How Alan Menken and Glenn Slater Made a Song

When it comes to women’s songs, there is no one bigger in the sport than Alan Menken. That’s why Skydance Animation is the legendary eight-time Oscar winner for writing the music and rating the new animated musical “Spellbound.”

In the film, now streaming on Netflix, Rachel Zegler plays Princess Ellian, a young woman who seeks to break the spell that turns her royal mother and father (Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem) into monsters. John Lithgow, Jennifer Lewis, Tituss Burgess and Nathan Lane also lend their voices to the whimsical fairy tale epic.

“The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin” and “Magnificence and the Beast” composer Menken is joined by frequent collaborator Glenn Slater (“Tangled”), who serves as lyricist. “Glenn Slater really captures the sensation that goes together with Alan’s music in such a fantastic way,” says Zegler in a unique new feature regarding the creation of film music. “Alan and Glenn together as a crew is a match made in heaven.”

Zegler said he first signed on here as an early vocalist to sing for a demo recording, but was eventually introduced to voice Ellian for real – one thing he’s done for nearly 5 years. “I worked hard constantly through ‘Shazam’ and ‘Snow White,’ going into very different studios around the world,” Zegler told Selection earlier this 12 months in a cowl story interview, excited about the joy of recording sound from where just on earth. “Javier is in Jordan doing ‘Dune,’ so he’s going to go, sand all over the place, and go into the sales room!”

“This woman cannot be trusted. I mean, he probably has the best voice,” Kidman said of Zegler in the new feature. “The music is so good, and so basic.”

For Zegler, singing the music of Menken and Slater is a personal fairy tale. “I’m very grateful,” she said. “Alan made the soundtrack when I was a kid, and now it’s the soundtrack to my first animated movie.”

Below, Menken and Slater break down their path to making “Spellbound” music in an interview with Selection.

Ellian guides the audience to an unconventional scenario with the opening number full of, “My father and mother are Monsters.” How did you get into the tone of breaking the fourth wall for this character introduction?

Glenn Slater: One of the many issues that we are very aware of is that, as a result mainly based on real household dynamics that you will be an expert in the real world, we need to be sure that we have respected exactly how people are. will act in the real world. We have conceived Ellian as a 15-year-old woman, and a 15-year-old woman at this time can talk to the phone, breaking the fourth wall. We really need to take that kind of slanginess, the best way that you just discuss with them through social media, the best way that will show people through social media what your world looks like. That’s what we had in mind when we created the character and in those opening seconds. This can be a teenage girl you realize, not a fairy tale princess from a storybook.

After all, this bubbly fun fades away and becomes longing on the next big track, “The Way It Was Earlier.” How did you go about crafting that ballad, knowing it would become the emotional core of the film?

Alan Menken: You will be able to see in the animation exactly, when you see this broken piano, and water drops just hit the note. The only surprising thing is that it breaks down, and the way it works is in the track’s intro. The track is a passion for one thing that has been broken, and wants to put it back together.

Slater: This is the main track we wrote for the piece. It was written earlier than we even had the plot nailed down, and we have sat around the table and discussed the character and what he needs, and this method is totally different from the abnormal fairy tale characters. Phrases like “longing and unhappiness,” but “hope and goodness,” come here together. Alan just sat down at the piano and said, “Oh, like this?” It’s the kind of moments that you just always remember.

Go to: Often requires extra prompts!

Slater: Alan is like the world’s most subtle musical AI. You feed him: he’s comfortable, but he’s brave, and he hasn’t seen his mom and dad for a long time, and that’s how it is when you open a present, but it’s not the way you do it. required. And he was like, “Oh, like this!”

Go to: I actually illustrated the audio animatronics from Alan Menken.

Why was Rachel Zegler the best choice for Princess Ellian’s voice?

Slater: I believe that he was just about (director) Vicky Jenson’s first choice from asking to go, and we were all very excited when he signed in, as a result of his sort of very good. He is a technology that grew up with Disney movies. So she’s completely internalized what Disney heroes look like and look like, but she’s also such a good actress that she can take that template and put her own explicit spin on it, and dig into the details of this character and create it. he really feels like a real individual. He just got to the studio and nailed it.

One of the most famous numbers is John Lithgow’s performance “I Could Use This.” It just sounds like you two had a blast participating in it, with lyrics like “It’s more than amazing / How do I live all live larva-less?”

Go to: Or “I can be used to this / In some ways I can’t help but shake this big fat one of mine!”

Slater: This was the last track we wrote. This is the second place where this critical second act takes place, some, some quite emotional twists and turns. And we keep saying, “It looks like we want a number of manufacturers.” And we realized we had John Lithgow on board. Let’s define one thing! He has an amazing voice, and a great comedian’s timing, so we tried to get his pure voice and come here.

Go to: And we have to use Flinks as a connector for a second that will especially encapsulate this very cultural people now consuming larvae and saying, “Oh!”

On that note, are there any particular lyrics from those songs that you really like?

Go to: “Less larvae.”

Slater: I believe that’s what happened to my tombstone. “Here lies Glenn Slater: Larva-less.”

Go to: You know, the simplest and the most affecting is the one that is not found. Moments that basically capture your coronary heart that can be very powerful.

Slater: We all said that, to do the job accurately, you don’t consider Alan’s music or my lyrics, you just consider the character singing. What is the best way to talk and the best way to feel? The songs that you remember the lines of are when the characters are cultured or smart or clever, so the lyrics are their own. But when you have characters like the mother and father in this film who can barely communicate, the lyrics are not intelligent, but I hope you get a sense of the struggle to define yourself and the struggle to find the best phrase and create it. emotional connection. It won’t be like Sondheim, but it will definitely be the best factor of the character in that second.

The two of you have collaborated together on many projects, from “Tangled” to “Galavant.” What keeps you coming back and wanting to work over and over again?

Go to: It must have been amazing between us. We are quite the opposite in the room. I’m likely to go for massive emotional gestalt and drive in the track story. Glenn is interested in dramaturgical structure, and how do you do that? We have been in the trenches together. I can’t remember a time when we weren’t involved in one thing together. It actually jogs my memory of course with (late collaborator Howard Ashman) quite a lot. It will become smoother and smoother with each collaboration. However, we know that whenever we create a new business strategy, we have to disrupt all these things and reinvent the wheel with the aim of finding the voice of this venture that is typical for this one. The variety of songs we play, there may be different music than this!

Slater: This is an important part of any effort and collaboration: having faith in your collaborators that you can overcome problems, knowing that only you and your collaborators will give you one thing higher every time, that’s one thing. that you just don’t get with everyone. Knowing that I’m going to get the basics of Alan Menken, no matter what he comes up with, no matter how many permutations, we’re going to work out what kind of melody you’re going to play. can’t get it out of your head.

This interview has been edited for size and readability. Selome Hailu contributed reporting to this story.