Eric Serra had been quiet of late. His work with Luc Besson is well known, including scores for films like the colorful sci-fi adventure, "The Fifth Element" and the historical interpretation of Joan of Arc in "The Messenger." It's been a few years since I've visited his work since that time and was curious to how he has developed. Here, he's given a new genre to tackle with "Arthur and the Invisibles" and he does very well with it.
The music for "Arthur and the Invisibles" is performed by The London Symphony Orchestra, which I admit was one of the selling points to me, and is brought to life with all the professional quality one could expect from the LSO. However, a great performance means very little without writing of equal caliber and Serra was ready to answer the call. I'm happy to say that it all converged well together and we're given a soundtrack that is above average from the norm.
To go any further, I do need to make mention of the soundtrack's length. Counting the 3 pop songs in the early phase of the score, there are 39 high quality score tracks to dig into! That's quite a committment to listen to that. However, since a decent amount of cues are shorter in length, it wasn't as big an issue as I thought. For those of you who are reading me for the first time, I typically enjoy 15 to 20 tracks per score as an ideal length. Regardless of duration, the music was enjoyable enough to make me withhold any further doubt or concerns about it.
What struck me from the outset was the symphonic cohesion of Serra's music and its sweeping nature. In his previous work, I had noticed that his underscore seemed to typically be without disctinction and his melodic "money" moments never seemed to be fully realized. That can be cast aside in this score since his music seems to have matured and his stylistic voice is becoming more and more clear because of that. For instance, he's not hesistant to let melodic themes converge upon you in this soundtrack nor is he shy about opening up the music to a higher excitement level with a blenf of choir, piano and full on orchestral power.
In this score, I can say that there is a clear energy to the music. The fanciement of playful sequences play well off of the more dramatic that are heard. You can say that there is definitley a lively French inspiration behind it all, and I mean that as a compliment, similiar to the type of charm heard in "Amelie."
Overall, there is more joy and depth to the music here as compared to recent animated films in which merely representable music is called upon for a few minutes here and there to guide the show. I appreciate the effort and the results here. Good show!
Final Score: Eric Serra shows off a new side to his composing skills in developing an attention-getter with "Arthur and the Invisibles." Plenty of music to choose from, all of which is consistent in tone and energy, and is paced with a fine performance by the London Symphony Orchestra to satisfy your symphonic needs.
