward Bound and I kinda regret this because its good fun nonetheless. Also watch out for 'The Library ... The Pagemaster', first introducing us to orchestral marching brass like heard in Fantasia's march of the broomsticks (partly based on those ideas too) and ending with full borrowed statements of Willow's choral openings. This all shows that The Pagemaster has a bit more borrowings then other animated scores possess. As said, I don't mind when Horner is borrowing up the wazoo, I just want the score to become the better part of it then also. And this is not the case entirely with The Pagemaster. Its a good and fun score and for me, it feels like ***1/2 but I miss the satisfaction when listening to it because of those weaker points. And sadly for the score, this is one of its biggest complaints.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Dream Away: Babyface & Lisa Stansfield (4.38)

2. Whatever You Imagine: Wendy Moten (3.26)

3. Main Title (2.27)

4. A Storm Ride To The Library (2.51)

5. The Library ... The Pagemaster (4.41)

6. Meeting Adventure And Fantasy (5.11)

7. Horror (3.20)

8. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (5.04)

9. A Narrow Escape (2.04)

10. Towards The Open Sea ... (7.00)

11. "Pirates"! (4.07)

12. Loneliness (3.11)

13. The Flying Dragon (3.09)

14. Swallowed Alive! / The Wonder In Books (7.55) Excellent Track

15. New Courage / The Magic Of Imagination (4.04)

Total Length: 63.16

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

=== Link to Composer Site: James Horner ===