Children’s Books and Film Score day celebrations collide in this Easter weekend’s mash reflection on children’s film scores. Some of the most memorable movie scores that come to mind are Hans Zimmer’s evocative scores in films like Inception, or the western composers of my childhood, Elmer Bernstein in his composition of The Magnificent Seven and Ennio Morricone in his score for The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. In children’s film scores, however, it is John Williams who wrote so many of the films scores we recognize:
Jurassic Park, Jaws and Empire Strikes Back are Williams’ scores that immediately come to mind, not to mention the score for the wizard, Harry Potter, which could be the perfect weekend mash as Potter was both a book and a movie. But my personal favorite children’s book to movie film score is Dianna Wynn Jones’ 1986 fantasy book Howl’s Moving Castle to Miyazaki Hayao’s 2004 animated animation, and for which Composer Jo Hisaishi wrote the film score. Like Princess Mononoke, Totoro, Nausicaa and so many of the other Hisaishi film scores at Studio Ghibli, the music in Howl’s Moving Castle is raw, uninterpreted and expansive. Bound to be included in top ten lists soon.
What’s your favorite children’s book to movie film score?