Music from the Movies
by Brendon Kelly

The Jennie Project is an American TV Movie released by the Disney Channel which tells the story of a family raising an ape after the mother is killed in Africa. The reviews it has received have been fairly lukewarm and it is described as a "nice" film. This can also be said of the film's score by composer Alan Williams. This is a "nice" score. As usual with Williams he has penned a delightful melody for the main title performed primarily for woodwinds and piano. This theme eases in and out of the score always drawing attention to itself when it appears. Williams has written some fine music for IMAX productions and various other projects which always involve a large orchestra with grand sweeping themes. He has a tendency to write in a similar vain to John Barry and in some cases like John Williams. There are moments within the score that could be compared to Barry and Williams but a few other composers seem to be have been either on the temp track or Alan Williams has been influenced by them. 'Main Title' is in similar vain to Georges Delerue and this style crops up quite frequently - a gorgeous theme with simple orchestration that flows above the rest of the score. Hans Zimmer makes a small appearance in African-mode using voices and ethnic percussion in 'Jennie' before some Randy Edelman "jamming with the boys" cuts in. This style is used frequently. The orchestrations are fairly light and it sounds like a small orchestra was employed to record this score. This may have been something to do with the fact that this is a television score rather than for a feature film. Alan Williams does try to beef up the sound particularly in the last few tracks ('Rescuing Jennie' being a good example). The Jennie Project is, as stated, a "nice" score with a lovely theme but there is not much going on in the middle. The one big benefit is that Williams has not over done the African element keeping this portion of the score to a minimum without resulting to "ape-clichéd" music. Alan Williams is a fine composer and has produced some fine music (Island Of The Sharks, Amazon etc). He has also produced one of the finest compilation albums ever not to be released officially (Sketches) which would have made a fantastic purchase had it been issued by someone like Varese or Sony. And the main theme to The Jennie Project would have been an excellent addition.