Benjamin Copelin’s review published on Letterboxd:
I'm taking another quick break from Halloween reviews to focus on an interesting topic: film scores! Music is either something that enhances the experience, takes away from it, or doesn't stand out at all and you wonder why they even bother releasing an album of it. But a great score can truly enhance a film into legendary status! Or some cases, outdo the film it's made for! So here are a couple of examples of movies with great scores, as well as a couple TV shows. Obviously, we all know how amazing the music for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are, so I'm going with some choices that are at least slightly less known.
1. How to Train Your Dragon Trilogy (John Powell): The music to all three films are absolutely amazing! If you listen carefully, you can hear certain motifs being used throughout each individual film. The Test Drive theme is absolutely triumphant, combing the motifs for both Hiccup and Toothless to create one of the best tracks in any score! And that's just scratching the surface!
2. Man of Steel (Hans Zimmer): I feel like even a lot of the film's detractors can still appreciate how both epic and transcendent the score is. The drums remind me of Fury Road, and the sound for the terraforming machine also fits as part of Zod's theme. The main theme is iconic, and the Flight Theme gives you the sense euphoria when Superman starts zooming around, flying into the air! I love the John Williams music as well, but as far as listening to an entire soundtrack and not just the main theme, I tend to listen to this score way more often.
3. My Hero Academia (Yuki Hayashi): You Say Run is one of the best themes ever! It gets you pumped and motivated! It's the perfect music to play during an epic climax, whence why it was used in so many YouTube videos, including one of some dude pushing through a rough storm IN REAL LIFE! And there's a lot of other great themes too, but there's too many to count.
4. Thomas the Tank Engine (Mike O'Donnell & Junior Campbell): No, I am not joking. And it isn't just Thomas' Theme, even though it is absolutely iconic and one of the greatest TV show themes of all time! But so many other characters get they're own themes too.
Gordon's sounds triumphant as he's the big strong engine.
James is vain and proud of himself, so we get a jazzy, upbeat theme to accompany him.
Percy is innocent but cheeky, so the theme reflects that. That is until season 5 where we see him being "Put Upon," so the theme stays mostly the same, but sounds more grand and almost heroic sounding.
Toby is my favorite character and he gets one of my favorite themes as well, which reflects on him being elderly yet full of life and optimism, instead of being tired and worn out.
Sir Topham Hatt's Theme sounds like an authority figure about to discipline someone. When you hear this, you KNOW someone's in trouble!
Lastly, I want to mention Diesel's Theme, which sounds like Snake Charmer music, which is fitting considering his snake-like personality, spreading lies and being all devious.
And no, I am not ashamed to admit that I still love this series! I did feel like I grew out of it for a very long time, but I never grew a disdain for it being a show for younger kids. I've since gained a newfound respect for it, and I appreciate it now more than ever! If Bluey can get this kind of recognition, then I feel vindicated!
So let me know some examples of your own! What were your thoughts on my choices? Comment down below!
