Horton Hears a Who

[ChuckM 1]

Well, it's popped up in enough other threads, I figured it could use it's own. What do you think of it?

I love Powell's score for it. I would rate it as about the best score since HP-PoA. It has several good strong themes, and such a wide variety of styles all in one soundtrack.

It took a few listens at first to get past the weird instruments and whatnot, but it's a thoroughly enjoyable listen from start to finish.

BTW, does anyone know what those strange-sounding instruments are? My first assumption would be some sort of synth, but there's an a lot of emotion put into them to be computer-generated.

Anywho, if you haven't listened to the score yet, do it now! It's awesome!

I thought the movie was excellent as well. Especially by comparison to Carey's other movies.

[Henry B 49]

Haven't seen the film. Listened to the samples of the score. While they sounded good, it struck me how ill-fitting to Seuss the music is.

[ChuckM 1]

Really? How well suited it is to a Seuss film (IMHO) was part of what I loved about it. It has its actual coherent themes, and yet an overall feeling of weirdness that just (to me) seems to perfectly capture the spirit of Seuss's stories.

[Henry B 49]

"Cave of Destiny" is befitting of Seuss? This film must be a travesty.

[ChuckM 1]

"Cave of Destiny" is perfectly fitting of what's happening on screen at that point, although that is primarily just a dramatic opening scene. Track's like "Into Whoville" however, are exactly the music I would picture to go with a Seuss story.

[Koray Savas 2,095]

It's a brilliant score, probably Powell's best since Happy Feet. The movie is O.K. It really isn't anything special but it does have its highlights. One in particular being the anime sequence, which I thought was hilarious.

The weird instruments are a signature of John Powell, you can find whacky and cooky sounds in pretty much all of his animated scores. He usually uses whistles as well. It's unique and a breath of fresh air in a time of generic and repetitive scores.

My favorite track would have to be the "Horton Suite", it's just perfect all around. From "We Are Here" until the very end is a straight listen of awesome music.

[Desplat13 1]

"Cave of Destiny" is befitting of Seuss? This film must be a travesty.

You have to take it in the context of the rest of it. It is meant to be over-blown. While I haven't seen the movie, I can say that the score works good for a Dr. Suess story, and is quite a fun ride if you don't mind constantly-changing musical styles.

[ChuckM 1]

Just FYI, this is definitely one of those scores that really requires seeing the movie before you really get it.

[Mr. Breathmask 480]

I will have to check it out soon. Powell's currently one of my favorite composers and this score is getting a lot of good feedback. I also recently remembered he mentioned this score in his lecture at Úbeda, where he played us several songs he was listening to at the time for inspiration. I wonder if anything carried over.

[Koray Savas 2,095]

Definitely check it out Marc, it's 100% Powell-rific!

[Mr. Breathmask 480]

I'll do it as soon as I can (probably when I get back home).

- Marc, currently in Austria.

[Morlock 9]

Score's terrific. Finale's particularly good. I did not like the movie one bit. But I forgot about it very quickly.

[ChuckM 1]

I don't suppose the blatant pro-life and pro-faith-in-the-unseen messages of the movie had anything to do with those who dislike the movie?

Hey I'll be honest, it definitely did add to my liking of it.

[Morlock 9]

Not me. I'm all for stuff like that. The movie didn't interest me. Voice acting was boring. Jokes were not funny. Very little of it was visually interesting.