‘The Wild Robot’ Score Evoked Kris Bowers’ Worst Fears of Parenting – Sound & Screen Film

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The Wild Robot is about an unlikely family of a robot and a goose. The music from the film reflects composer Kris Bowers’ own anxieties about being a new parent: He had a 6-month-old daughter when he began composing the score.

A major theme plays midway through the film when the robot, Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o), had taught Brightbill to fly and has to watch him fly away to migrate with a flock. “Roz has been, as [writer-director] Chris [Sanders] often says, going towards this emotional cliff she doesn’t even recognize as she’s raising Brightbill,” Bowers said. “Roz and Brightbill are dealing with something that’s possibly irreparable.

They may never see each other again. They may never speak again. In this moment, They’re not saying goodbye, they’re not saying I love you.” Bowers admitted he first wrote a piece of music imagining sending his newborn daughter off to college eventually.

However, the music rang false because he was avoiding what the scene was really about. “It made me think about the fact that I’m inevitably going to fail her,” Bowers said. “I’m going to make mistakes.