Cory Stillman
Composer Stuart Hancock has made a name for himself over the last decade across film, television, and concert music. His epic orchestral arrangements have accompanied such projects as BBC’s Atlantis and the animated movie adaptation of We’re Going On A Bear Hunt. He won a prestigious Ivors Classical Award in 2015 for his concert work Snapshot Songs, and has composed iconic cues from several high-profile brands, including Amazon and Green Mountain Energy. But the sense of adventure that permeates Hancock’s work has found no better home than his latest project, Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry’s Kensuke’s Kingdom.
” I think my strength in orchestral scoring lends itself well to the sort of heightened reality that you often get with this sort of project, be it live action or animation,” says Hancock.
The gorgeously animated adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s classic children’s book features an impressive voice cast, including Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, and Cillian Murphy. Watanabe even contributes vocals to Hancock’s score, voicing the titular Kensuke, whose tragic backstory gives way to one of Hancock’s greatest musical accomplishments.
“It’s an arrangement of a Japanese folksong where the power of the human voice delivers devastating and raw emotion, capped with the use of an 8-year-old Japanese girl soloist,” the composer explains.
Hancock’s score reached a new level of success when it was nominated for an Annie Award late last month. It was an emotional achievement for Hancock, who was nearly starstruck by the company in his category of Best Music – Feature. In addition to Oscar nominee Kris Bowers (The Wild Robot), the category includes such heavy-hitters as Pharrell Williams (Piece by Piece), Lorne Balfe (Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl), and Wicked composer John Powell, who is nominated not for his Oscar-nominated score on the hit musical but rather for the music he crafted alongside Ed Sheeran for Netflix’s That Christmas.
“My first reaction, when seeing the other nominees, was a bit of imposter syndrome– it’s a very starry list of composers that I’m thrilled to be recognized with and whom I’m looking forward to meeting at the ceremony!”
Indeed, Hancock’s inclusion in the category is a genuine testament to the quality of his work and the respect he has commanded amongst his peers. Check out our full conversation with this rising star of the composing world below!
Hey Stuart! Congratulations on your Annie Award nomination for Best Music – Feature! What was your initial reaction when you found out?
Thanks Cory! I was absolutely delighted to get the nomination, along with Kensuke’s Kingdom’s two other nominations (for Best Writing and Best Independent Film.) My first reaction, when seeing the other nominees, was a bit of imposter syndrome – it’s a very starry list of composers (e.g. Pharrell Williams, John Powell, Ed Sheeran, Lorne Balfe) that I’m thrilled to be recognized with and whom I’m looking forward to meeting at the ceremony!
As an independent animated film, Kensuke’s Kingdom’s success at the Annie Awards is especially noteworthy. What does it mean to you to see this film recognized alongside some of the year’s biggest animated films?
The gratifying thing is that it was a juried process, so my score was considered for the Annie nomination on a level playing field with the others and judged on merit alone, so I have every reason to be very proud of it. Similarly, Kensuke’s Kingdom‘s nomination for Best Children’s and Family Film at the upcoming BAFTAs has come through a jury vote, rather than a vote by the wider membership. Many of the other awards and categories require campaigning and promotion, and the films that are able to shout the loudest get watched the most – and therefore considered the most. This advantage is something that an indie like Kensuke’s Kingdom can’t compete with, so it’s absolutely brilliant for it to be getting this recognition.
Can you tell us about the creative process behind composing the score for Kensuke’s Kingdom? What was your primary inspiration?
Kensuke’s Kingdom is an adaptation of a very popular children’s book by War Horse author Michael Morpurgo. It’s a very gentle 2-D hand-drawn style of animation, and, in essence, an old-fashioned adventure story. The directors, Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry, and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce kept dialogue to a minimum and they knew from the start that the music would play a big part in the story-telling. Their temp score was filled with tracks from fabulous old-school adventure scores (like those of Williams, Horner, Silvestri), so the brief was very clear! It was a very creative, collaborative process, where the use of themes and motifs for characters and scenes was crucial – and what I was able to create was richly symphonic!
Main theme – ‘The Peggy Sue’
The music in Kensuke’s Kingdom is deeply emotional. How did you approach balancing the story’s themes of adventure, survival, and friendship through your music?
I worked on and off on the music very closely with Neil and Kirk over the course of about two years, from the animatic stage to completion, so we had the luxury of a good long working period to really get things right. There was a lot of trial and error with the thematic material, but when I landed on the right notes, we all knew it! The first theme I wrote for the film actually happened years before, back in 2016 when they made a two-minute teaser animation to help raise the finance. They asked me to score it, and one of the motifs from this music became the ‘island’ theme and served as Kensuke’s chant that recurs through the film:
Kensuke’s Chant – ‘New Family’
Neil and Kirk created an exquisitely-paced and balanced narrative that really lent itself well to music; they got the balance right, so it gave me the perfect platform to balance my own thematic material in the right way. The final ‘Sayonara’ scene in the film is a particular favorite of mine: it’s where I’m able to bring back all the main themes of friendship, family, and survival for one last rendition before letting them go. All very satisfying – and not a dry eye in the house!
Final scene – ‘Sayonara’
Did you have any specific challenges while scoring for Kensuke’s Kingdom? How did you overcome them?
The biggest challenges for me weren’t the creative ones – I thrive on those, especially when you’re working with a team of filmmakers that you have huge respect for. The biggest challenge for me, by far, was to enable this score to fulfil its symphonic ambitions within the limitations of a tight budget. Managing that was pretty tough, and required recording outside of the UK with the orchestra. Even then, we had just four sessions with the orchestra over two days to capture all 74 minutes of score music – which was a daunting task. But, with many hours of meticulous preparation on my part, an incredible effort and commitment from the orchestra, and with the help of the mixing skills of Adam Smyth at String & Tins, I’d like to think I’ve produced a big epic score that sounds much more expensive than it actually was! The other tough challenge has come since completing the work, and that’s doing my bit to promote the film and get people to see it without the clout of a big studio push behind it, but hopefully it’s a film that people will love and come back to time and again in the years to come.
Were there any particular instruments or musical techniques you relied on to capture the unique environment of the island in the film?
It’s a very traditional score in its use of character themes and motifs, and uses the medium of the symphony orchestra in a pretty conventional way. But I also use a choir in various ways: at first, it’s textural and atonal when Michael is washed up on the mysterious island, and later the choir adds warmth as he grows to belong in his new environment, and then the singers are very much to the forefront in the ‘Nagasaki’ sequence.
‘Sakura Sakura’ – Nagasaki sequence
This is a flashback where we learn Kensuke’s origin story with an incredibly powerful depiction of the dropping of the atomic bomb. It’s an arrangement of a Japanese folksong where the power of the human voice delivers devastating and raw emotion, capped with the use of an 8-year-old Japanese girl soloist. There are also other exotic flavors in the score with the occasional use of world flutes (bamboo dizi and bass flutes) and taiko and toms percussion (particularly in the Hunt sequence.)
Looking back on the entire composition process for Kensuke’s Kingdom, is there one particular moment or scene where the music came together in a way that felt especially rewarding to you?
The ‘Nagasaki’ and ‘Sayonara’ sequences, as already mentioned, are particular favorites. Working on the extended action and drama of the ‘Hunt’ sequence was amazingly satisfying too. Another rewarding puzzle to have solved in the score was how best to musically capture the relationship between Michael and Kensuke. Neil and Kirk saw it as a love story and wanted a “love theme” to portray the companionship between the two castaways, with their initial suggestion being to somehow intertwine together existing themes for the two characters into something new. I just couldn’t make that work in a way that didn’t feel forced or contrived. In the end, I hit the jackpot with a very simple, sweet new theme played on the solo piano: it’s first heard when the two characters, after finding common ground, finally learn each other’s names about halfway through the film – it’s a very emotional scene! The directors liked the new piano theme so much that it features in many guises throughout the remainder of the score.
Love Theme – ‘Kensuke and Michael’
As a composer, you’ve worked on a variety of projects, including a few iconic advertisements as well. How does scoring for an animated feature like Kensuke’s Kingdom compare to scoring for live-action films or other media?
Yes, I do a lot of advertising music alongside my film and TV scoring work – the ads very much pay the bills! The obvious difference with ads is time – both the duration of the film and the time you have to work on it. You’re distilling an entire narrative score into the space of 30 seconds or less, which brings a whole new set of challenges! I’ve done music for US commercials in the last few months for Green Mountain Energy, a couple for Amazon Business, and I’m currently putting the finishing touches to a new US campaign for Emirates Airlines.
I do seem to be drawn to family/adventure films and TV though (such as Kensuke’s Kingdom, We’re Going On A Bear Hunt and my scoring on BBC’s fantasy series Atlantis), and I think my strength in orchestral scoring lends itself well to the sort of heightened reality that you often get with this sort of project, be it live action or animation. I’m starting shortly on the score for a new British sci-fi feature film called Stargazers, which is right in my wheelhouse and is going to be a lot of fun. I’ve always been fortunate to get a mixture of work, be it ads, TV, concert music, or films, and I hope that continues, especially with a brilliant calling card like Kensuke’s Kingdom under my belt!
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