This review was originally posted on Film Obsessive.

Is it too early to call The Wild Robot a frontrunner for the 2024 Oscar Season? The film is being heralded as a commercial and critical success with more than a few fans here at Film Obsessive. The Wild Robot centers on Roz (Lupita Nyong’o ), a robot who has washed ashore on an island with only animal inhabitants. She has been programmed to problem solve, but all of the animals are self-sufficient. That is until she meets a gosling (Kit Connor ) who was rejected from its family. Together with a fox (Pedro Pascal) who begrudgingly assists with animal information, Roz is determined to help the little gosling make it to migration. This lovely story is supplemented by Kris Bowers’ stunning score.

In celebration of The Wild Robot’s home entertainment release, Film Obsessive’s News Editor, Tina Kakadelis, sat down with Bowers to discuss his first animation project, sentiment vs. sentimentality in music, and the ways man-made objects play a role in his score. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Film Obsessive: Hey, Kris, how’s it going?

Kris Bowers: Pretty well! How are you doing?

I’m doing fantastic. I want to start with the fact that you have quite the impressive list of scores under your belt, but The Wild Robot is your first animated feature. I was curious if there was something mentally different for you in the process of scoring an animated film.

First, I think it was exciting for me because it goes back to my childhood in so many different ways. I mean, I actually wanted to be a cartoonist when I was a kid. I went to cartooning school, but just kind of decided to stick with piano. The two were an equal love for a long time.

It also was the space that I realized the power of music for film and TV early on. I would watch those cartoons that didn’t have any dialog like Tom and Jerry or Silly Symphony. So I was really, really excited to join The Wild Robot. When I saw how much they were going to pull from early animation with their approach visually, it made me excited to pull from some of that stuff musically.

Reference wise, I thought about how those pieces have some of the greatest classical music of all time in them with these incredible orchestrators and these amazing melodies. Being able to write a score that rose to that level of musicality and having a film like this that demanded a lot of emotion from music, had a lot of space for music, and would require it to be muscular, intricate and detailed was such a great opportunity.

As for the difference in process, I’d say it’s having that much time where things are just continuing to be refined and refined and refined instead of it’s changed and rearranged. When working with a lot of live action, they have the ability to extend scenes, add scenes, do reshoots, or all of these things that make it so that I might approach a scene, and then three weeks later, it’s completely different or not there anymore.

With The Wild Robot, I started writing when it was just black-and-white pencil sketches. I was able to write for a scene when it was just a black-and-white pencil sketch. When they did the previsualization, I could then see how I wanted to adjust the music for the scene. When they started to do early animation, I could adjust for that too. Having almost two years on the project really allowed us to refine and hone in on the sound of the film in a really intentional way.

I’m glad you brought up the emotional way that music impacts the viewer. I’ve seen the film twice. Both times what pushed me over the edge for crying is the “I Could Use a Boost” part of your score. It’s stunning, but it does make me wonder how you kind of draw this line of making sure the emotional response that you are creating in the viewer is earned instead of a hollow feeling of sentiment versus sentimentality?

Such a great question. I think it’s trusting instincts and visceral responses. I’m somebody that it actually takes a lot for me to cry or get emotional in general, but especially outside of the context of art. Even in very emotional moments in my life. Almost like something’s broken inside of me where I can’t really tap into that (laughs).

Music and film is a space where that kind of unlocks in me in an interesting way, but I also feel like it only unlocks in moments where it has been earned and it feels very natural. A lot of my writing process is honestly chasing that feeling and trying to make myself naturally feel a certain way.

When I think about the migration sequence with “I Could Use a Boost,” it took a long time to hone in on that cue. All said and done, it was probably at least two months or maybe even more just on that one cue. It was a lot of trial and error. My first draft was completely thrown out. My second draft was half thrown out. It was just a lot of making sure that it felt right.

Once we got to a point where watching that sequence made us emotional almost every time we watched it, then for me, I’m like, I can trust it. It’s like there’s something else. That one plus one equals three kind of thing, where somehow we’re still getting emotional about something even though we’ve seen it already. We know what’s coming. It’s trying to find those things and just going on this scavenger hunt until we find that. Because anything else, it feels obvious that it’s trying too much or it doesn’t land in this involuntary, visceral way.

I’m a crier, but my sister sounds a lot like you. She rarely cries, but I would like you to know she’s also a musician and she loves the score. It made her cry.

Oh, that means a lot!

Roz’s theme has a lot of synth influence and the themes of the island animals feature glassware, cowbells, and other objects. I was curious why you still decided to use man-made objects for the wild part of the score.

Primarily because while Roz is kind of at the center of the story, it’s her as this individual going to this island, so I’m thinking about this singular character against that pretty massive backdrop. It felt like the thing that’s predominantly there is natural and organic. In terms of the man-made aspect, there are a handful of things in the percussion that are found objects. Blocks of wood and literally tree branches that are in the sound of the score.

I honestly was inspired to use glass bottles, teacups, tin cans, and things like that because of the idea of the inevitable pollution that probably happened. I think about the times in my life when I’ve gone to pretty remote parts of Alaska, the Caribbean, and even in Thailand. I was on this hike in a pretty remote part of Thailand and still saw trash in the river. I definitely was inspired by this idea of some of those things probably still being on this island, no matter where we are, especially when you project into the future.

Some of the metallic aspects, like there’s metal pipes and even an oxygen tank, were the idea of this island’s physical impact on Roz. A lot of the percussion in my mind was thinking about animals skittering through the forest and what that sounds like, but also the idea of these animals scratching on her and this island imprinting on her as well.

That’s awesome. The theme of Fink is, I think, one of the ones that really stands out and it morphs in such a fascinating way throughout the course of the film. When you are doing reprisals and variations on a theme, how far do you let yourself go? Are you concerned about the average viewer maybe not catching the sonic cues that you’re returning to a theme?

Yeah, I love that question. I love it so much because the thematic development that I fell in love with was people like John Williams. You hear a theme and it’s so subtle that it’s like, the end of Anakin’s theme is actually a little quote of Darth Vader’s theme. You really only know it if you’re listening in that way, but I also think that it’s subconscious. That people can feel it and hear it when things are done intentionally. When certain melodies or harmonies are reserved for certain characters that when they’re reprised, even if it’s a different key or even if it’s slightly harmonized, that it’s something that people will actually still connect to.

For me, it also becomes more interesting when I watch it in the context of a movie like this where sometimes we fear that maybe the audience is not smart enough. Or I don’t know what it is, but we will repeat something verbatim over and over and over again thematically. For me as a musician, I’m just like, man, I’ve heard this theme so many times now at this point in this two-hour movie. I feel like that’s just not as interesting and it doesn’t trust the audience enough, you know? I really love trusting the audience with the fact that the first time you hear Roz’s theme, it’s playing in a certain way. When you hear it during the truce theme, it’s re-harmonized and has this more optimistic feel to it.

Or Fink’s theme like you said. Think about the clarinet version in the middle of the storm. It’s very sweet and doesn’t sound like the same thing as when we first hear it. It also becomes an Easter egg hunt where somebody who is more curious can do more digging and realize like, oh, that theme is actually here, here, and here and it’s developed in this way. To me, it’s something that people feel subconsciously and also is exciting when people dig into it more.

Thank you so much, Kris! The score is really beautiful.

I really appreciate it. Thank you, Tina.

“The Wild Robot” is now available to digitally rent or purchase.

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