About the Soundtrack: "Nim's Island" is, refreshingly enough, an adventure movie for the family in mind.  The premise might loosely remind some of the "Romancing the Stone" films, with Jodie Foster portraying an adventure novelist who gets swept up in an escapade of her own on Nim's Island, home of the young girl who seeks her help.  Though Foster might have been slightly miscast, the choice of composer for this project was spot on with Patrick Doyle getting the call.  His efforts are offered up via 16 tracks and over 50 minutes worth of running time on the soundtrack.  The amount of content is what could hope for from this nice, tidy family movie.

 

What You Need to Know: Simply put, this is Patrick Doyle at his best.  Striking up his vintage orchestral sound of melody and beauty, Doyle provides a score that is complete and wholly entertaining.  While this is indeed a family/children's movie, the music is elegant enough where the cues do not sound childish or basic; this one is well above par.

 

The most interesting takeway I derived from the "Nim's Island" score is that it is equally accessible to children as it is to the adult audience.  There is enough adventure and up-tempo pacing to keep the younger ears tuned in while the orchestral melodies and soaring statements should appeal to most veteran soundtrack listeners.  In particular, the violin work in this score is simply beautiful and makes for a bit of magic.

 

Doyle has a main theme at work in this score but you may need a couple of listening sessions to appreciate how its used.  The theme is mostly tucked behind the larger strokes of the full orchestra and can be hard primarily during some of the more quiet moments of the score.  It's a cute motif and one that was developed to represent the child-like wonder of the film's story components, thus it is used in a soft manner. 

 

The flow of the album makes for an easy listen, mostly due to the consistent palette that Doyle uses.  Seemingly, all the tracks draw upon each other with a very harmonized approach, never wobbling off balance or in another tonal direction.  The motifs are all original, the main theme is delicately built and the sense of fun is fully represented with this score.  In short, it's a winner.

 

Final Grade: I see no reason why you should avoid this release.  While the title itself may initially scare some off as being too "child-like," take it from me that this is an elegant score and one that can be enjoyed by individuals at any age or from any walk of life.  While the soundtrack isn't built off of its main theme as most of Doyle's other works, its the flow that will prove to be the winning aspect of the score.  Highly recommended.