The Wild Robot Film Sound Design Asbjoern Andersen


DreamWorks Animation's The Wild Robot – directed by Chris Sanders – is one of the biggest box office hits of the year. Audiences of all ages are rooting for the heartwarming robot Roz and her forest friends. Good news, director Sanders just confirmed a sequel is in development at DreamWorks.

While we wait for the reunion with Roz, let's dive into the sound of this remarkable first release, The Wild Robot , with supervising sound editors Brian Chumney and Leff Lefferts at Skywalker Sound. Here, they talk about creating the sounds for Roz, designing the animals as animals and as 'human-like' animals, creating the sounds for the forest, for Vontra and the RECOS, and much more!


Interview by Jennifer Walden, photos courtesy of Universal Pictures
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DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot tells the story of a shipwrecked robot named ‘Roz’ who, as a robot meant to assist humans, struggles to find her place on an island only inhabited by animals. Her initial well-meaning attempts to ‘help’ the animals go awry, but after she becomes the surrogate mother for an orphaned gosling she names Brightbill, Roz finds her purpose and her place in the ‘wild’ community.

The Wild Robot is currently in theaters and it’s now available to rent or buy via VOD.

Oscar-nominated supervising sound editor Brian Chumney and MPSE Award-winning supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Leff Lefferts at Skywalker Sound talk about bringing Roz to life through sound (her physical sounds, her vocal treatment, and her POV sounds), designing the sound of the other Universal Dynamics robots like Vontra and the RECOS, editing the animals’ sounds as animals and creating Roz’s transition to understanding their languages, creating the sound of the environment on the island, designing the attack sequences, and much, much more!



The Wild Robot | Official Trailer 2


The Wild Robot | Official Trailer 2

When you started on The Wild Robot, was there already a temp track from picture editorial or other guidelines for how the filmmakers might want this world or Roz the robot to sound? Or, were you asked to create different options/possibilities for sound that could help them discover what this film should sound like?

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Sound Supervisor Brian Chumney

Brian Chumney (BC): At Skywalker Sound, we always start with what the picture editors have been living with in their Avid for however many years. They were working on this film for about four years before we started. The good thing with our relationship, especially with Chris Sanders and DreamWorks, is that we know them well enough and they communicate with us early on. They will often get design ideas from sound designer Randy Thom earlier in the process.

Leff Lefferts (LL): Randy and I started about 2 ½ years before we mixed it. There’s always a lot of work that the picture department puts into it, throwing ideas at it. What’s cool is that our picture editor, Mary Blee, would come to us and say what she likes and doesn’t like about how she’s been trying to find the sounds for the film.

TheWildRobot_sound-22

Sound Supervisor/Re-recording Mixer
Leff Lefferts

Interestingly enough, the island is something that we started from scratch as a way of building it up, using all of Mary’s stuff as a reference. But they gave us the latitude and freedom to make the island a character.

BC: Yeah, in spotting sessions with Chris [Sanders] and Mary, making the island a character was always brought up and discussed. That was a big part of our job. Once we got to the mix, that’s what we would be listening to and working on.

Roz’s voice was also an organic process that started way early on with Leff and Randy trying ideas.

LL: One of Chris’s first questions was, “What does a modern synthetic voice sound like?” And we responded that it’s pretty close to human.

We started with the idea of making her sound very ‘retro robot’ in the beginning during her startup sequence when she first says “hello.” We went through several iterations as they were recording with actress Lupita Nyong’o, who performs the voice of Roz (and Rummage). They would record Lupita and send us lines to process. We’d send those back for Chris and Lupita to listen to together.

We spent a lot of time on it, and what we learned through all of that was that the voice of Roz is Lupita. Gary A. Rizzo (dialogue/music re-recording mixer) did an incredible job of using very minimalistic processing to allow her to feel a bit more inhuman to human in a couple of moments, but much of what you’re hearing is the way Lupita performed it.

Early on, you’re hearing more of the elements that Gary added to her voice, like the resonant, fiberglassy hollowness of her own shell.

BC: Yeah, her performance was always the biggest element. We tried to identify the point in the story where she’s 100% human and during the mix, we were having fun experimenting with when that point is and how can we get to it. We found that it was earlier on in the picture than maybe we would have thought originally.

It’s fun to have a gradual shift. Early on, you’re hearing more of the elements that Gary added to her voice, like the resonant, fiberglassy hollowness of her own shell. But by the end of the film, we don’t have any of that because we’re just with her and her humanity.

 

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It’s the same for Vontra, too. Her voice is unrobotic, sweet, and luring….

LL: Yeah, yet there’s still a cold and unfeelingness to her character. Gary was able to add some of that processing to make her just a little less human.

We got to play with the RECOS too, to make them even less human.

BC: That was very much performance. That was Randy’s performance. He was the voice of the RECOS.

 

TheWildRobot_sound-04

There’s a moment as Vontra is being destroyed, and her vocal processing sounds like the evil voice from Evil Dead Rise!

BC: Yes, 100%! That was fun.

One of the fun things I got to do was come up with the idea of Roz short-circuiting, going through what she was versus what she’s become. She says, “Hello!” and then thinks of Brightbill. She goes from her basic programming to thinking of who she loves. She’s going back and forth and getting to create that was a quick but fun moment.

LL: Yeah, we don’t talk about that moment as much and it’s amazing because it sits all by itself. It doesn’t need anything else around it because it’s her journey in all of that.

We could definitely push the big, scary robot part of her sound.

One of the things that is different about this movie (which was a lot of fun) is treating the voice and the characters as sound design and then letting the rest of the sound design interact with it, finding the space for it. Lupita’s performance is so strong and so defining that you don’t hear Roz’s movements except when you need to.

BC: If we’re closer to Roz in the frame, or if we’re almost in Brightbill’s perspective, she’s this terrifying thing. We could definitely push the big, scary robot part of her sound.

 

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Roz makes so many sounds! Can you talk about how you created her physical sounds?

LL: That was led by Randy. The very first conversation that he and I had about Roz was how to make her different. Part of it is the fact that she looks different. The film is set in an indeterminate amount of time in the future. We don’t know how far advanced this technology is. We don’t know specifically what she’s made out of. She has no mouth. She can change into all of these different things.

We don’t know specifically what she’s made out of. She has no mouth. She can change into all of these different things.

We’ve heard robots sound a certain way for so long, but Chris noted that Roz lives with humans. All these ROZZUM units live every single day with human beings, so they have to be pleasant sounding.

BC: Yeah, the robots are there to make everyone’s life better. So they can’t be a distraction.



The Sound of ‘The Wild Robot’  — Mix Sound For Film: Awards Season 2024


The Sound of ‘The Wild Robot’: Jennifer Walden speaks with Randy Thom, Supervising Sound Designer; Brian Chumney, Supervising Sound Editor; Leff Lefferts, Supervising Sound Editor/Re-Recording Mixer; Gary A. Rizzo, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer; and Kris Bowers, Composer, about their work on ‘The Wild Robot’

…one of Randy’s original ideas was using pneumatics and hydraulics – basically using air to define how she moves.

LL: They have to sound like they fit in the environments. They have to sound natural, in a sense. From the very beginning, one of Randy’s original ideas was using pneumatics and hydraulics – basically using air to define how she moves. Then from that point, we were trying to figure out how to make her heavy, make her scary, make her pleasant, make her broken, and so on by adding different elements into her sound.

Also, so much of it was being isolated on that island and trying to see how she’s different yet still has a sort of natural sound to her.

 

TheWildRobot_sound-06

At a certain point, you almost don’t register her sounds anymore until Brightbill draws attention to them as he’s trying to make friends on the island and he’s imitating her sounds as he does his movements. Did actor Kit Connor (the voice of Brightbill) have access to the sounds that Roz makes when they were recording his lines?

LL: I don’t know how much Kit heard our stuff versus the temp tracks. It’s interesting because the irony there, of course, is that by using your mouth to make robot sounds you’re pushing air, and part of Roz’s movement is made from breathing. Human breaths are part of her movement sounds.

BC: Part of the airiness is actual human breath.

Part of the airiness is actual human breath.

LL: That was performed by both Randy and our foley team. It’s part of that organic movement. We didn’t intend it originally, but then you have that moment when Brightbill says, “I am Brightbill,” and he makes the robot movement sounds.

BC: If anything, I would say that his performance informed our sound versus the other way around.

LL: But we hadn’t heard that scene when we first started talking about pneumatics and hydraulics. We were still in sequence period. We didn’t know that Brightbill did that. So that was a chance thing that told us we were doing the right thing.

BC: So it didn’t inform us; it just supported us.

LL: Adding the human element of breath allows us to perform the sounds and helps us to sell the emotion – sad, happy, excited, etc.

 

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What went into Roz’s interface sounds – the sounds we hear when we’re seeing the world from her perspective?

LL: Again, that was something that we didn’t want to draw too much attention to.

That was a lot of trial and error trying to find a way to put you inside her head without having too much to it. Gary did some interesting stuff when Roz was watching Brightbill as he’s learning to swim and he gets attacked by the fish. Gary did some filtering for how she hears Brightbill. He did a couple of little tricks to get inside her head. That was a lot of fun.

It was just trial and error of how to make it pleasant and not distracting.



The Sound of The Wild Robot, with Writer/Director Chris Sanders | #DolbyCreatorTalks


The Sound of The Wild Robot, with Writer/Director Chris Sanders

BC: Yeah, not distracting, but it is kind of Terminator 2. There’s a little bit of that element to it, right?

LL: We actually had to replicate a Terminator 2 sound because Mary was in love with it. We had to try to recreate some of Gary Rydstrom‘s original design.

We actually had to replicate a Terminator 2 sound…We had to try to recreate some of Gary Rydstrom‘s original design.

We used some of those effects in the Skywalker library for reference, but we had to reverse engineer it – figure out how to get the feel of the idea without doing the same thing that Gary did.

BC: It’s one of those cultural touchstone that you can whip up in your head and be inspired by. That allows us to do our own version of it without going back to the original sound files.

LL: Her heads-up display and her language learning, that was done by a whole team of us. Jamey Scott (sound effects editor) did some of the HUD display. Randy did some design. I did some. David Farmer (sound effects editor) concentrated a lot on the animals, and he also did some HUD stuff.

BC: Then, Gary [Rizzo] was at the mixing console putting perspective on the other sounds that you hear in the world as you experience them through her perspective.

It took everybody on the team. I had a little hand in it. It was definitely a collaborative effort.

 

TheWildRobot_sound-08

Let’s talk about Roz’s learning mode. At first, Roz doesn’t understand the animals, and so in her initial encounters with them, they all sound like animals but with emotive, human-ish qualities. What went into creating all these animal sounds?

LL: That’s a big mix. We used a lot of our library to start. Then we had to find people with access to certain animals. One of the benefits of digital recorders getting so small and being very high quality is that we can find people all over the world working at different animal rescue organizations or are close to different animal habitats. We can send them recorders, and have them record the animals.

…we can find people all over the world working at different animal rescue organizations or are close to different animal habitats. We can send them recorders, and have them record the animals.

BC: During COVID lockdown, one of the many things I got addicted to was finding YouTube channels of animal habitats and sanctuaries. I ended up getting hooked on Finnegan Fox. There’s a woman who has a little fox habitat. She’s saving foxes and Finnegan is the star fox. I fell in love with watching Finnegan Fox videos. And the minute we started working on this film, I said, “I know just the person to go to.” I was so happy when Greg Peterson, our first assistant who was in charge of wrangling all that stuff, sent a recorder to her. He also found another fox rescue.

LL: So we ended up getting a lot of fox recordings that way.

BC: The animals feel comfortable with their handlers. So by sending them a recorder and having them record the animals, we get very vocal, very emotive animal sounds.

LL: For whatever reason, we didn’t have many fox recordings before this film. We started to realize that it wasn’t a well-represented animal that we would have gone out and recorded. We have lots of bears and horses. We have lots of everything, but fox sounds were something we definitely needed to go out and get.

…fox sounds were something we definitely needed to go out and get.

Whenever we come across anybody that has access to animals, whether they’re rescue organizations or sanctuaries, we always try to either go out to record there or send records to them. The biggest problem is that it’s hard to make a trip to record Finnegan, let’s say, and expect Finnegan to perform while we’re there.

BC: Because we’re a distraction. We’re something new. They’re making noises when they’re comfortable and in the presence of people they know. It’s helpful to have these smaller portable recorders that we can send out to someone.

You end up getting sounds you never would have gotten.

And the good thing is that since they run their own YouTube channel, they’re tech-familiar enough to know how to work a recorder. You can be confident that you’re going to get something good from them.

LL: It does create a lot of work in cataloging the sounds, but it’s well worth the effort. You end up getting sounds you never would have gotten.

Animals are tough. It’s tough to get what you need.

 


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Roz Becomes One With Nature | The Wild Robot


Roz Becomes One With Nature | The Wild Robot

When Roz activates learning mode, she sits and listens to the animals and learns their ‘languages.’ I love your sound work for that transition between not understanding the animals and then understanding them. Can you talk about how you achieved that?

BC: Thank you! That was fun to do. A big part of that was our loop group performers. Pretty much all of the voices are human voices that were speaking gibberish that then became little snippets of things you could understand. That was all loop group. They did a great job.

We had to decide if the moose was grunting, or if that was a person grunting. Figuring that out was an amazing thing, both editorially and in the mix.

LL: That was an interesting challenge to figure out when animals are animals and when they’re speaking English as Roz learns their languages. It was interesting to see how that developed because when we originally – on the effects side – started cutting that stuff, there wasn’t as much discernable English. Then when Brian got done cutting it, it changed. It made us go back and revisit how heavily we leaned on animals in the beginning, which we were still doing. We probably had to thin that out a bit in the middle. Then we had some more punctuated animal sounds. We had to decide if the moose was grunting, or if that was a person grunting. Figuring that out was an amazing thing, both editorially and in the mix.

BC: Yeah, is it a speaking moose or a ‘moose’ moose?

LL: It was the same situation in the hut when all the animals were fighting. It was chaos because we both covered everything.

BC: Yeah, definitely. Again, our loop group did an amazing job in that scene. Between what we cut and Gary’s mix, the detail we got into that scene with all the voices made it come to life. But they’re all still wild animals, right? So it’s deciding if that moose is making a moose sound or doing a human scream.

You’re finding those little bits and finding what works for the drama or for the comedy. We’re very proud of that scene.

 



The Wild Robot | Raccoons Attack | Exclusive Clip


The Wild Robot | Raccoons Attack | Exclusive Clip

There’s another fun scene when the animals go crazy, and start tearing apart Roz/playing with Roz’s parts (There’s a hilarious moment during this scene when a ton of raccoons get slingshotted into the air!) Can you talk about your sound work for this sequence?

LL: That was also a ton of loop group. There’s a human element that makes the raccoons – these pesky, not caring scavangers – funny.

BC: We had some great performers who performed their hearts out for the raccoons. There are probably more human sounds in the raccoon scene than raccoon sound effects.

To have that kind of chaos and comedy, even if I cut 150 raccoon-chittering sounds, you still need to cover that with human voices.

LL: Gary and I got to have a lot of fun figuring out where to push the raccoons so that you never started to think that those are people. But, it required a lot of human voices. To have that kind of chaos and comedy, even if I cut 150 raccoon-chittering sounds, you still need to cover that with human voices. It’s the humans that are bringing out the comedy.

BC: Those were choices that we got to make on the dub stage – where’s the comedy and how do we get that to play in that moment?

LL: On the effects side, there are also non-English human vocals in there that we cut with the chittering raccoons.

 

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When you did casting for the loop group, were you looking for people who could imitate animals or make animal sounds?

BC: For these DreamWorks films, we use a loop group called LA Mad Dogs. Steve Alterman is the coordinator for that group. Steve gets to spot the movie with me for loop group purposes, to get an idea of who and what we need. Then he casts based on headcount and the work that we’re going to do.

Our director Chris was not only involved in the spotting, but he was also there for the recording itself. He got to be there for the loop group records…

Our director Chris was not only involved in the spotting, but he was also there for the recording itself. He got to be there for the loop group records and helped direct the insanity that was the raccoon stuff. It’s great to have a director be a part of that process. He loved it and understands how important it is. Loop group is a part of the process that a lot of folks don’t understand, so to have someone who supports you and enjoys the process is crucial.

Chris was not afraid of comedy. Often for loop group, they don’t necessarily want to push the comedy, but Chris supported us and wanted us to make it funny. So we had groupers that could do the comedy.

LL: Chris Sanders is a blessing. He’s coming to all of his departments wanting to tell the story and he’s just so eager and passionate about every aspect of it.

He wants to be involved in all of it. He also wants to give every department leeway to help him tell the story. That allows him to just guide us.

BC: He wants to help us support the story, and he’ll celebrate when we succeed. That’s one of the great things about Chris. He is behind us 100%.

 

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One of the most heartfelt (and heartbreaking) scenes is when Roz tries to teach Brightbill to fly. She’s essentially teaching him how to leave her and the island. This is a music-driven sequence, and sound supports the emotion here while also working with the song. Can you talk about your sound work for this sequence?

LL: That was a crucial part of the film and something that took a long time to get right because it’s very difficult to make a pop song last that long, and to go in and out of two big dialogue/storytelling moments.

Sometimes you want the sound effects to be in tune with the music and then in the flip of a coin, you don’t. So it’s a question of how they interact and play together.

…as Longneck is leaving, the music almost completely drops out and you just hear him flapping away, slightly heavily.

It’s very easy to just let that whole thing play as music. And even though the music is incredibly emotional, playing the effects there keeps it grounded, especially in and out of those moments with Longneck. I love that right before the song kicks off, as Longneck is leaving, the music almost completely drops out and you just hear him flapping away, slightly heavily. The sound effects get to play a moment to keep us on the island with them while this incredibly emotional period is going on.

BC: And it leads to the saddest checkmark sound of all time. The little mission is accomplished and there’s just this sad, lonely ‘bing’ sound for, “Okay, that’s done. That’s it. Mission’s over.” To have so much character in a simple sound effect is impressive. I think they did a great job with that.

 

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Brightbill joins the winter migration. The flock seeks shelter from a storm, flying inside an indoor corn field/grow facility. There are tons of robots who see the flock as an infestation. Some robots start shooting at the geese. This is the first time we experience robots as being capable of harm. How did you handle those sounds so that they sounded threatening, but were still acceptable for the palette of robot sounds that you’ve already created for this movie?

LL: All of the ROZZUM units are trying to scare the geese but aren’t trying to harm them. It’s when the RECOS come out and start shooting that we get to design this different classification of robot. We got to play with more of the idea of weight, more clunkiness. We rely more on metal sounds for the RECOS, and that’s something we didn’t do often for Roz.

…these other robots come out and start shooting. It comes out of nowhere. The sound makes you jump.

BC: It happens so fast. It’s sudden. The stakes are raised instantly. The sound supports that. That’s the whole idea – that these other robots come out and start shooting. It comes out of nowhere. The sound makes you jump. There’s this realization that, oh crap, they’re blasting. They’re trying to kill the geese. The meatiness of those blasters helps that.

LL: It’s the first time in the film that you hear a weapon. The ROZZUM units don’t do harm, but it’s the alarm, the human interaction that causes all the noise and the danger. The ROZZUM units sound the alarm to the humans and that’s when the chaos begins. The humans call out that we need to bring out something with a gun to get rid of these things before they destroy the food habitat.

 



The Wild Robot | Actors Going Wild "Vontra"


The Wild Robot | Actors Going Wild “Vontra”

We talked about the voice for Vontra, so let’s talk about Vontra’s movement sounds. They’re so menacing, which conflicts with Vontra’s voice. What went into the sounds for Vontra?

LL: Vontra, as you can imagine, was very influenced by snakes and things that are slithery because she’s slimy. She sounds sickly sweet, but she’s evil. She’s here to make sure that the problem is removed from the situation and taken care of. She needs to get Roz out of that situation and get the information that Vontra’s boss/company wants.

There’s a hissy and sinister aspect underneath this sickly sweet voice. I love the way her voice is treated so that the dichotomy comes out.

There’s a hissy and sinister aspect underneath this sickly sweet voice. I love the way her voice is treated so that the dichotomy comes out.

When Roz says her name is Roz, we get to see that color change and we get to play the color change with a very quick little alarm. Vontra asks, “Is something bothering you?” Stephanie Hsu’s performance with Gary’s treatment is super effective for making you feel threatened the whole time.

BC: It all evolves into the devilishness of it. There’s this devilish quality. Her seductive voice combined with the snaky sound effects of the tendrils all create the feeling that this thing is trying to lure Roz into coming back.

That moment she walks her fingers over Roz’s moss covered head, the foley there helps to take that threat and have a little fun with it.

LL: We have that underlying tone of her as she hovers around and explains that it’s her job to bring Roz back, and to put her at ease even though she’s cold and unfeeling. That moment she walks her fingers over Roz’s moss covered head, the foley there helps to take that threat and have a little fun with it.

BC: The foley helps that whole scene. There’s a detail to it that you hear because it’s quiet. You feel the detail of all of the movement of both characters.

 

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Who was your foley team on The Wild Robot?

LL: Our foley walkers were Jana Vance and Ronni Brown. Foley mixer was Richard Duarte. Foley editor was Dee Selby.

Something that Chris said, and I certainly agree, is that it seems like everyone on our crew fell in love with this movie and we all had fun contributing to it. Every department worked together to create Roz – all of her voice and her movement. You don’t make Roz without everybody contributing cool stuff to it.

 

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Vontra attempts to reset Roz/erase Roz’s memories but the ship is attacked by the flock of geese. Can you talk about your sound work for the geese attack?

LL: Something I find interesting about geese is geese honking. You can very easily play with that being pleasant or being panicked or angry. There’s something to the tonality of the way they honk that is very useful. It’s a matter of finding the layers because for their vocals, there’s not much of a difference in the source material between when they’re attacking and when they’re migrating. It’s how they’re layered and how they’re cut to work with the story and within the music.

If the geese are attakcing, we’re looking for more of the individual, harsher honks to layer.

That’s definitely a moment of crescendo. You have to figure out where the geese vocals are going to be in that and how they’re going to play. If the geese are attakcing, we’re looking for more of the individual, harsher honks to layer. It’s about finding the right tonality on a smaller level and then layering that up to create the biggest parts.

 

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How did you handle the forest fire sounds? The sounds after the fire was extinguished were lovely, with the cinders crackling and the bits of ash flying everywhere….

BC: We burned down a building. I like to go ‘method’ with all my effects.

LL: We had an incredible experience. We burned down a building here about 15 years ago. It wasn’t our doing! There was a bridge being built and they had to get rid of a building, so as a fire exercise, they burned it down. We got to fill the place with microphones. It was one of those happy moments for the sound nerds here. We got to put microphones in the whole thing.

…they had to get rid of a building, so as a fire exercise, they burned it down. We got to fill the place with microphones.

But if you listen to fire recordings, there is something to be said of that smoldering sound. What was a 20 foot raging fire at some point is just going to be coals on the ground. There’s going to be little cracks to it and there’s so much emotion that comes out of that. You have to be a little careful in that it can’t be too poppy or too crackly because then it sounds like it’s still active. But there’s still life in that fire and those smoldering ashes. It’s a delicate thing. How do you get the sound of ash in the air that doesn’t sound like it’s raining? It’s finding stuff and playing with it and EQing it in a way to make it soft.

You have all these beautiful moments, like the moment when Roz is coming back and she breaks the tiny piece of burnt wood off of the house.

Brian brought it up a couple of times just today, that we have some incredible quiet moments in this film. One of my favorite parts of this film is the very beginning with all that lightning in the storm and that sequence ends with a super quiet, single wave coming in and the voices of the otters. That contrast in the very beginning sets us up for the dynamics in the film. Chris’s direction to us was that we’re going to go on a ride with this film. So we’re finding a way to build those arcs, both cutting it and mixing. We get loud, yet not loud in a bad way. You have all these beautiful moments, like the moment when Roz is coming back and she breaks the tiny piece of burnt wood off of the house. It’s crushing and it’s delicate. The emotion is there. She’s just seen the destruction that she brought to the island.

One of the big surprise moments during the mix is when Brightbill finds Roz in the ship and she’s powered down. Our composer Kris Bowers wrote an amazing score. He wrote a beautiful cue for that moment. We were all there on the stage with Chris [Sanders] and the question was what if we dropped the music cue? That’s a tough thing to try, but immediately everything got so quiet and the heartbreak was so much bigger, so much greater.

That whole background battle wasn’t cut because we thought the music cue was going to carry the whole scene.

But, it was too quiet. As we’re mixing, we asked, “Well, do we put a little bit of the music back in?” Randy stepped up and said he’d be right back. He went and designed that whole battle continuing outside. You hear that as Brightbill is talking to Roz, and saying it’s not her fault. That whole background battle wasn’t cut because we thought the music cue was going to carry the whole scene. It ended up being so much more powerful without the music.

We’re emphasizing how amazing these quiet moments can be, but also how wonderful this collaboration is for all of us to find this part of the story on the dub stage together.

BC: This is a moment where two characters are sharing a scene. That should be it, right? The music doesn’t need to tell you that necessarily because it’s so intimate. It’s so quiet. That’s all you need.

LL: All you need is, “I love you, Mom,” bathed in that reverb. I still get choked up.

BC: I cried way too much on this movie.

LL: Commercials make me cry. So if Brian says he cried, you can imagine my reaction.

 

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I love that when Roz finally does wake up, it happens one little light, one little sound at a time…

LL: That was very thought out from a design standpoint, both visually and sonically, from very early on. It goes back to the moment when they first meet.

The only time Roz exhibits colors on her outer shell like that are when she’s with Brightbill…She doesn’t have that sound anywhere else.

The only time Roz exhibits colors on her outer shell like that are when she’s with Brightbill. Those moments sound different than any of the other moments when she lights up because of that relationship. She doesn’t have that sound anywhere else. The first time we hear those colors is during a huge music cue and so you don’t hear it. So, having her waking up and coming to life sounds very different because it’s not part of her programming. It’s their connection that wakes her up.

 

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What was your favorite scene for sound in The Wild Robot? What went into it?

BC: I guess I’ll talk about the whole Rummage sequence. There’s so much going on in that sequence – from where Roz is in the cave environment by the water with the water drips to creating all of the broken robot sounds in both effects and dialogue. We got to create more metallic, crunchy, grindy elements for the broken robots. And the dialogue for Rummage is stuttered and futzed. We got to do a lot of different sounds for Rummage’s voice that we didn’t do for Roz, so you see how different they are. Rummage tells Roz that Roz is the broken one. I just love that scene.

LL: One of the few consistent sounds in the whole film is Roz’s eye movement. So when we get to the scene with Rummage, Rummage has two blinks. They’re clanky, large camera shutter sounds. They very simple sounds.

BC: That are very upfront and featured in the mix. That’s the comedy of it.

LL: When you make the filmmakers laugh on the stage, that’s a lot of fun.

The movie starts by telling you that sound is going to be an important part of this experience.

I’d say it’s the moment just before the migration when Roz sits down. She’s feeling broken at that point. That’s an amazing moment sonically where the three big departments all blend. When we get these moments where you expect one of the departments to lead but in fact we’re all there together, it blends in a way to tell the story that hasn’t been told before.

I will say also that having a film that starts for 5 minutes with pretty much no dialogue or music…yeah, I’m in!

BC: The movie starts by telling you that sound is going to be an important part of this experience. Sound is going to be carrying the story through a lot of it in a way that you may not always get. The movie starts with a crash that’s followed by the gentle sounds of nature. Talk about dynamics. It’s just seaside wildlife and then another big wave crash. These dyanmics go through the whole film.

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In addition to the Rummage scene, I also like the scene with Roz and Fink on the mountaintop after the migration. It’s just two characters and this cold wind. You feel alone with them.

Every year I feel like there should be an animated film nominated for a ‘Best Sound’ Oscar because there’s so much detail that goes into it.

Every year I feel like there should be an animated film nominated for a “Best Sound” Oscar because there’s so much detail that goes into it. I feel like people should be aware of that and celebrate it. And it’s scenes like that in an animated film, to have an intimate moment feel so cold and lonely, that stand out. The way Roz feels, and the way she accidentally rejects Fink…

LL: It’s the most emotional moment of the film for me.

BC: It is! And Fink is saying, oh hey, we can hang out and do things and be friends. And Roz is like, nah, it’s alright…

LL: Also, when Roz says, “How do you tell someone you love them?” And Fink says, “You should tell them.” And she asks, “What if it’s too late?”

BC: And Fink realizes that Roz isn’t talking about him.

The winds in that sequence are so powerful.

LL: And we’re coming out of the migration cue and headed into the hibernation sequence where they’re trying to save everyone, this mountaintop moment is so quiet and beautiful. There’s a little bit of movement, some beautiful foley. You have this moment to be with these characters emotionally, be with them in the story. It’s beautiful.

 

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What did you learn while working on the sound of The Wild Robot?

LL: So much of what we do in telling these stories is finding the handoff point. Where are we dialogue-heavy? Where are we effects-heavy? Where are we music-heavy? What’s leading?

All of us were learning and following Chris Sanders’s sensibilities and believing in this story together – trying to collectively tell it together.

In doing this work, I’ve spent much of my time figuring out how to make these transitions seamless. There are so many amazingly big and sustained moments in this film where one department might be leading the other a little bit but we’re all there and realizing how much of each department can push up into this to tell this story together. For me, this is one of those films where every department is firing on all cylinders and contributing to this film throughout it. That was eye-opening to me, that it could be as effective as this. All of us were learning and following Chris Sanders’s sensibilities and believing in this story together – trying to collectively tell it together.

Kris Bowers came to the mix with us for a huge chunk of time. He contributed so much to the storytelling and it was a special experience.

BC: I appreciate being able to work with a crew that respects what everyone is bringing to the table. They respect every department. The director understands what we all do and respects what we all do. The composer views himself to be part of the team and respects what we do. I love being part of a supportive team that operates more as a family. I feel like that’s the way we were on this show.

 

A big thanks to Brian Chumney and Leff Lefferts for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of The Wild Robot and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

 

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