StreamingSoundtracks - StreamingSoundtracks.com - Dinotopia - Trevor Jones

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Epic Dinosaur Mini Series

By:	jadedtitan
Date:	15 Apr 2009
Rating:

While Dinotopia only had a short life as a mini series on TV, the music that Trevor Jones wrote for it certainly is able to transcend and surpass the small screen it was written for. The track listing is not long but the 12 tracks encompass most of all the music within the series with 4 main themes present throughout the music and show.

The Dinotopia Main Theme of course represents the main theme of the show. It is a sweeping theme, giving the listener a taste of the opening scene of the island and the grand wonderment that met the two characters who found themselves stranded there. The Codes of Dinotopia, the end of Pteranodos, middle of Acedemy for Young Mammals and Letters From Matriarch and the beginning and end of the Ceremony of the Sunstones tracks find this theme replayed.

The track Waterfall city introduced another major theme, associated with the city and the World Beneath. It mirrors the feeling of discovery and has more brass to emphasize the feelings of discovery. The Ceremony of the Sunstones also plays this theme at the beginning of the track.

The Flying theme is found in the middle of T-Rex attacks, the beginning and end portions of The Skybax Dawn Flight and can be found also in the ceremony of the Sunstones track. Though only present in a few tracks it is a big dramatic theme, with sweeping brass instruments giving the listener the feeling of riding with one of the prehistoric flying dinosaurs associated with the theme.

The Carnivore theme is located in the T-Rex Attack, at the end of the Codes of Dinotopia and end the of Acedemy for Young Mammals, Letters From Matriarch, The Skybax Dawn Flight and in the Pteranodos tracks. The theme is characterized with hurried strings and loud percussion associated with perils or the Dinosaurs that are not friendly towards the people of Dinotopia.

Dinotopia transports watchers to an amazing world where dinosaurs and humans live together in peace and the music does a wonderful job to convey the sense of wonderment, discovery and even danger. A great score and a great TV mini series to accompany a great piece of work by Trevor Jones.

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Dinotopia - The MiniSeries Soundtrack

By:	AdamR
Date:	23 Jul 2009
Rating:

Just how many islands have dinosaurs on them in Hollywoodland? If you ask James Gurney, creator of the book series, Dinotopia, he'd likely say there's at least one more aside from the dinosaurs we read about in Crichton's Jurassic Park.

Dinotopia the miniseries was a take on Gurney's Dinotopia with a few creative differences. These differences left some bad tastes in Dinotopia fans' mouths, having the film deviate from the books they read many years before. I personally didn't find the miniseries to be that bad because all movies must deviate from books in some manner to make the visual scenes work.

However, one thing producer Robert Halmi got correct was his choice of a majestic music score composed by Trevor Jones. Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, argurably one of the best in orchestral performances, the music of Dinotopia is full, strong, and thematic.

The main theme of Dinotopia is presented approximately three times in the soundtrack in its bold glory--the main theme track, Codes of Dinotopia, and Ceremony of the Sunstones. At least two other themes are present in Jones' score--the skybax flying theme composed of trumpets and horns, and the theme for the World Beneath, a very subdued, quiet theme.

Overall, the music of Dinotopia stands well on its own, yet fit the action on scene decently. This is after all, a fantasy film, and Jones' powerful score layers and elaborates on the mystic fantasy world of Dinotopia.

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