BALTO EXPANDED EDITION: OUR EXCLUSIVE REVIEW

James Horner once said he never turned down a project offered to him by Steven Spielberg. (Neither would any other composer in their sane mind, I imagine.) After Schindler’s List (1993), Spielberg embarked on a string of serious movies calling for increasingly subdued scores. Before 1993, however, the projects he directed and executive-produced represented one broad canvas after another on which the film composer was encouraged to paint with bold strokes and unashamedly operatic colors, every new assignment the promise of a rich symphonic tapestry. For Balto, Horner again delivered on that promise and then some. James Horner had already scored[...]

EXPEDED RELEASE OF BALTO AVAILABLE AT INTRADA!

2018 has held many surprises for fans of the work of James Horner. The latest arrives this week courtesy of Intrada with Balto. Released in 1995, it was the last of eight animated films set to music by James Horner. 1995 was an exceptional vintage, both in terms of quantity and quality, with unforgettable works such as Braveheart, Apollo 13 (both scores were nominated for the Best Original Score Oscar), Casper, Jumanji, a detour into darker realms with Jade and of course Balto. Based on actual events, the film tells the story of a half-wolf sled dog, Balto who in 1925, saved[...]

WOLF TOTEM: JAMES AND THE WOLF

Hardly for the first time in a career comprised of more than 130 film scores did James Horner cross paths with the wolf, a fascinating mammal and a source of countless stories, rumors and legends. Their first meeting dates back to 1981, when Wolfen, a horror thriller by Michael Wadleigh (Woodstock) saw Indians-turned-wolves create havoc in the streets of New York. Distressing brass embodied the wolf’s dark side and its sharp fangs, continually threatening tender and innocent flesh. This musical darkness was reprised a few years later with Aliens (1986), where it evoked the stifling atmosphere created by James Cameron, illustrating the[...]