FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW

Review of A Christmas Carol (Alan Silvestri)

2009 Disney

2013 Intrada

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you've always loved the festive spirit of traditional carols and hymns at the holidays, because Alan Silvestri's score makes liberal use of half a dozen of these famous pieces to constitute the joyous (and now comical) half of this tired tale.

Avoid it... if it's summer wherever you are (or if you expect the twenty minutes of more interesting action and suspense material utilizing diverse instrumental and choral shades to compete favorably in the originality department, either).

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

A Christmas Carol: (Alan Silvestri) If you roll your eyes at every new adaptation of this famous Charles Dickens tale on the big or small screen, you're not alone. It's been retold and mutilated so many times now that its original emotional appeal has been perhaps eternally diminished, depending usually on how powerful the performance of the grumpy Ebenezer Scrooge. Walt Disney Pictures and screenwriter/director Robert Zemeckis plunged the concept into the computerized realm of 3D animation for the 2009 holiday season, and while the technical merits of the production are distinct improvements over the techniques of animated photography that Zemeckis attempted in The Polar Express and Beowulf, Jim Carrey's performances in both the lead role and as the majority of speaking ghosts in A Christmas Carol have been noted for their shallow heart and secondary emphasis to the visual techniques. The script also poses some awkward challenges, including action and silly comedy that contradict each other in betraying the spirit of Disney's rather lucky PG rating. Still, there is no doubt that Zemeckis' version of A Christmas Carol is more exhilarating to see than previous adaptations. Any progressive tactics employed in the visuals are compensated for by an extremely conservative musical approach by composer Alan Silvestri, for whom this assignment marked the thirteenth collaboration in a noteworthy partnership with Zemeckis. Their work for The Polar Express was very clearly a practice run for A Christmas Carol, with every aspect of the 2004 score (outside of the utilization of several songs in musical format) bloated to greater proportions for its 2009 sibling. For the Oscar-bait song anchoring the end of the film and memorably incorporating Tiny Tim's famous line as its title (as well as serving as the score's primary theme), Silvestri and lyricist Glen Ballard reunited and replaced the voice of Josh Groban with the stately tone of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. Although the singer recorded the song in English, Spanish, and Italian (the first is the only one available on the regular international album release), the resulting sound, aided by fully symphonic and choral elegance, is much the same. This time, however, rather than hearing similarities to John Debney and Andrew Lloyd Webber in the primary melody, you have an interestingly pervasive influence of traditional Christmas carols and hymns. It is this circumstance that guarantees the song and score's effectiveness but also cements their extremely generic stance. Don't be surprised if you walk away from this listening experience feeling as though you've heard every moment of it before. In many ways, you have.

The majority of listeners will associate the totality of Silvestri's music for A Christmas Carol with adaptations of "Deck the Halls," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "Joy to the World," "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and "Good King Wenceslas," among others. Not only are two of these melodies the basis for the majority of the title theme (and thus making for an all-too-appropriate song), but each is adapted extensively into the bulk of the underscore. The wandering, harmonious tuba bass lines common to these carols are also a force in almost all of Silvestri's festive score cues as well. It's not uncommon for most of a score cue to either twist these traditional pieces liberally or simply burst out into full, spoken-word choral statements typical to shopping malls and department stores during the holiday season. For real-life Scrooges who brush aside Christmas as commercialized religious buffoonery based on a made-up birthday, this score's saturation level could be extremely irritating. On the other hand, despite the obvious reliance on the traditional melodies to carry at last half of the underscore (as well as all of the sleigh bells and chimes that define the season's general sound), Silvestri does offer twenty minutes or so of material that branches out from the path of predictability. The comedic moments are a cross between the violin elegance of Death Becomes Her and the frantic pacing of Mousehunt. The action and suspense material is an extension of the lesser-heard parts of The Polar Express, though the cooing choral mystery and brutality of brass for those purposes is more pronounced here. Both "The Clock Tower" and "The Dark Chamber" use meandering, whimsical string lines and eerie choral tones (including female solos in the former) to maintain an environment that sounds remarkably fresh compared to the joyous, wholesome portions of the score. The action in "Carriage Chase" is pure Silvestri in its style but infuses a level of John Debney energy that borders on Warner Brothers cartoon comedy at times, also pulling inspiration from as far back of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The opening of "Who Was That Lying Dead?" resurrects a level of fright and bombast reminiscent of Van Helsing or The Mummy Returns. Because of these interludes and Silvestri's far more diverse and interesting instrumental employment, A Christmas Carol is better sustained as a listening experience than The Polar Express. The sound quality is also outstanding. After Disney released the score in digital-only format in 2009 (pledging to quit CDs at the time), Intrada Records followed up with a CD of the same contents in 2013. Ultimately, had Silvestri relied a bit less on the traditional melodies, the score could have easily earned four stars; his choice to lean so heavily on them ensured functionality but is somewhat tiring after forty minutes.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

All Albums:
Total Time: 45:34

• 1. A Christmas Carol Main Title (4:21) • 2. Scrooge Counts Money (0:48) • 3. Marley's Ghost Visits Scrooge (6:12) • 4. The Ghost of Christmas Past (4:58) • 5. Let Us See Another Christmas (1:18) • 6. Flight to Fezziwigs (1:27) • 7. First Waltz (0:59) • 8. Another Idol Has Replaced Me (1:40) • 9. Touch My Robe (3:41)

• 10. The Clock Tower (1:50) • 11. Carriage Chase (3:24) • 12. Old Joe and Mrs. Dilber (2:28) • 13. This Dark Chamber (1:56) • 14. None of Us Will Ever Forget (1:33) • 15. Who Was That Lying Dead? (3:08) • 16. I'm Still Here (1:26) • 17. Ride On, My Good Man (1:04) • 18. God Bless Us Everyone* (3:15)

NOTES & QUOTES:

There is no formal packaging available for the download product. The insert of the 2013 Intrada album contains notes about both the film and score.

Copyright © 2009-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from A Christmas Carol are Copyright © 2009, 2013, Walt Disney Records, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 11/19/09 and last updated 4/14/16.