Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
Videogame Soundtrack


Game soundtrack | Release date: 10/26/2010 | Format: Download
 

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# Track   Duration
1.Into The Blackness3:17
2.With Hearts Sublime2:18
3.Eyes in the Night2:22
4.The Gathering2:44
5.Take Flight2:36
6.Attack at Dawn2:12
7.Deadly Plan3:13
8.Nightmare4:27
9.The Shape of the Wind2:59
10.Wild Fire2:10
11.Legends2:54
12.Devils Triangle3:24
13.The Seekers4:25
14.To Right all Wrongs2:36
15.The Fallen3:50
16.The Siege2:39
17.The Guardians5:12
 53:18
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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole - 08/10 - Review of Oscar Flores, submitted at (English)
The fantasy book series written by Kathryn Lasky titled ‘Guardians of Ga’Hoole’ tells the story of a group of Owls sworn to protect their kingdoms from an enemy band of villainous owls denominated the Pure Ones. In order to triumph over the evil group, they train at the great Ga’Hoole tree, which for a long time has embraced this community of noble and courageous owls seeking to defend owlkind. Published from 2003 to 2008, this fifteen book series paved the way for a movie to be made in 2010. Distributed by Warner Bros. and directed by Zack Snyder (Dawn of The Dead, 300), the movie “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” was based on the first three volumes of the series only — The Capture, The Journey, and The Rescue. Thus, knowing that launching a video game geared towards the young adult Scholastic® audience in conjunction with the distribution of the film could be a profitable endeavor, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released the complementary game on September 14th — ten days before the film’s premiere in the U.S.

Borrowing elements from the books and 3D film, the video game works well only as a supplementary entity to the aforementioned, meaning that people unfamiliar with Lasky’s writings and Snyder’s movie will probably have a hard time welcoming many of the missions and storyline. Five worlds and over twenty levels set in motion the story of Shard, the son of a once great Guardian trusted with the dangerous mission of uncovering the secrets surrounding the dark evil force of owls known as the Pure Ones. For the most part, players will spend their time flying around majestic canyons, forests and other breathtaking locales collecting money needed to make necessary upgrades for battle, ultimately defining the game as a kid’s flight-simulator (some people have said that it feels much like Ace Combat). Needed for this epic journey was a score that would easily interconnect the elements from the game with Lasky’s and Snyder’s other creations. To accomplish this task, composer Winifred Phillips (Spore Hero, God of War, Shrek The Third) was brought into the project. Time and time again Winifred has proven that she can write some extraordinary video game scores, but this time her challenge would involve writing for a game that was going to be released alongside the film. In fact, Winifred worked on the game’s music many months before David Hirschfelder began to compose the film’s score, so she had no point of reference or anything that could guide her compositions. Certainly this may have been a blessing in disguise because Phillip’s score confirms that her vision and understanding as a video game composer is beyond remarkable. Enjoyable, original, and full of well developed and orchestrated musical motifs, Phillips music easily surpasses the film’s own score in terms of its mystical and emotional closeness to the storyline, resulting in one of this year’s best scores for a video game.

The percussion-driven “Into The Blackness” introduces a three-note short phrase played repeatedly by the brass section as the strings accentuate its sinister tonality. This arrangement and instrumentation will gradually evolve and expand in tracks like “Eyes In The Night,” which introduces some very memorable brass motifs while maintaining the same percussive background enhanced by the strings playing staccato lines, and possibly ending with the full-blown “Attack At Dawn.” Admittedly, “Deadly Plan” could also be classified as an extension of “Into The Blackness;” this time, however, that short three-note phrase is heard briefly played by the woodwinds.

“With Hearts Sublime,” which recently earned Phillips a Hollywood Music In Media Award for Best Original Song for a Video Game, presents the listener with a gorgeous orchestral arrangement that incorporates Winifred Phillips’ own elegant voice — a classically trained soprano — aided by a few eastern woodwinds. This is where we hear the Guardians’ theme for the first time, later to reappear in different forms. She apparently structured the song around a fictional language in order to strengthen the sense of otherworldliness found throughout the game and music.

The five-note theme first heard in 'The Gathering' is quite memorable and may remind some listeners of the music for the original Tomb Raider game. Phillips effortlessly develops the graceful melody with subtle changes in orchestration. This track leads into the adventurous “Take Flight,” which proves to be one of the most captivating of the album. The music can clearly be described as one of those quintessential video game pieces containing ingenious modal and chordal transitions mixed with sharp motifs and the overall sense of being inside a virtual world.

The music heard in 'Nightmare' outlines some of the elements heard previously in 'Take Flight,' but the overall sound is undoubtedly darker and more suspenseful. It is worth pointing out that on this occasion the choir is a bit overwhelming. The breaks are short-lived and the voices seem to go on forever. Whether this works within the game I cannot say with certainty, but in all honesty, the end result as heard on the album is very fatiguing. In contrast, “The Seekers” and “The Fallen” use the choir in a more delicate and whimsical way which allows for better recognition and assessment of the other orchestral elements.

At times heartwarming, “The Shape Of The Wind” also touches elements of uneasiness and mysticism. This is the part of the soundtrack where Phillips adds yet another layer of emotion to the music and introduces a new rousing five-note motif played first by the brass followed by the strings. In contrast to this track, “Wild Fire,” and “Devil’s Triangle” launch the most menacing and ferocious part of the score. “Wild Fire,” for instance, is a frantic piece modeled around the archetypal Hollywood chase sequence. The persistent runs and rises with numerous short phrases played by eastern flutes are supported by an ever changing percussive bed. And while “Devil’s Triangle” does not have the same adrenaline-inducing juice built into it, the constant tremolos, crescendos and descending lines keep a feeling of eeriness intact. Needless to say, “The Guardians” is a recapitulation of everything heard previously; this time, however, the Guardians’ theme is reinforced by all the orchestral sections. Additionally, starting at around 2:05 we hear the “Ancient Evil Theme “ in full force, generating a truly climatic and monumental end piece.

The real shame with a project like Legend of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole was the absence of a sizable music budget that would have allowed Winifred Phillips to hire and record the entire score with a real orchestra. Yes, while the level of programming is extremely good, samples have a hard time emulating many orchestral phrases and techniques convincingly — particularly string runs — which in turn negatively affect our appreciation of the music. Aside from these and the problems discussed surrounding tracks like “Nightmare,” Winifred keeps the music focused on a central resounding tone that is rich in texture and orchestrations. More importantly, Winifred never creates music just to for the sake of supporting a particular level or part of the game; instead, she creates a very cohesive score that perfectly fits the definition of an epic fantasy. Accordingly, the multitude of motifs coupled with the seamless transitions between energetic and heartening cues produce a highly enjoyable album that can be appreciated by fans and non-fans of the series alike.


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