Soft, slow, dreamy, it's decidedly not the mile-a-minute, action packed, gag-riddled formula we've come to expect from animated films as of late. So, adjust your expectation.
To achieve the feel of a super-scaled human-esq. person, animators move the big friendly giant in a relative slowed motion causing the film to move at a somewhat lumbering pace. This unfortunate side-effect might have been countered with the score. While John Williams has many successes, I fear this is not one of them. Williams' music pokes and prods, searching for some way to make sense of this daringly slow pace. Sadly, Williams' score fails until a change in scenery (past the midpoint of the film) begs for baroque. Then, Williams finally finds some common ground with the visuals.
While imperfect, I found joy in some of the films' warm and dreamy moments. Spielberg takes his time with each scene, as if not concerned with the flow of the overall production. That can prove frustrating, unless and until the viewer succumbs to the moments.
Visually, it's quite beautiful. Dreams as wisps of light and energy are warm and inspiring. And the expressive giant himself makes for a curious silver screen friend, despite his convoluted language that would probably be cute on paper, but verbalized, is more of an annoyance than a charm.
Nonetheless, I still think a better score could have lifted this to an A-.
-- Click here to see Books by Ross Anthony, Author --
|