Composer Christophe Beck Talks About Alternate Musical Directions In FROZEN

by Chris August 9, 2014

While the big studio Comic-Con panels were wowing Fanboy and Fangirl eyes with their big presentations of upcoming blockbusters in Hall H, we took a detour and gave our eyes a rest in favor of our ears… more specifically, The Second Annual Musical Anatomy of a Superhero panel, where we had the chance to sit down with composer Christophe Beck. If Mr. Beck is not as much of a household name as the likes of John Williams and Danny Elfman, he soon will be, having recently broken the record for most weeks atop the Billboard 200 albums chart with his FROZEN score, ending the streak for the longest running #1 soundtrack (previously held by Disney’s The Lion King).

While Beck popped onto our radar with his pitch perfect musical accompaniment to Disney’s groundbreaking short, “Paperman,” as well as his work on the two recent Muppet movies, it was his magical score for Walt Disney Feature Animation’s 2013 film that captured our frozen hearts, seamlessly working with Kristin Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez’ catchy tunes. But how does a musical maestro like Beck conjure up such melodic magic? Mr. Beck shared with us one instance on Frozen, right before “Let It Go,” where his original vision for Anna setting out of Arendelle in pursuit of Elsa was rethought, in the composer’s words, “to be more about determination and family bond than something bad that happened.”