The Island at the Top of the World. Maurice Jarre

In London in the year 1907, Sir Anthony Ross (Donald Sinden), a British aristocrat, arranges an expedition to the Arctic to search for his lost son Donald (David Gwillim), lost on a whaling expedition to find the fabled island where whales go to die. Sir Anthony employs the talents of a Scandinavian-American archaeologist Professor John Ivarsson (David Hartman) and Captain Brieux (Jacques Marin), a French inventor/aeronaut who pilots the expedition in a dirigible named the Hyperion. Upon reaching the Arctic, they meet Oomiak (Mako), a comically cowardly/brave Inuit friend of Donald's, and trick him into helping them join in the search.

French composer Maurice Jarre for his first collaboration with a Disney film, he created the otherworldly ambiance of Astragard by infusing its imagery with an array of exotic instruments. Among them he employed immense Alpine horns, conch shell horns, glass rub rods, water chimes, waterphone, shakers, chimes and bell trees. The score features a multiplicity of themes, which Jarre employs as Leitmotifs. First and foremost is the versatile Adventure Theme carried by cimbalom and a lyrical solo flute and kindred woodwinds, which convey its tender and loving sensibilities.