A little-seen big screen vehicle for everyone's favourite dog, 1994's Lassie was probably a victim of the growing cynicism amongst our younger relatives, who are no longer so easily satisfied by easy-going, innocent fun at the cinema.  Veteran director Daniel Petrie's movie saw the canine hero doing his usual tricks, battling evil rustlers and saving children whenever they are in peril.  It's of most interest to film music fans because it contains a score by Basil Poledouris - one of his least well-known, but one that was released on CD by Sony at the time of the movie.  The album's quite hard to find these days, but is out there if you look hard enough, and it's well worth it for fans of the composer.

He was going through a brief period of writing music for family movies at the time (this came just after Free Willy and just before The Jungle Book) and his wistful style of Americana is perfectly suited to this kind of gentle tale.  At times, his music, evoking bucolic images of pastoral life, sounds like it might come out of a western.  The opening couple of tracks are very pleasant, laid-back pieces of nostalgia and, while they are so inoffensive and so light you would be hard pressed not to like them, you might be forgiven for thinking that the score might just pass by without too much happening, but fortunately such thoughts are extinguished by the third track, "Morning Glory", which introduces Poledouris's main theme in a strident trumpet solo which makes you wish (not for the first time) that he was working more than he is at the moment.

"The Diary / Wolf Attack" introduces the first action music and it's fairly dark stuff, though not too dark!  It's not exactly complex material, but it's still satisfying.  "Lassie Protects the Herd" combines this style with some heroic music for Lassie and is very fine music.  However, the standout is the ten-minute "Lassie Saves Matt", a beautiful orchestral showpiece running through an admittedly predictable gamut of emotions, from gentle beginnings to an action-packed middle section to a heroic finale.  It's Poledouris doing what he does best.  The score as a whole is heartwarming, old-fashioned adventure music and comes highly recommended to all fans of the composer.