ONCE UPON A FOREST

JAMES HORNER

Rating:

Original Review: Written for a financially unsuccessful cartoon movie with an environmental theme, James Horner's Once Upon A Forest is probably the best and most beautiful animated score of his career to date. Rich, lush, and full of incredible sweeping themes, it's a wonderful, magical musical journey that encompasses many of Horner's different musical styles into one highly enjoyable album. If one was to compare this score with another, you could say it was most like Willow, but only in terms of the grand scale it adopts and some of the musical stylistics that are prevalent throughout the score. Like it's predecessor, there are rousing action cues ('The Accident', 'The Journey Begins', 'Escaping The Yellow Dragons') replete with prominent horn fanfares and resounding drumbeats; moments of tension and tragedy ('The Accident') which build to massive proportions and make wonderful, chilling use of the choir; magical, uplifting themes which represent joy and freedom ('Flying'), moments of high comedy and bravado ('The Forest' and 'The Journey Begins') which lift the mood through the use of bouncy tubas and light-hearted orchestrations; and many, many sections of true, unparalleled emotion and beauty. There are some passages reminiscent of other scores, most notably the aforementioned Willow, Star Trek II, House of Cards (written the same year but never released), The Land Before Time and Krull, and some motifs which have been subsequently used in later scores, such as The Spitfire Grill, but surprising as it may sound, these quotations are never an irritation, and instead further enhance the score by giving it a familiar, friendly quality. Two of the three songs are wonderful. 'Once Upon A Time With Me', which opens and closes the score, has lyrics by Will Jennings and is performed by Florence Warner Jones with the New London Children's Choir. The song is simply spellbinding - an enchanting combination of Horner's gorgeous, expansive main melody and Jones' heartfelt vocals. 'Please Wake Up', sung with depth and feeling by Michael Crawford, seems full of wisdom and sorrow and is one of the score's definite high spots. The only slight miscalculation comes with the rock track 'He's Back', which is performed with admirable gusto by Ben Vereen as a gospel preacher, but nevertheless seems rather out of place compared with the rest of the score. Since the unfortunate demise of Fox Records nearly five years ago, Once Upon A Forest has become one of the rarest Horner CDs. Collectors can expect to pay top prices for it in on-line auctions, but it would be worth every penny spent if you were lucky enough to track it down and, at just under 70 minutes, there's more than enough music there for you to enjoy.

Track Listing: Running Time: 67 minutes 18 seconds

Fox Records 66286-2 (1993)

Music composed and conducted by James Horner. Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra and The New London Children's Choir. Orchestrations by John Neufeld. Featured musical soloists Mike Taylor and Tony Hinnigan. Recorded and mixed by Shawn Murphy. Edited by Jim Henrikson. Album produced by James Horner.


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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1998. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.