How Real Life Influenced the Sound of THE WILD ROBOT
By Movieguide® Contributor
THE WILD ROBOT has been nominated for Best Score and Best Sound at this year’s Oscars, and while it is an animated movie, the audio is inspired by real life.
“One of the first themes I wanted to approach was the migration sequence,” composer Kris Bowers told Variety. “By the time we got to that point, my daughter was about one, and I remember watching it and the immediate thought I had was, ‘Okay, I can imagine taking her college, dropping her off,’ and I wrote this piece of music that was making me emotional.”
The movie follows “the journey of a robot — ROZZUM unit 7134, ‘Roz’ for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.”
READ MORE: HOW THE WILD ROBOT WILL CAPTURE VIEWERS
“I shared with [director] Chris [Sanders], and Chris was like, ‘Yeah, that’s not really hitting the right feeling,” Bowers continued. “Maybe you should imagine you’re taking your daughter to college and dropping her off.’ And I was like, ‘That’s what I did!’ Maybe it’s cause she’s one, and it’s hard for me to imagine properly. But we had a conversation about that moment, and what I realized is that the scene in my head of dropping my daughter off at college was very sweet and naive.”
“Chris reminded me that this moment for Roz and Brightbill is very far from that. I remember going home and reflecting on this idea that years from now, no matter how hard I try, she’s gonna be disappointed,” Bowers added. “She’s gonna be upset with me. I’m gonna fall short of what she needs. All these things that were really painful to think about and that I didn’t want to imagine stirred a lot of emotion in me. I went to the piano and tried to find something that made me feel those same feelings, and found what is now the main theme.”
These sounds, along with the story’s overarching theme of family made THE WILD ROBOT a massive success. Now it has been nominated for three academy awards. While the movie has now taught millions of viewers more about the nature of family, Bowers was open about how much it taught him during the creation process.
READ MORE: THE WILD ROBOT TAUGHT ITS COMPOSER THIS RELATABLE PARENTING REALIZATION
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