Disney and Pixar's "Onward" Opens March 6
Five-time GRAMMY® Award-winning singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile has been tapped to perform an emotionally poignant song, “Carried Me With You,” for the end credits of the upcoming Disney and Pixar film “Onward.” The song is written and produced by Carlile, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth, for the original motion picture soundtrack, available digitally from Walt Disney Records on Feb. 28.
“‘Carried Me With You’ is a song about not taking love for granted—accepting love even when you don’t feel like you deserve it,” said Carlile. “It’s absolutely wonderful to be a part of a Pixar film! I can’t wait for my little girls to see it! It’ll no doubt have all the wonder, imagination and creative life lessons our family has come to love about Pixar films.”
The all-new, original film features a dynamic score from multiple-award-winning composers Mychael Danna (Oscar® winner for “Life of Pi”) and Jeff Danna. When they ventured to Pixar Animation Studios to learn about a new project from director Dan Scanlon, they had no idea what to expect——and what they heard astonished them. “It’s weirdly and uncannily personal for us,” said Mychael Danna. “As soon as Dan started talking about it, the hairs went up on the back of my neck. The whole story: father is an accountant and dies when the brothers are young, and how the relationship of the brothers is affected. In our case we were 19 and 13.
“As a composer,” continued Danna, “you have to understand and relate to the emotion of the characters. You have to empathize with them and go to your own experiences. Sometimes that can take some effort, but in this case, there was no problem accessing all the personal emotion we have about this story.”
Their score elevates the fantasy aspect of the film, featuring folk and early music instruments, including folk guitars, the plucked-string psaltery, and a crumhorn. Magic is also a key component of the story, so the composers had to design music to complement the spells and effects. “Musically, the magic is big and out of control—trumpets flying around,” said Jeff Danna. “But at the heart of it, there are four notes. Even in the first scene when the magic is out of control—this whirling cyclone of a cue—there are these four notes that hang through it. That’s the thing you can just barely put your finger on. As the film progresses, we present that more and more clearly. Amongst all of the craziness, these four notes tell the story of the magic.”
The score, which features 44 cues, was recorded with a 92-piece orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Dodd.
