Soundtrack Review: The Adventures Of Tintin (2011)
| Reviewer: JØrn Tillnes |
The Adventures Of Tintin Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the film score The Adventures Of Tintin by John Williams.
"Another good score by Williams, just not his best."
It's been a long wait, but finally, here's John Williams to save 2011, or will he? The anticipation is at an alltime high as this represents Williams first full score since Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull in 2008. It's of course another Spielberg & Williams extragavanza featuring the Belgian adventuring detective Tintin and his friends. Captain Haddock and Tintin sets out for a grand adventure to find a sunken ship commanded by Haddock's ancestor but of course they are not the only ones. John Williams is back so sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy!
Track List
| 1. The Adventures Of Tintin | *** |
| 2. Snowy's Theme | ***** |
| 3. The Secret Of The Scrolls | **** |
| 4. Introducing The Thompsons and Snowy's Chase | **** |
| 5. Marlinspike Hall | **** |
| 6. Escape From Karaboudjan | ***** |
| 7. Sir Francis And The Unicorn | ***** |
| 8. Captain Haddock Takes The Oars | **** |
| 9. Red Rackhams Curse and the Treasure | **** |
| 10. Capturing Mr. Silk | *** |
| 11. The Flight to Bagghar | ***** |
| 12. The Milanese Nightingale | **** |
| 13. Presenting Bianca Castafiore | ** |
| 14. The Pursuit Of The Falcon | ***** |
| 15. The Captain's Counsel | *** |
| 16. The Clash Of The Cranes | ***** |
| 17. The Return to Marlinspike Hall and Finale | *** |
| 18. The Adventure Continues | ***** |
The thirst for a new John Williams score is neverending, so this year we not only get one, but two scores from the maestro. Tintin is first, then War Horse a little later. Of course a review is coming of that one too. Tintin is well known around the world, even here in Norway. If I were to ask my nephew about it though, he wouldn't have a clue, but perhaps after he has seen this film he might want to check out the comics and other TV series and films featuring the Belgian detective.
It starts off with an over the top jazzy track that reminded me of 'Knight Bus' from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but not quite as annoying as that track was. In this track we get to enjoy Tintin's heroic theme for the first time. A decent theme, but there are other themes on this score that trumps Tintin.
'Snowy's Theme' for example represents almost everything I love John Williams for. This upifting and fun theme feels like John Williams of the old. It's like you can hear sections from E.T and Harry Potter in there, actually a lot of Williams scores are represented, but rarely has it been this fun.
The Thompsons theme is heard in full in 'Introducing the Thompsons and Snowy's Chase'. A good theme that's easily hummable, but it is in fact a variaton of 'The Imperial March', which is why it sounds so familiar.
The Unicorn theme is heard is a mysterious theme that sounds so familiar to me as well, but it's probably a mix of some Harry Potter themes and it does sound very Harry Potter-ish in nature. You can hear it in the beginning of 'The Secret of the Scrolls' and numerous other tracks.
Red Rackham's forceful theme is heard in 'Sir Francis and the Unicorn' and is easily the most obtrusive of all themes, in a good way of course. In 'Red Rackham's Curse and the Treasure' we get to hear the second best theme after Snowy's theme. I am talking about the dueling pirates theme heard from 2:24 and is repeated a couple of more times. Great adventurous stuff!
The action cues are really great like 'Escape From the Karaboudjan', 'The Flight to Bagghar' and 'The Clash of the Cranes'. They have so much energy and are simply fun to listen to again and again. It must have been a true joy for Williams to create terribly fun action tracks like these.
Conclusion
John Williams is well and truly back ladies and gentlemen and you can really hear it in the score how terrific a composer he is. It's so full of energy, adventure and action and is perhaps only let down by a slight inconsistency. It doesn't sound like vintage John Williams from start to finish, but there are a lot of fun to be had and although the themes aren't as good as Williams absolute best, they represents Tintin well and some of them are easily remembered. Another good score by Williams, just not his best.
CUE RATING: 83.3
Listen to The Adventures Of Tintin soundtrack by John Williams below:
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