Charlotte’s Web - Music from the Motion Picture

From The Oprah Winfrey Show : Oprah’s First Movie With Julia Roberts, 28 November 2006

Charlotte’s Web, Music from the Motion Picture

For this live-action adaptation of E.B. White’s beloved bestseller, Danny Elfman has written his loveliest score in ages. There’s no trace of the sardonic, manic pulse that beats beneath so much of his work: here, he proves he can do sweet without doing saccharine. The breezy orchestrations and low-key themes combine to make the score stand out in the kids’ genre, and it’s one many movies for grownups wouldn’t sneeze at either. As such, it’s closer to Joe Hisaishi’s pastoral compositions for the Hayao Miyazaki anime masterpiece My Neighbor Totoro and to Nigel Westlake’s music for Babe than to your average overblown kiddie blockbuster. Yes, there’s the obligatory ballad–in this case “Ordinary Miracle,” cowritten by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics and performed by Sarah McLachlan–but it’s rather subtle. Call us sentimental, but we even prefer the less-high-profile vocal track on this CD: Dakota Fanning’s plaintive “Lullaby” in “Lullaby/Escape.” –Elisabeth Vincentelli

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