Composer Jeff Morrow
In a world of Grumpies, a true unexpected joy is discovering how truly enchanted Disney’s live action “Snow White” is when venturing to a theater. No small part of its seven dwarves magic comes from big gem of Jeff Morrow’s underscore as he gets the motherlode of animation-to-live action assignments from Disney treasure chest. Morrow contributed additional music to such fantastical epics as “Ant Man and the Wasp,” “Trolls” and the flesh and blood “Little Mermaid” as he’d impress with his own stylistically varied big and small screen projects as “Skin in the Game,” “George Carlin’s American Dream” and “A Christmas Story Christmas.” Being in the company of the Peanuts characters also provided hours of experience with iconic characters, all the better to peer into the wishing well and net the scoring gig for “Snow White.”
The sweetly demure princess friend of little people and cute toon animals built Walt’s castle as his first animated feature in 1937, with songs by Larry Morey and Frank Churchill, and scoring by Churchill, Leigh Harline, Paul Smith and an uncredited Edward H. Plumb. It was the definition of musical enchantment for a more innocent time. Now with Snow White being transformed by Spider-Man director Marc Webb into a far more stand up for herself princess, this positively 21st century woman (if albeit still innocent one) is given wonderful, and often just a bit subversive songs by the team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (“The Greatest Showman,” “Spirited”), whose themes blend into Morrow’s score along with iconic tunes from the original film.
But there’s a whole other wonderous tapestry of symphonic enchantment that Morrow conjures with his lushly melodic orchestra. Full of sweetness, humor and adventure, Morrow’s score is everything that a Disney Princess could wish for in embodying a gentle, yet spirited character and the magical critters and humans who become part of her rebellion. Even Prince Charming has been turned into a jaded Robin Hood, giving all the more swashbuckling fun and emotion to the eventual true love’s kiss. “Snow White” serves as an enchanting announcement for Morrow’s arrival for the bells-and-whistles land of Hollywood scoring with one of its most iconic, and nicely re-imagined heroines of all.
How did the music of both Disney live action and cartoon films influence you in becoming a composer? And what do you think makes the Disney score “brand” distinctive?
I think the music of Disney films is something that is a big part of a lot of people’s lives. In this case, the music of Disney’s “Snow Whit” has been sort of part of the collective consciousness of just about everyone for almost 100 years. I think what makes Disney distinctive isn’t necessarily any specific musical style, but rather that they care so much about music. It’s a central part of what they do. On the original Snow White, they started writing songs and score as they’re developing the script, which shows how important it was to Walt, and that remains true with the great people working there today
Your first big animated association was with Peanuts. Tell us about scoring those equally iconic characters.
One thing that “Snow White” and The Peanuts have in common for me is that at some point I had to sit down at the piano and start writing music with these amazing tunes stuck in my head. I’m sure you can imagine that trying to come up with something new while Linus and Lucy is playing on repeat in your head is a tricky test. Now I’ve now written over 400 minutes of Peanuts music and we’ve done 40 recording sessions with my jazz piano trio. I’m so grateful that it set me up to be able to sit down with Snow White and have that sort of same experience again and not get too overwhelmed by the weight of the musical legacy.
You did additional scoring for “Ant Man and the Wasp,” “Ralph Breaks the Internet” and “The Little Mermaid.” What’s the trick of capturing a sound that would fit into a bigger musical picture, and how do you think it set you up for your biggest project yet with Snow White?
I feel so grateful to have had Christophe Beck, Henry Jackman and Alan Menken as mentors. They are all masters of the craft. I got to learn three different ways to craft a film score with strong themes that serve the story at every step.
At what age did you first see “Snow White,” and what were your takeaways from it?
I’m not entirely sure when I first watched it, but it was definitely on VHS on a very small TV. I think like many people, the takeaway was humming “Heigh Ho!” A little later in life I was a jazz trombone player and I idolized Miles Davis, who very famously plays “Someday My Prince Will Come,” so the music of “Snow White” has been a constant for me.
What was the most important thing to you in differentiating the film’s live action identity, while also paying tribute to the original?
I wanted to make sure that the score sounded both classic, to pay homage to the original, and modern, to reflect that this is a live action film with a contemporary aesthetic. To begin with, this idea had been set musically by Pasek and Paul, who do an amazing job of creating songs that sound both timeless and of 2025. I wanted to make sure the score felt part of the fabric that weaves together the new Pasek and Paul songs with “Heigh Ho” and “Whistle While You Work” from the original.
What makes a great “fairy tale” score for you?
An iconic melody, lushly orchestrated and interpolated to track the main character’s journey. In the case of a musical like this one, I also wanted to make sure that my melodies weren’t long and elaborate things that sounded like songs. They’re short, little, almost motifs that make them hopefully more immediately recognizable when they come back, because they’re only sort of four or six notes. For Snow White’s theme I knew it had to be able to play melancholy as she loses her parents, of course, at the beginning of the film, but in the end, she’s inspired, inspiring, and empowered
Tell us about working with the songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. As I imagine they did their tunes before you started on the score, how did you want to incorporate their melodies?
I knew that at some very specific moments, the best way to support the story was to use the unbelievably beautiful melodies from Pasek and Paul’s songs. The one that probably stands out most is when Jonathan finally kisses Snow White and she wakes. I let the whole orchestra have at it with the melody from “A Hand Meets a Hand.” I got to give it the full Disney treatment.
Talk about your collaboration with director Marc Webb.
Mark is such an accomplished filmmaker. He gives amazingly evocative descriptions of what the tone for a given scene should be. As a film composer, it’s a great thing to know exactly the tone you’re supposed to hit with a piece of music. Of course then I had to hit that tone, which isn’t always easy, but I knew I just had to keep at it in my studio until I got there. It gave the whole process great momentum.
This Snow White is definitely more of a “go-getter” character than a princess just waiting about for someone to kiss her. How did you want the score to give her that sense of strength?
In writing the melody for Snow White’s theme, I knew it had to do two things. It had to have a melancholy feel to it because, of course, this is a young girl who’s lost her parents. But then by the end of the movie, she takes back the kingdom and is inspiring and brave. To get a little technical about it, is a mix of big leaps up and little sad steps down that allow me put it in different contexts and use the same tune to achieve different emotions
Snow White’s world is essentially played for “real” before she ends up in the enchanted forest. How did you want to introduce a new magical world for her?
It had to be a mix of playing the magical elements while also feeling grounded. At the point in the film that she ends up in the forest, she’s been through so much and this is one of her first moments of reprieve. I used a solo flute with very spare orchestration surrounding it, which has a human tactility to it, but can still sound a little otherworldly.
Talk about playing the Seven Dwarves. Did you want to give musical signatures to them? And what was it like to get the “Hi Ho” theme in there?
Dopey plays a huge part in the emotional core of the story. Early on we figured out that Dopey would need a theme. It’s somewhat related to the Snow White theme because their journey towards bravery runs in parallel. Any time it plays in the film, it plays on piccolo to give it a childlike quality while also feeling just a little magical.
How did you want to play The Evil Queen?
This was definitely one of the most challenging things to write, knowing that I was going to score the “magic mirror on the wall” scene. And in the case of what I call the “mirror” theme, it had to be dark, but not devastatingly scary or anything like that. I also used symmetrical harmony and reflective elements. The third and fourth notes of the theme are a reflection of the first and second and there’s often an accompanying instrument playing along with the main melody that sounds like a reflection.
The Robin Hood-like Jonathan affords the chance to write swashbuckling music, something the original “Snow White” didn’t have. Was that particularly fun to compose?
We wanted to make sure that this film had a good bit of levity to it. So, when Snow White and Jonathan first meet in the scullery, the score is there to push the comedy and allow the audience to laugh. When we get to Jonathan and the bandits fighting the Queen’s guards, it took a few attempts to find where to walk the line between the real stakes of the fight and the fun of it all. In the end, I wrote a big triplet-y action adventure cue with lots of big brass and the percussion. We weaved in Pasek and Paul’s melody from “Princess Problems” for when Snow White and her animal friends are helping out.
Talk about scoring the ultimate confrontation between Snow White and The Evil Queen, particularly as she wins by convincing her soldiers that there’s good in themselves – as opposed to the battle one might expect.
This is where Snow White’s theme pays off. And while there are a lot of dark and magical things happening as the Queen is sucked into the mirror, we wanted to stick with Snow White, so this is the most joyful and powerful delivery of her melody.
“Snow White” has a particularly sumptuous sound to it. Tell us about the recording sessions.
We recorded a 100-piece orchestra at AIR Lyndhurst in London, which was a dream come true. It’s an absolutely insane experience to hear a room full of the best musicians in the world playing something that I hummed into the voice notes app on my phone just six months earlier.
Despite the Grumpies out there, I quite enjoyed “Snow White.” Do you think when those storm clouds have passed that people will be able to appreciate “Snow White” on its own cinematic merits?
It’s been so nice to hear how pleasantly surprised people have been seeing this movie in theaters. It’s just such a fun and joyous experience. I think people will leave the theater happy and hopefully humming a few tunes.
What’s ahead for you? And is there a Disney animated film – or continuation of one – that you’d particularly like to do a live action musical redo of?
That’s a tough question – there are so many classics – maybe “Tangled?” Alan Menken’s “I’ve Got a Dream” is one of my favorite Disney songs. In the meantime, I’ve just started working on a documentary about Mel Brooks, directed by Judd Apatow and Mike Bonfiglio.
In the end, how do you think the soundtrack helps this Snow White stand out as her own Disney princess?
I think it’s hard to assess sort of how my score fits in with the many iconic Disney scores, but if I’m forced to try, I think there’s an earnest simplicity to it. One of the ways I made it feel modern, was to keep things as simple as they could be without too many frills around the edges.
See “Snow White” in theaters with a gem mine’s worth of Jeff Morrow’s underscore available on the “Snow White Deluxe Edition” soundtrack available on Walt Disney Records HERE
Special thanks to Holly Battaglia at Walt Disney Records
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