Composers
Composer Steven Price Takes The Theme Park Experience To New Heights With WONDER PARK Score
June in a scene from the animated film, WONDER PARK by Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies © 2018 Paramount Animation, a Division of Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
Imagine a magical one-of-kind amusement park where gravity-defying rides thrill delighted crowds, the streets are with packed with colorful characters, and jaw-dropping attractions amaze visitors from all over the world. That’s exactly what 8-year-old math whiz and aspiring engineer June (voiced by Brianna Denski) has done. In the privacy of her bedroom, she and her mom (Jennifer Garner) have constructed Wonderland, a place where the carousel is made of airborne goldfish and the river rapids glow like 4th of July fireworks.
June has been building Wonderland for almost her entire young life, using her boundless imagination to create a park that will astound children of all ages. It’s run by chimpanzee impresario Peanut (Norbert Leo Butz), who creates a spectacular world of endless fun with a truly magic marker and the help of an animal staff inspired by June’s collection of stuffed animals. But when June’s mother becomes seriously ill, the girl abandons their creation, declaring herself finished with Wonderland forever. But the amusement park, it seems, is not yet finished with June. While wandering in the woods, she stumbles upon an enchanted clearing where Wonderland has come to life, along with her imaginary friends Boomer, the welcome bear (Ken Hudson Campbell); Steve, the safety specialist porcupine (John Oliver); Greta, the sensible boar (Mila Kunis); and maintenance beavers Cooper (Ken Jeong) and Gus (Kenan Thompson). But lately, a mysterious Darkness has descended over the park and, even more disturbingly, Peanut has gone missing.
With the park under attack by a horde of maniacally adorable Chimpanzombies, havoc and destruction reign. To save her brilliant creation, June sets out to find Peanut and uncover the mystery behind the Darkness before it destroys Wonderland forever.
An enchanting adventure that celebrates the power of family, imagination, teamwork and self-belief, Wonder Park is written and produced by André Nemec and Josh Appelbaum (Teenage Mutant Turtles franchise, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) from a story by Robert Gordon (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Men in Black II).
One of the important elements for the filmmakers was finding a score as inventive as June herself to highlight the drama, design and vision of their film. They enlisted Steven Price, the Academy Award -winning composer for director Alfonso Cuarón’s groundbreaking space-flight film Gravity, to create music that would inspire the same sense of wonder June has instilled in her creation. WONDER PARK opens in theatres March 15 and in our fourth interview with the composer, I recently spoke with Price about his latest film.
June in a scene from the animated film, WONDER PARK by Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies
Audiences have heard Price’s scores on countless films. From a crime thriller movie (BABY DRIVER), a superhero movie (David Ayer’s SUICIDE SQUAD), a science fiction movie (GRAVITY – interview), a World War 2 movie (FURY – interview), and now his latest, WONDER PARK. “I’ve got young kids so it’s lovely to be able to work on something that they can pop into the studio to see what I’m working on, and this film is about imagination. It was so much fun to work on.” says Price. “I was dazzled by the amount of creativity that went into it. I tried to convert that feeling into music and immerse the audience in it. If we are in Zero-G Land, anything goes, so why should the music be conventional? I’m hoping the audience will feel like they are on the rides along with June.”
Price says he was keen to find a musical theme that would do justice to Wonderland and convey the excitement of being there. “It is the theme park of your dreams, the most incredibly exciting, friendly, imaginative place in the world,” he explains. “I used lots of bells and chimes and the whole thing feels really alive.” He adds, “there is a cue for “Fireworks Falls” that has the sounds of Fireworks. It’s a percussion track instead of a conventional orchestral cue.” Price says he went out on a cold November evening to a fireworks display to record the natural sounds of the explosions.
Wonder Park is also a story about a family facing uncertainty, so there was lots of potential for beautiful and emotional music as well. “It starts off being about June and her mom and the things they share,” says Price. “Their theme has a warm tone, but it passes from major to minor during the sadder moments. It guides us through the film as she works things out.”
Price, who had never scored an animated feature before, says he enjoyed the process of the medium. “One of the joys and challenges of animation is that there’s nothing in the frame that isn’t there for a reason,” he says. “My score has a certain structure and then I would add details as I noticed more and more things in the animation. The two things together became more than the sum of their parts.”
“To score an animated feature has always been an ambition of mine and recording at Sony Studios in Los Angeles was great fun,” says Price. “I’ve always been obsessed with the form, from the British stop motion stuff showing on tv during my own childhood to classic Disney, Pixar and beyond, and, after becoming a father this became something I shared with my kids, enjoying what has been a golden period of animated films together.”
This Humpback whale is feeding off Cape Town in November, Cape Towns summer. These whales are well known to feed on krill in the southern ocean, but off Cape Towns west coast, these whales feed on other species such as Euphoarsiids (E. Lucens), Hyperiid amphipods (Themisto gaudichaudii) and Mantis shrimps.
In addition to WONDER PARK, Price also worked on the upcoming Netflix series “Our Planet”. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, this eight-part series will explore the unique and precious wonders of our natural world from the creators of the award-winning series Planet Earth. In partnership with World Wildlife Fund, Our Planet combines stunning photography and technology with an unprecedented, never-before-filmed look at the planet’s remaining wilderness areas and their animal inhabitants. The ambitious four-year project has been filmed in 50 countries across all the continents of the world, with over 600 members of crew capturing more than three and a half thousand filming days, and will focus on the breadth of the diversity of habitats around the world, from the remote Arctic wilderness and mysterious deep oceans to the vast landscapes of Africa and diverse jungles of South America.
Price says, “I couldn’t be more proud of that and was incredibly honored to be a part of it. It’s an amazing look at the state of the planet now and the challenges we face. The 8 parts take you the various environments and different parts of the earth and how everything connects. I hope people watch it and it makes a difference. It was huge passion project for everyone involved.”
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