By Henry Jackman

Disney

The score for the Clades’ adventures

Let’s make no bones about this: it’s fun. From the opening “We’re The Clades” song – with lyrics by Kevin del Aguila, and performed by James Hayden – which has a feel of a Futurama character song, to the closing, er, “We’re The Clades Reprise,” we have a lovely bouncy old-fashioned adventure score that’s just thrillingly upbeat and cheerful. Between the two performances of the song, there are 29 tracks of slightly nostalgic-feeling adventurous fun from the composer who previously scored the likes of Puss In Boots and The Predator.

The main melody of the song’s vocals also provides the pleasant main theme of the film, which is heard in numerous tracks throughout, and in a variety of styles.

The tracks “Avalonia Part I” and “Avalonia Part II” leave us in no doubt this is a modern Disney animation, with a jaunty quirkiness, before the main action motif arrives with “The Descent.” This track has a faint echo of Jackman’s The Predator style, layering different types of pacing over a slower pulsating base melody. It works well both here and in the other action tracks, which follow the similar kind of pattern.

 “Callisto” does a lovely job of mixing the Clades theme with some of that Predator-ish layering, while there’s a chill and wistful take on the theme in “Searcher’s Quest” that mixes  beautiful low-key choral voice and synth to good effect. This is dialled up to a louder and more awestruck tone in “Abundance Of Life,” while “Crazy Creatures” returns us to the quirky motif and a swell to the main theme.

That main theme, being based around the family of characters, the Clades, of course appears in all the tracks with their forename or surname in the title, and  in different ways, with the back to back “Misadventures Of Ethan Clade” and “Tale Of Jaeger Clade” providing a direct example of its value in two totally different ways, the first more comedic, the other more serious.

“Attack Of The Reapers” is another of the action cues that follows the motifs set up by “The Descent”. “Voyage To The Heart” brings us another different – almost James Horner Trek-ish – style to blend with the family’s theme, and it does most of all give the feel of a Strange New World. “The Flight Of The Poot Pickles” then gives us, of all a things, a Blue Danube-inspired Waltz version, which, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, feels almost entirely but not quite unlike the theme in use, but its unexpectedness works wonders.

We then leap into a triumphant blend of the action and Clade themes with the wonderful “Winning Ways” which really has the feel of a grand cinematic adventure in the swashbuckling and Indy-ish tradition. All this kind of music then continues to become louder and blend together into the latter stages of the album in a glorious way: The heart theme and action motif are blended in “The Heart Of Pando” while “A Great Effort” and “The Fate Of Strange World” bring it all together with the now-established themes in a triumphant manner.

Things dial down a bit for the very end, with breath-catching takes on the theme in the likes of “Resurrection” and “A Farewell To Arms”, plus a very tropical Disney animated movie bounce-along in “A New Perspective”. Then, before the song reprise are an “End Credits Suite” in the grand John Williams tradition, and “Strange World Overture,” a marvellous concert version of the theme, because clearly somebody knows they’ve got a winner here. Which they have.

Verdict: This score and its album are well-constructed in terms of building a progression of themes and motifs towards a grand finale – with the inclusion of the overture it’s perhaps even better as an album to listen to than as a score during the film. It’s also nice to have a new modern score from a composer that remembers to have themes and leitmotifs front and centre. Definitely a good one. 9/10

David A McIntee