December 27, 2011

  • Review: A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (Ross)

    The characters Harold and Kumar appeared a bit under the radar in their first adventure Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.  The rather innocuous title caught many critics off guard with its often heady parodies of culture and drug references.  The fact that it was genuinely funny was perhaps even more surprising.  The second film felt a little bit more commercial with many satires of American life being a bit too forced at times, though not necessarily any less humorous.  The third film, perhaps expectantly, finds the duo placed in the role of saving Christmas and has the added “advantage” of being in 3D.  Released in November, it got a brief jump on the holiday season.  That might have been helpful, but the biggest blessing in the film is William Ross’ wonderful score that blends big action music, holiday flavors, great themes, comedic writing, and even a little magic and romance.

     

    The score for the film features many quite brief cues, but Ross accomplishes much in that amount of time. There are plenty of comedic underscoring moments coupled with the sort of magical scoring reserved for fantasy films.  It works quite well and with the added chorus or Christmas music reference, the score plays well.  The best part about comedy scores is that they can really allow the composer to play with conventions, make overt references, and create a rather amusing accompaniment to the on-screen antics.  There are plenty of highlights in a score that is as delightful as Debney’s Elf but with a lot more action music. 


    Characters each receive a thematic idea that will recur to provide unity to the score.  The bassoon line introduced in “Meet Harold” is quite fun.  Perez receives a rather delightful South-of-the-border flavor.  There is also some great funk music tossed in for good measure (“Video Message”) that alternates with a bit more jazz-like music recalling spy thrillers (“Black Ice”).  Along the way there are plenty of musical parodies of contemporary scoring styles.  The most humorous is “Eggiton” which intentionally mimics Zimmer action music, complete with a female vocalise.  Ross’s music can have a sort of Williams/Silvestri sound as well, though the orchestration is slightly more his own.  That said, “Santa’s Magic Package” is definitely Williams-esque.  Set aside the more love theme like “Meet Vanessa” one can hear how Ross has a great knack for melodic invention. 

     

    A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is not the sort of holiday score you would put in your regular Christmas music rotation, but it certainly features a great mix of light Christmas cheer balanced with action and the sort of accompanying musical shenanigans once would expect from this modern day duo.  At any rate, it is one of the better comedy scores of the year.