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‘The Wild Robot’ Universal Pictures & DreamWorks Animation: Maren Morris and Kris Bowers
Rob LeDonne, author of The Ankler’s music newsletter, Notable, interviews Maren Morris and Kris Bowers about how music helps drive the storytelling of The Wild Robot, the global animated hit from DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures. Morris was one of the writers on the film’s Oscar-submitted anthem, “Kiss the Sky” — along with a “murderers row” of collaborators, as LeDonne describes them. The Grammy-winning artist talks about creating and performing the song, for which Bowers (a 2024 Oscar winner for the documentary short The Last Repair Shop) then composed an extended version. “Kiss the Sky” plays through the entire emotional scene when the film’s orphaned gosling, Brightbill, soars away to join a migrating flock. It’s a triumphant but bittersweet moment, as he is also leaving his surrogate mom — the robot who rescued and raised him and helped him learn to fly. “You could be the best singer in the world,” Morris says. “But if you don't deliver an actual performance that matches what's going on on screen, it can completely derail it or fall flat." The music by Kris Bowers in The Wild Robot is up for Best Original Score with "Kiss the Sky" performed by Maren Morris submitted for Best Original Song.









































































































































































































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