John Powell's Surprise Hit: How to Train Your Dragon

John Powell hit a new high on my radar this year with his hit score to How to Train Your Dragon. How to Train your Dragon is quite simply one of the best scores of the year and one of the best to come along in the animated genre in some time. John Powell has done animation before (I just love Oogway Ascends from his co-scored effort of Kung Fu Panda), but never at the level of maturity and cohesiveness (no mickey mousing to be found here) found in this 2010 score.  So why do I like How to Train Your Dragon?  A heroic main theme (Test Drive is one of my favorite renditions), Celtic influence throughout, romantic sentimentality (just check out the awesome Forbidden Friendship cue), excellent use of percussion (check out the end of Coming Back Around, for example), and excellent sub-themes (check out Dragon's Den---it sounds so epic it's hard to believe this is coming from an animated feature) are a few of the reasons. Groundbreaking scores like this just do not come along that often and undoubtedly this one will be emulated and likely end up in trailers for other movies in years to come. As of this writing, How to Train Your Dragon is the best score I've heard so far in 2010 and one worth picking up the entire score.  Keeping it coming John!