家喻户晓的童话故事素来是卡通电影取之不尽的创作源泉，这其中尤其以英国作家刘易斯.卡罗尔的经典童话《爱丽丝梦游仙境》最受电影人的青睐，卡通电影大师沃尔特.迪斯尼便借助这个老幼皆知的故事创造出了一部卖座影片——
刘易斯.卡罗尔原本是一名数学家，但不泯的童心促使他在1903年创作出了《爱丽丝梦游仙境》这个经久不衰的童话故事。故事讲述的是在一个阳光明媚的下午，百无聊赖的少女爱丽丝坠入梦乡，在梦境中，她追随一只小白兔闯进了神奇的仙境，开始了一段奇妙无比的冒险故事。
《爱丽丝梦游仙境》不仅是文学史上流传最广的童话经典，也在百年电影史上留下了诸多足迹，它曾被数十次搬上银幕，成为经典的电影题材。
《爱丽丝梦游仙境》也一直是卡通电影大师沃尔特.迪斯尼的兴趣所在。早在20年代他开始在卡通片领域做实验时，他便尝试将卡通与真人结合，拍摄了一系列名为《爱丽丝梦游卡通国》的短片，并找来一个小姑娘扮演爱丽丝。后来，他还先后打算用玛丽.璧克馥和琴吉.罗杰斯饰演爱丽丝，与卡通人物一起演出，但最终他还是放弃了这些念头。
全卡通版的《爱丽丝梦游仙境》的制作始于1946年，共花了5年时间和三百万美元才得以完成。然而，它无论在商业还是口碑方面都令人失望，第一次发行时居然亏损了一百万美元，沃尔特为此向公司全体人员作了公开检讨。
对影片最主要的批评是认为它缺乏对这个经典童话足够的尊敬，创作人员几乎混淆了《魔镜》和《爱丽丝梦游仙境》这两部作品，影片中的插曲大都来自《魔镜》，如“我迟到了”、“金色午后的一切”、“非常好的建议”等，尽管该片的作曲最终获得了奥斯卡提名。
Another lavish Hallmark TV movie turned out as a delightful live action version of Lewis Carroll's famous book and featured all manner of famous stars from both America as well as this side of the Atlantic.The typically excellent production was accompanied by an especially delightful score that makes up for in charm and incident what it might lack in originality and cohesion.The somewhat dour and dreamy Prologue soon gives way to a tripping scherzo Main Title which appropriately sets the whimsical tone for the rest of the score.There are hints of Thomas Newman in the use of strings (most notably from Newman's Little Women), but little ideas from other composers appear from time to time.There are suggestions of anything from Horner's Casper to Williams' Hook, but these are usually short and don't detract a great deal.
Hartley's own musical personality is warm, occasionally balletic and only rarely does it resort to mere padding or simple orchestral overkill.In fact the lightness of touch is remarkable and only once in a while does the full orchestra take flight.There is much use of twinkling percussion, bouncing woodwind and swirling strings with brass only appearing for fleeting moments of heroism such as the striking Into the Book.This features an almost fanfare like adventure theme that comes as a bit of a surprise, but certainly a welcome one.
Even if the music isn't as superbly wrought or inspired, the approach to scoring is almost Herrmann-esque with little ideas that are taken up in each cue.There isn't a huge amount of track to track thematic consistancy, but with so many ideas and fragments of melodies flying about there is always something entertaining and somewhat different around the corner.Several tracks use parts of the few short songs.It is rather a shame that there are so few songs since they are all good fun and fit in nicely around the underscore.Sadly the entire thing wasn't conceived as a full blown musical, but in this instance I think it would have worked out wonderfully.
I suppose anything accompanying something with creations from Carroll's vivid imagination was always going to be pretty entertaining, but this is certainly a generally very entertaining album.Almost everything from comedy, action, adventure to mild horror are catered for.I suppose the huge variety and coupled with the large number of tracks means that it can tend to get a little fragmented, even if almost every fragment is well worth hearing.With perhaps great leverage for lengthier cues and slightly less adherance to the temp track, this might have turned into a more coherent work, however as it stands, it is a fine score and given a very generous release by Varese. |
