Soundtrack Review: The Spiderwick Chronicles by James Horner

Posted by Soundtrack Geek

January 28, 2008

012808-0426-soundtrackr1 Soundtrack Review: The Spiderwick Chronicles by James Horner

James Horner is back with The Spiderwick Chronicles, an adventure movie, set in a fantasy world. The plot outline is like this according to IMDB: Upon moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace, along with their sister Mallory, find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of faeries and other creatures. It sounds all a bit like another fantasy movie, doesn’t it? A little Narnia-ish? Well, Narnia didn’t turn out so bad and the score by Harry Gregson-Williams was great. Fantasy scores are always a great listen, it the score is great, it can really put you there, in the imaginary world.

A long time ago, James Horner made a score for Willow. Remember that? It was 1988, 20 years ago when Val Kilmer was just a kid and Harold Faltermeyer was still king. It’s a bit farfetched to compare The Spiderwick Chronicles with Willow though, or even Krull from 1983. How about modern fantasy? There’s Harry Potter of course and last year’s excellent Stardust by Ilan Eshkeri, Enchanted by Alan Menken, Bridge to Terabithia by Aaron Zigman and the already mentioned Chronicles of Narnia by Harry Gregson-Williams.

When listening to The Spiderwick Chronicles, it doesn’t sound like any of those I mentioned. It’s less musical, more comical in style, more like a children’s adventure which is more like the movie itself. He doesn’t use voices anymore like he did with Krull or Willow, but use what I can describe as a type of harmonica throughout in certain tracks about Hogsqueal. The main theme itself is a bit Harry Potter-ish perhaps, but not as memorable as John William’s efforts.

This year The Spiderwick Chronicles faces tough opposition from the new Narnia movie, and Harry Potter of course. Will anyone remember this score? Hard to say, probably not. It’s not memorable enough unless the movie proves to be a huge hit, which I doubt. The score is fun to listen to, and it gets the imagination going, but it’s not great, it lacks the little extra to make it really stand out. James Horner has made a good score though, no question about that, but my prediction is that it will be quickly forgotten. Listen to it below: