Is there a medium more well-suited to music than animation? From Disney musicals to recent classics such as Daniel Pemberton’s soundtrack for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, animation gives music a chance to take on a new form, to explore bold new worlds, and to reach emotional depths that live action movies sometimes don’t have the time to go into.
To me, there is no better example of this than the scores for the movies of Hayao Miyazaki, most of them done by Joe Hisaishi, a prolific composer who somehow manages to infuse each score with its own unique identity. This is why Hisaishi’s scores are often present in my writing playlists, to the point where I’ve been able to create extensive Hisaishi playlists depending on what mood I’m going for.If I want to be fanciful, I pop on some Ponyo. If somber action is what I’m writing, then Princess Mononoke is sure to be playing out of my headphones. The warmth of nostalgia? Kiki’s Delivery Service. Child-like wonder? My Neighbor Totoro. I was unable to find the right balance between fear and wonder in my recent script about magic, until Spirited Away provided the guidance I needed.