The Polar Express
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CD Details
Brand: POLAR EXPRESSEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 2004-11-02
Music Label: Reprise / Wea
Soundtracks:
- The Polar Express -- Tom Hanks
- When Christmas Comes To Town -- Matthew Hall and Meagan Moore
- Rockin' On Top of the World -- Steven Tyler
- Believe -- Josh Groban
- Hot Chocolate -- Tom Hanks
- Spirit of the Season -- Alan Silvestri
- Seeing is Believing -- Alan Silvestri
- Santa Claus is Comin' To Town -- Frank Sinatra
- White Christmas -- Bing Crosby
- Winter Wonderland -- The Andrews Sisters
- It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas -- Perry Como
- Silver Bells -- Kate Smith
- Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Claus Lane) -- Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters
- Suite From the Polar Express -- Alan Silvestri
Music reviews of The Polar Express
Music Review: Best Christmas score since "Home Alone"...terrible album
Rating: 3 Stars
Let me begin this review by stating what I feel should be obvious to any score collector: this is the best Christmas score since John Williams's classic "Home Alone" score. Alan Silvestri has pulled out all the stops in creating an exquisite accompaniment to an exquisite film.
No less than six themes can be found in this score. The principal theme, the "Believe" theme forms the heart of the score and is used as the foundation of the Josh Groban song of the same name. Another theme is the "Seeing is Believing" theme, featuring a solo celesta that represents not only the main character's desire to believe in Santa, but also his reluctance to do so for fear of being had.
As for the songs Silvestri composed (with lyrics by Glen Ballard), they serve their purpose in the film, although the lyrics occasionally feel forced and clichéd ("When Christmas Comes To Town" being the worst example). The Steven Tyler song "Rockin' On Top Of The World" is a very poor effort that was, thankfully, only included for a few seconds in the film. The highlight is "Spirit Of The Season", Silvestri's carol for the film that will surely go down in film lore as the equivalent of Williams's "Star of Bethlehem" from "Home Alone".
As for the album presentation of this score, Warner Bros. once again has marketed to the lowest common denominator. Instead of being an album of entirely original music for the film, six of the fourteen tracks are traditional Christmas songs that can be found on any compilation album. In the film, these songs were used only as "elevator music" in the North Pole scenes, and completely destroy the mood of magic and mystery that Silvestri created. When will label executives realize that serious fans of film composers want the film score on album, not pop songs? As it is, Silvestri's score occupies a mere two tracks on this album. So this means that, since most of the film had music, and the film was 90 minutes long, there were approximately 60 minutes of score recorded for the film. And we get a mere two tracks? Brilliant, Warner Bros., brilliant. Just like when you threw out Gabriel Yared's superb score for "Troy" and replaced it with a Horner score that was written in 13 days because a preview audience member felt Yared's work was too "old fashioned". (The film still tanked, by the way.)
In conclusion, buy this album for Silvestri's work, because it's phenomenal, and hope that someday a label like Varèse Sarabande will get the rights and do a proper score release. In the meantime, listen to this album and be appalled by how many of the non-original songs you already have in your collection and how you were cheated by moronic record executives eager to get a quick buck from the uninformed consumer.
Silvestri's music as heard in film: ***** of 5
Silvestri's music as heard on album: ***** of 5
Non-original music as heard on album: * of 5
Album overall: *** of 5
Description of The Polar Express
Promising to be this holiday season's family film blockbuster, the revolutionary computer-animated The Polar Express-based on a best-selling children's book, starring the voice of Tom Hanks and directed by Academy Award winner Robert Zemeckis-is a classic Christmas film with a modern look. The soundtrack album also mixes the classic with the contemporary, with immortal versions of the greatest Christmas songs ever penned, such as "White Christmas" from Bing Crosby and new recordings from Josh Groban "Believe", Aerosmith's Steven Tyler "Rockin' On Top Of The World" and others. This Christmas everyone will be getting on board The Polar Express.In adapting Chris Van Allsburg's beloved, 1986 Caldecott Medal winning children's Christmas fable, director Robert Zemeckis fused the technologies of live-action motion capture and CGI to an unprecedented degree, producing a visual sensibility that perfectly embodies the netherworld between fantasy and reality that made the book so inviting. Musically, Zemeckis has shrewdly teamed longtime collaborator Alan Silvestri with hit tunesmith Glen Ballard for the original half his soundtrack, then given the rest over to a star-packed tribute to pop Christmas past that includes such timeless chestnuts as Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," "Winter Wonderland" by the Andrew Sisters and Perry Como's "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." But the Silvestri/Ballard originals here are the main event, from Tom Hanks' vigorous vocal mugging on the title track and "Hot Chocolate" through the innocent charm of "When Christmas Comes to Town" and the over-the-top, jumpin' jive of Steven Tyler's "Rockin' On Top of the World." Josh Groban's "Believe" overdoes the treacle, but Silvestri's rich choral workouts and underscore suite are grand Hollywood-scaled tributes to the spirit of the season. Also available in a deluxe, illustrated children's book format gift edition that includes an actual encased jingle bell embedded in the cover. --Jerry McCulley
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