Film Score Review #1 - The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

Fair warning, I've always been a huge fan of this movie and the books, so I might sound a little bit biased while talking about it.

I've been doing a close listening of the score from first Narnia movie, and it's actually much more in depth than I thought it was.

For a quick synopsis of the movie, it's based on a book written by C.S. Lewis, and it's surprisingly accurate for the most part. It follows the story of four siblings during World War 2 as they stumble through a wardrobe into "Narnia". They soon discover that they're supposed to fulfill some sort of prophecy (saving the world and whatnot... pretty cool stuff). And of course, because it's a movie, there's a big fight scene, then somehow everyone is happy again.

The original score was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams, apprentice and close friend of legendary composer Hans Zimmer. Aside from the Narnia series, he's done all of the Shrek movies and on a more recent note: The Martian. He's so far gone without an academy awards or nominations, but he was nominated for a Golden Globe for his work on this movie.

Harry Gregson-Williams Conducting the Score. Courtesy of IMDB

My general thoughts are fairly positive towards this score as a whole. G.W. did a great job writing the score, and it's my favorite piece that he's ever done. The hardest job of a composer is creating a theme that sticks in someone's mind. G.W. did a great job with that. He was able to create a triumphant and majestic theme that would play throughout the movie. Another important part of a composer is to refer back to the theme as much as possible. This allows the emotion in the movie to have roots somewhere in the movie. In this case, it's the connection between the kids and pretty much all of Narnia. 

It seems like a very broad emotional connection, but it totally works. We first hear the theme (sorry if you don't know it, blogging certainly does have it's limitations) when Lucy opens the wardrobe for the second time during the night. However, it's very different from the full ensemble playing the complete theme. In this case, it's just a flute playing the melody. The flute is also used with Lucy more than any character, so it fits a lot. 

The first time we hear the theme in it's full glory is when the kids and the beavers are attempting to cross the melting river to get closer to Aslan and his army. We have a moment of quiet silence when we see that they've sunken underwater. Suddenly, we see Peter's sword and hear the entire ensemble playing the theme. It's triumphant, bold, majestic, and certainly fits the movie. Throughout the rest of the movie, the theme is used and referenced often, and it's hard to explain how important this is. 

Sadly, I don't have enough time of patience to go into more detail about this score. But in general, I would rate it an A-. It's done well, it's full of emotion, it's a great movie, but I can't think of the theme without Pirates of the Caribbean getting stuck in my head as well. This might just be me, but it's tragically annoying.