Onward (soundtrack)

Onward (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by Mychael and Jeff Danna
Released	February 28, 2020
Recorded	2019–20
Venue	Warner Bros. Eastwood Scoring Stage
Genre	Score
Length	1:03:23
Label	Walt Disney
Pixar soundtrack chronology
Toy Story 4 (2019) Onward (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2020) Soul (2020)
Mychael Danna chronology
The Addams Family (2019) Onward (2020) Stillwater (2021)
Jeff Danna chronology
The Addams Family (2019) Onward (2020) Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021)

Onward (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2020 Disney/Pixar film of the same name. The score is composed by Mychael and Jeff Danna, in their second Pixar film, following The Good Dinosaur (2015). The scoring was held at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Bros. in Los Angeles which required a 30-member choir and 92-member orchestra.

The original soundtrack included the original song called "Carried Me With You" performed by Brandi Carlile. It was released by Walt Disney Records on February 28, 2020, seven days ahead of the film's release.

The Japanese dub uses Sukima Switch’s "Zenryoku Syounen" as the credits theme.^[1]

On April 16, 2019, Mychael and Jeff Danna, who both previously worked with the studio on The Good Dinosaur (2015), were revealed to be the film's composers.^[2] When the Danna brothers were approached by director Dan Scanlon to compose the musical score, they did not know anything about the film before their meeting with the Onward team. At The Hollywood Reporter, Mychael says, "As [Dan Scanlon is] pitching this story, the hairs on the back of our necks are just going up. Because this is really familiar personal territory for us."^[3] His brother Jeff says, "It's a pretty uncommon request in our business to do a '70s prog-rock-wizard combination for a masterful film — a Pixar film. We had a lot of fun starting there and put together a great band."^[3]

The scoring was held at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Bros. in Los Angeles. 30 vocalists from Los Angeles Master Chorale and 92 musicians from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, worked on the choral and orchestral pieces used in the score.^[4]

On February 12, 2020, Brandi Carlile revealed she recorded the original song "Carried Me With You" for the film's end credits, co-written with Phil and Tim Hanseroth.^[5] According to TheWrap, Carlile says, "All the way into my teenage years, having the visual to accompany certain kinds of new music was the way that I made inroads and forays into new genres of music that I wasn't being exposed to by my parents. I listened to only classic country music in my household growing up. So I would see a Disney movie or hear a Giorgio Moroder soundtrack, and I'd be like, 'Oh, my God, what is this amazing sound?' One of the most influential pieces of music in my life actually came in my preteen years when I got the 'Philadelphia' soundtrack. And I mean, on that soundtrack alone, there was Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, the Indigo Girls and opera. That soundtrack — to this day, I'm still chasing it down in my writing."^[6]

The track "Magic" by the Cars was featured in the first trailer of the film,^[7] the track "Hocus Pocus" by Focus was featured in the second trailer,^[8] and the track "Coming Home" by Sheppard was featured in the international trailer. The tracks were used for promotional purposes, and neither were featured in the soundtrack, nor in the film. Additionally, one song featured "Let's Get It On" from Marvin Gaye in the film, but is not included from the soundtrack.^[9]

Alex Reif from Laughing Place reviewed "the first track is the end credit closer by Brandi Carlile, "You Carried Me With You." Her folk pop style is perfect for the film as the genre is all about generational storytelling, which is at the core of the film. The style may be incongruous with the rest of the score, but I love the song and the message within it. This is a perfect song to add to your family road trip playlist." Reif also reviewed "the rest of the soundtrack is forty-four tracks of score by Mychael Danna & Jeff Danna amounting to about an hour of solid music. Being a modern fantasy set in a world with creatures like elves, trolls, fairies, and mantacores, the score borrows musical elements from the fantasy genre. Expect to hear lutes, chimes, harpsichords, and high-pitched chorals. There are quite a few themes that play throughout the score, but the most memorable and frequently used melody tends to underscore Ian's character. It’s a lighthearted, bouncy melody that can be played uplifting, like on "A Little Magic," subdued like on "New Ian," sad on "Share My Life With Him," and adventurous on "Voltar Thunderseer!""^[10] James Southall, a review from Movie-Wave, had stated "A lot of the ingredients are here for a really fine score – there’s action, adventure, fantasy and magic and at times really heartwarming emotional material, and all those components in isolation are done pretty well. It doesn’t really gel together that well though – the very short tracks are an issue and every time things look like they’re really getting going, they just don’t. That’s a shame because there is definitely music here worth hearing."^[11]