‘A Symphonic Score of Great Sweep’: Composer Henry Jackman on Scoring the Music for ‘Strange World’

Symphony is at the center of composer Henry Jackman’s sonic vision for Disney’s new animated movie Strange World, which released right around Thanksgiving week and continues to be a holiday-time watch for families.

Featuring the voices of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Lucy Liu, Jaboukie Young-White and more, the action and comedy flick puts the spotlight on a family of adventurers — the Clades — as they journey deep into a subterranean world called Avalonia. It’s par for the course with any Disney family movie; warm, chuckle-worthy and cheesy in parts, but Jackman’s score for Strange World deserves special mention.

Jackman is described by the movie’s producer Roy Conli as part of the storytelling team and the composer says in a statement that it’s “one of the most rewarding scores I’ve done.” Looked upon as a protégé of Hans Zimmer, Jackman’s journey has seen him go from rave party-starter in the U.K. to film music composer behind blockbusters like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Detective Pikachu and The Interview over the past couple of decades.

Jackman says, “I am always on the lookout for a type of film score that doesn’t come around every day, which is a big, symphonic orchestral score. Just from reading the script, I got incredibly excited that this movie is a great adventure for our characters in a visually enormous and poetic world that [Strange World co-directors] Don [Hall] and Qui [Nguyen] have created.”

The composer worked in symphony for the most part, but also introduced dulcimers and guitars with a bit of electronic elements to depict the “half-agricultural, half-technological world” of Avalonia in the movie. He adds, “Once they get in the airship and descend, it really does lead more into the symphony orchestra, and instead of using non-orchestral elements to describe this world, the mystery comes more from the melodic language that’s used to culture a sense of other-worldliness.”

Jackman also worked with choir vocals but in a different manner. He talks about using an acoustic choir but wanting to “extend it slightly and augment it.” The composer adds, “So, it’s half real choir and half choral sound that could not be made by humans. Rather than being completely synth, it’s a bit more like augmented reality. There are a couple of tricks like that where occasionally stringlines are extended with a slightly ambient synth that follows the stringline by way of enhancement but never dominates.”

Listen to the ‘Strange World’ soundtrack below. Watch the movie on Disney+ Hotstar.