John Powell has won the Annie Award in the Music in a Feature Production category for his score for Dreamworks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon at tonight’s Annie Award ceremony in Los Angeles. The other contenders in the category were Sylvain Chomet (The Illusionist), David Hirschfelder (Legend of the Guardians), Harry Gregson-Williams (Shrek Forever After) and Pharrell Williams & Heitor Pereira for Despicable Me. The award is Powell’s first win as a solo composer, having previously won for his collaboration with Harry Gregson-Williams on the original Shrek and his collaboration with Hans Zimmer on Kung Fu Panda.
Tag: How To Train Your Dragon
Composers react to Academy Award nominations
Following the announcement of the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards, reactions from all nominated composers have appeared online.
John Powell on How to Train Your Dragon:
Visit Movieline for a short interview with Powell on his very first Oscar nomination and also check out Variety and The Hollywood Reporter for a short reaction from the composer.
Alexandre Desplat on The King’s Speech:
Check out a short quote in Variety and The Wrap on his fourth (and third consecutive) nomination for Tom Hooper’s movie which received the most nominations for any film today.
Hans Zimmer on Inception:
Check out this interview on Movieline for Zimmer’s reaction on his ninth nomination and the lack of nomination for Inception’s director Christopher Nolan.
How To Train Your Dragon score album coming
John Powell’s score to Dreamworks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon will be released by Varese Sarabande Records on March 23. The movie follows the adventures of a hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely owner of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed. The film’s voice cast includes Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Jonah Hill and America Ferrara. How To Train Your Dragon marks John Powell’s first solo gig for Dreamworks Animation after having co-written the scores for Antz, Shrek, Chicken Run and Kung Fu Panda. The movie will open in theaters on March 26.
Sound clips will be added soon. A short excerpt from the score can be heard on the movie’s official webpage: http://www.howtotrainyourdragon.com/
Here’s the tracklisting of the album: