The Giant of Thunder Mountain (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

With The Giant of Thunder Mountain, composer Lee Holdridge returns to the rustic approach he first staked out with his original score for the film Old Gringo — with its gentle acoustic guitars and vivid harmonica solos, the music boasts a weathered beauty that's undeniably charming, although its effectiveness in capturing the onscreen adventure is a matter of some debate. Holdridge's music is undeniably effective in the context of family-friendly films — his melodies are light yet engaging, his arrangements reliably uplifting — but his action themes never achieve the level of intensity required to increase listener pulse rates, and in the case of The Giant of Thunder Mountain, much of the score falls flat onscreen. Moreover, it's difficult to distinguish the score from Holdridge's other work in this vein — one can't help but wish he would take on more diverse and bigger-budgeted projects.