‘Migration’ Composer John Powell On Evolving the Score To Reflect a Hero’s Journey

Academy Award-nominated composer John Powell (How To Train Your Dragon) makes a lively and interesting career bouncing back and forth between scoring live action and animated feature films. His compositions supported some of the biggest franchises of the past two decades including Solo: A Star Wars Story, Kung Fu Panda, X-Men: The Last Stand, and The Bourne series among dozens of other high-profile titles. Last year’s score to the heavily buzzed film Don’t Worry Darling brought him a second nomination from the Society of Composers and Lyricists.

This year, Powell returned to cinemas with scores for two wildly different films: Apple TV+’s critically acclaimed documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie and the new Universal animated feature Migration.

That variety drives Powell as a composer and offers extensive opportunities for musical experimentation.

“I think as a composer you learn and grow from every project whether it’s animated or live action. There are certain things in animation, especially when there’s flying [laughs], that I get great joy out of,” Powell explained. “Live action offers opportunities that are obviously more grounded in reality, so you get to experiment with another world and be different with each project.”

Opening in theaters nationwide today, Migration tells the story of the Mallard family, led by Kumail Nanjiani and Elizabeth Banks, who despite the reluctance from their overprotective father Mack (Nanjiani) embark on a migration from their home in New England to Jamaica. Along the way, they face several comic challenges and bond in ways they hadn’t expected.

As Mack evolves throughout the film, Powell’s theme for Mack similarly evolves. Basically, Mack’s theme is that of a reluctant hero’s journey, an ironic and original concept for the film. It establishes early in the film a central conceit for the character and circles around it for the remainder of the film as he progresses through these comically perilous adventures.

“I created a tune that did two things. First, since he’s the hero of the movie, then I created the hero’s theme. It’s sort of an inverse hero’s tune. Second, it goes around in circles, reflecting his reluctance to be a hero,” Powell said. “As they travel through the film, his tune expands as his world expands. It becomes bigger and larger, more of a hero’s tune.”

The variety within the film offered Powell the opportunity to play with instrumentation in unique ways. He includes women’s choral voices as a throwback to the French musicals of the 1960s. There are also hints of oboes that reference Sergei Prokofiev’s classic Peter and the Wolf, which also has a duck in it. Of course, there are large orchestral moments, but they’re supported by increasingly fun inclusions of Latin-influenced instrumentation choices as well as ukuleles and African harps.

Powell’s goal for the score was to support the fun of the film with a similarly fun score, and at this stage in his career, it’s the fun, ingenuity, and drive for creativity that migrates him forward from project to project.

“I was able to do everything I could ever want to do a while back, everything I could have ever hoped for. That’s put me in a position now to do the kinds of projects I want to do with people I genuinely like,” Powell remarked. “Now, I try and be as careful and unique and beautiful for the filmmakers, and that’s basically my only rule now. This doesn’t come easy. Nothing is easy, so I’m only going to do it if I’m useful for the project, if I like working with the creative team, and if the project is good. I’m in a place in my career that you can only dream about.”