Musing with Bleu and the Music Behind Tinkerbell and the Legend of the Neverbeast

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I did receive an all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to facilitate this post, but all fan girling, fairy dust, and musical jams are my own.

Tinkerbell and the Legend of the Neverbeast is taking Disney fandom by storm, and part of its success can be leant to the musical genius of Bleu, an indie songwriter and recording artist that lends his unique sound to the soundtrack.

On Working on His First Film

If you’ve already seen Tinkerbell and the Legend of the Neverbeast, you might be shocked to find out this was Bleu’s first time producing music for any film, let alone a Disney animated feature. The unique sound he brings to this film really shows creativity, diversity, and longevity of his art. He wasn’t afraid to think outside of the box when bringing Fawn and the Fairies of Pixie Hollow to life. He shared,

Steve (the executive producer) really wanted something unique for this film, not only within the franchise. But I think he really wanted something that was gonna be unique altogether in music. He really wanted new sounds. And obviously there’s this huge looming figure in this film, the Neverbeast and his world of the forest and the cave.

On Finding the Character Themes

Each time you see a character in the movie, Bleu wanted them to have their own sound theme, smething that audiences could identify with each main character in a scene. It was a really neat idea, and if you have watched Disney films before watch them again and look for those themes. Bleu explained those themes are normally really melodic, but he wanted to move away from melody. Instead he waned,

Something melodically different for these characters but just something that was sonically different so that the minute you heard that sound versus hearing a melody or a tune you would know that it’s associated with that character.

 

On the Instruments Used for the Film

My favorite part of this whole interview was seeing what “instruments Bleu and the musical crew used to record the sounds of the film. I use air quotes because there were so many creative ways that Bleu used to created music in the movie that you would normally think of when you say instruments.

Gruff, the Scout Fairies, and even the storm in Legend of the Neverbeast have a unique sound. For Gruff, he went to the hardware store for inspiration. Gruff’s signature sound was upside down pots on cymbols stands. Keep that in mind the next time your kids are playing your pots and pans.

For the scout fairies, the sound was created again from hardware store inspiration. The musicians hung various types of pipes horizontally and played them with mallets to give the scout fairies their military sound. Next time you see the scout fairies come into the scene see if you can hear them.

The sound for the storm was just as unique. Bleu used an instrument called a corrugapohone. Sound fancy? It’s not. It’s just one of those corrugated plastic tubes that kids whirl around and makes a humming noises.

Having a chance to talk with Bleu about the music behind Tinkerbell and the Legend of the Neverbeast was really inspiring. He reminded me that creativity can be found anywhere, including the hardware store. Watching the movie a second time is even more fun after learning about the music, can you spot all the sounds?

Tinkerbell and the Legend of is now available on DVD and Blu Ray!