Saturday, November 05, 2016

Songs For Animation

At the DWA panel for "The Contenders" today:

Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” ... was composed for DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls, and occupies a huge emotional point in the film. Timberlake, who also co-stars in the animated pic, not only wrote the song but served as the film’s music executive producer. ...

He successfully made himself tear up while watching a scene featuring a performance of the Cyndi Lauper classic “True Colors,” as he explained this afternoon while talking with Deadline’s Dominic Patten during the DreamWorks Animation panel at Deadline’s the Contenders event in West Hollywood.

“‘True Colors’ [is] a beautiful song, and it’s a huge emotional moment in the film,” said Timberlake. “And so I’m watching it and I’m like, ‘Am I … crying? At myself?’ I thought my only opportunity to do that was like a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and a mirror!” ...

Songs for animated musicals can often be tricky. Great songs can be tossed when plot lines change, as happened in Aladdin back in the day. The Great Mouse Detective had a song recorded and animated when Jeffrey Katzenberg, fresh from Paramount, took over the department and ordered it redone, and a new performer was brought in to sing it.

That's what happens with the creative process, people on the movie gallop up pathways that don't lead to the Promised Land and then have to back track. Good to see that Mr. Timberlake had the process well in hand during DreamWorks Animation's latest feature.

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