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PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of The Witches (Alan Silvestri)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you are a nostalgic fool and seek a time machine back
to the classics of Alan Silvestri's career, this score a fanciful
pleasure of his trademark action and fantasy modes.
Avoid it... if you're likely to lament the relative brevity of the score's delightfully elegant material for the witches, their themes of mystery and intrigue largely abandoned by the halfway point.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Roald Dahl's The Witches: (Alan Silvestri) The
second adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1983 novel about witches seeking to
turn all the world's children into mice is Robert Zemeckis' 2020 attempt
to more closely follow the original story than the 1990 film had. This
despite a shifting of the setting from England to Alabama and an
enhanced horror element involving the look of the witches. The movie
stirred controversy for its depiction of malformed limbs as belonging
only to witches, though more troublesome in many ways is the
Venom-like style of the mouth on Anne Hathaway's Grand High Witch
that, quite frankly, could scare the crap out of anyone. With writing
and production assistance from the likes of Guillermo del Toro and
Alfonso Cuaron, Zemeckis was set to impress with The Witches, the
plot telling of a group of nefarious witches assembling at an upscale
hotel to start their war against the children, all the while a group of
youngsters and their grandmother struggle to stop them both as both
humans and mice. The comedy film was blasted for being too terrifying
for kids, exhibiting a somewhat somber plot notion that transformations
into mice are permanent, and promoting an undercurrent of prejudicial,
wealthy white privilege in the Grand High Witch. Partially released in
theatres internationally and dumped otherwise on HBO, The Witches
represents a fairly significant misfire for Zemeckis. But for film score
enthusiasts, his involvement meant a return of composer Alan Silvestri
for an 18th time in this collaboration, a highlight of the movie.
Large-scale fantasy and adventure scores from Silvestri were few and far
between in the 2010s, his output in those genres largely confined to a
few entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ready Player One,
and the lingering Night at the Museum franchise. For The
Witches, the composer was perfectly set to reprise not only his
popular action mode but also further develop the supernatural elements
of Practical Magic and Death Becomes Her while extending
his sometimes outstanding mouse-related comedy material for Mouse
Hunt and Stuart Little. The resulting combination of these
points of reference for The Witches is so overwhelmingly
saturated with Silvestri's trademark mannerisms that the music is
unmistakably his at every moment, a nostalgic treat to behold from start
to finish.
In many ways, Silvestri's enthusiasts will appreciate The Witches the same way they did Ready Player One a few years prior, marveling that the seeds of this score were planted as far back as Back to the Future, Predator, and Judge Dredd. The composer's voice is so unique that it's amazing to hear it extend so enthusiastically decades after it debuted. The ensemble for The Witches is as robustly symphonic as ever for Silvestri, slight electronic effects expectedly embellishing the magical element. The brass section is open for business in the action portions, low woodwinds growl at the devious suspense of the villains, and high woodwinds, piano, and acoustic guitar express emotional solidarity for the heroes. Subtle choral shades arise in a few places, and ticking clock effects occasionally contribute as rhythm-setters. Nothing quite defines an ambitious Silvestri score like a prominent snare in the mix, and the instrument constantly references one of the composer's most notable habits: striking points of emphasis in a pair of notes. All throughout The Witches, the double strikes of snare pound away, aided by a very dynamic mix that supplies the accompanying ensemble hits in an expansive, wet environment. Stylistically, Silvestri does throw in a few token ethnic twists, first addressing the new location with some comical country spirit on guitar to open "Chickenafied" and later tossing some vaguely Middle Eastern tones in "Witches" for their worldly gathering. The clicking clock noises are placed a little too far forward in the mix at 1:03 into "Instant Mouse" and opening "A Stolen Key." Outright humor comes in the Carl Stalling and Mouse Hunt-inspired action pacing of the second half of the score, though Silvestri also sneaks in a fragment of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" at 2:00 into "Pigtails." The narrative of the score is really well developed, with countless short motifs, some as brief as a shifting of two chords, recurring and mingling with the work's primary themes. Sometimes, as in "Fourth Floor," a distinct scherzo motif for its action informs one whole cue. The descending minor-third pairs to key for electronic celeste and chimes is Silvestri's nod to the potion and magic conceptually, opening the score and offering its services to the mystery passages that inhabit the first third of the work. The score shifts personality significantly after that first third to match the story's move to mouse-led action, shaping how Silvestri emphasizes some themes and sadly abandons others. Extensively explored in The Witches are two main themes and two supplemental offshoots of those ideas by Silvestri. A primary theme of heroic action, accompanied by a structurally related idea with similar tendencies, only enunciates itself fully in the latter half of the work. Before, the two themes for the witches, one for their deviousness generally and another for the Grand High Witch, dominate earlier passages with their elegant, waltz-inspired movements. While some listeners will gravitate towards the major-key action theme as the main attraction of The Witches, the truly engaging and more unique music from Silvestri comes in the witches' material. Since the Grand High Witch really runs the show, the main witch theme is essentially for her, both in its major statements and countless illusions to chord progressions elsewhere. You get a taste of the idea at 0:37 into "What You Saw," stewing through the rest of the cue and continuing as an ominous preview at 1:07 into "Chickenafied." It builds to its first major performance with full waltz swing at 3:11 into "Enter the Witches," briefly returning to its softer renditions at 0:22 into "Grand High Witch" before filling out its progressions nicely at 2:41. It is joined by an action rhythm in suspense mode at 1:02 and 1:27 into "Witches" and again musters a crescendo of energy, blasting to its greatest heights at 2:35 with a bevy of metallic percussion. The underlying progressions of this theme are accessed frequently thereafter, applied for suspense at the start of "Instant Mouse." That cue also provides the theme itself at 0:48, yielding a major choral explosion and, after further action, closes out the cue with a quick, humorous stinger. Again, the underlying chords open "The Potion," returning later in cue, and stew during midsection of "Soup is On." That suspense mode becomes a staple of later cues, including at 2:40 into "Pigtails" and 1:09 into "Let Me Out." The "End Credits (The Witches)" suite briefly passes the idea at 1:12, reprising the slight ethnic variants of the earlier assembly scene, and throws another robust rendition at 1:37 before extending into its more dramatic choral variant. The witches' mystery motif, five-note phrases over a rhythm of minor third descending pairs, is a highlight of the score, offered at 0:35 and 1:52 into "Witches Are Real" and 2:25 into "Grand High Witch" on low woodwinds before revisits at 3:02 into "Witches" and 4:27 into "End Credits (The Witches)." The intrigue built into this motif and its rhythm are superb and sorely missed in the rest of the score; the latter half of the film's story didn't likely allow for this idea to persist, unfortunately. The main theme of Silvestri's The Witches is easy to distinguish in that it shifts the score to the major key in most but not all of its performances, lending a hint of Avengers heroics to it. Full statements of the idea grace "Witches Are Real" at 0:54 and 1:35 over snare rhythms. In the first third of the score, it sees light character and fragmentary duty, woodwinds, strings, and guitar presenting the fuller lines of the theme at 0:48 into "My First Witch." Silvestri alters the theme's progressions for a slight reference to another character at 0:40 into "Chickenafied," shifting it into a simmering battle against the preview of the witches theme late in the cue. It tries to emerge at about 1:00 into "A Narrow Escape" but is foiled by witch material; a quick heroic burst at 1:50 dissolves into echoes of the theme in the following action, turning to the minor key at 3:35 for a sense of determination. The theme opens "It Can Be Very Dangerous" on solo piano for a minute of tenderness, returning to an action and planning stance for brass and snare at 2:47. Light action versions over Silvestri's pulsating rhythm await at 0:58 and 3:16 into "The Potion," and the rhythms persist early in "Soup is On." The remaining action performances are often full-throated, from 1:24 into "The Mission" to several brief bursts throughout "Pigtails," a massive burst at 2:34 into "A Stolen Key," fragments in "Let Me Out," and refining its action form in the latter half of "Pea Soup." Hidden amongst these frantic moments are two nice moments of contemplation for the theme, sensitive on woodwinds again at 1:23 into "Let's Make a Potion" and opening "I Didn't Hear a Thing" the same way. The latter cue offers large and lush renditions for two minutes, redemptive performances that turn heroic in a fashion to suggest this cue as something of a concert suite of the idea. The end credits cue presents a stately march with the theme, complete with crashing cymbals, and reprises its action mode before one final statement at the end. The distinct action-oriented variant for the team of mice late in the story starts with the main theme's opening notes but explores the new melody at 1:04 into "The Mission," 3:13 into "Pigtails," the start of "Let Me Out," and 3:00 and 5:05 into the credits. That suite at the end is a bit disappointing, little more than pieces of the score cobbled together. Overall, there is a plethora of positives to like about The Witches. You can't help but think you're listening to Back to the Future, Part III or Mouse Hunt at times. On the other hand, the best portions are for the witches and the mystery surrounding them, and those themes and styles disappear by the halfway mark. Like Ready Player One, there is a truly fantastic suite of twenty minutes to be culled from this dynamic and mischievous score. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 72:08
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for this album.
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