Cue the soaring strings, whimsical voices and playful percussion and you’ve got a veritable frisbee throw to start an incredible journey that our furry, family-friendly hero is setting off on with the help of his four-footed pals. That’s just the start of the very ironic, yet ultimately actually heartfelt musical dog trick that previous Curious George composer Dara Taylor throws at “Strays.” Taylor’s now off on her lonesome with director Josh Greenbaum after teaming with her Hollywood mentor Christopher Lennertz (“Marmaduke”) for the filmmaker’s uproarious instant cult comedy “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.” Yet no less hysterical is this ode to canine bro-hood that wears its R-rated tag loud and proud – so as especially not to take the blame from tyke parents who didn’t read the warning.
Run through just about every foul-mouthed, poopy, doggy ding dong joke you’d expect, and you’ve got a comedy and score way, way more fun for the kids to sneak into than any cutesy Disney flick. Yet perhaps the biggest trick here is how Dara Taylor (“The Tender Bar,” “The Invitation”) at once hits all the right notes of subversion and actual emotion. It’s a bond of a way-too trusting innocent, filthy-hip human hater, a coned cowardly lion and the excellent smelling lady he moons for that team for this winning subversion of the talking critter genre and its musical expectations at large. With beats conjuring needle-strewn alleys of ladies in heat, country strummin’ for scenic fields, snare-drum inspirational speeches, tripped out ‘shrooms, desperately racing firework terror and an especially hilarious jazz reach, Taylor just might make you think you’re hearing a particularly hip dog’s purpose – all as director Greenbaum wrangles the animals and a dirty word loving comedy cast topped by Will Ferrell and Jamie Fox for the literal definition of a summer underdog.
Talk about working with director Josh Greenbaum alongside Christopher Lennertz on “Barb and Star.” Were you surprised that it became an instant cult film, and do you think the score had anything to do with it?
“Barb and Star” was such a fun film and I was delighted it was received so well! I think that all departments had a deep love for the story, and it comes through to the audience. Our island action operatic hybrid score I think added a vibrant musical backdrop to the hilarious romp on screen.
Why do you think you particularly clicked with Josh, and what was it like going solo with him for “Strays?”
I think Josh and I have very similar senses of humor and can find the laughter in the serious and the serious in the laughter and enjoy finding that balance musically. Though we worked hard to strike the right musical tone for the narrative, I don’t think I laughed as much in every single playback as I did on this film. Josh also has an incredibly keen ear for music and the nuanced effects it can have on the drama, so it was wonderful to work under his direction to hone, craft, and shape each scene together.
Were you a fan of straight-up animal adventure pictures before this? And did you welcome the chance to do an R-rated version of them?
Yeah, I grew up on “Milo and Otis,” “Airbud” and “Babe” and always loved any story that anthropomorphized animals. So as an adult, it was especially enjoyable to work on a film with the same anthropomorphizing but with an R-rated twist, as if these animals grew (I won’t say grew up, because we both still love a good poop joke, haha) with me over the years.
“Strays” starts out in exactly the same way you’d expect any other family-friendly dog movie to begin its incredible journey with. What do you think those kinds of scores have in common, and how did you want to subvert those expectations?
I love building up the expectation that it’s going to be a happy-go-lucky animal film, then letting that expectation crash and burn pretty immediately. However, with the opening song written by Nick Sarazen and my subsequent score, we still wanted to make sure we followed Reggie’s POV who still thinks that everything is great even though the audience can clearly see it is not.
There’s a fun rap, trip-hop approach to some cues to the point where you have beat boxing and vocals saying, “I’m a Stray.” What were the song influences for that?
Yeah, it was a lot of fun to play in a different sandbox for Bug’s character introduction. I got to reteam with the amazing producers at The Mathclub and record one of the best beatboxers of all time, Rahzel, and let him riff on the theme. Overall, the influences were 90s based but the main goal was to still keep the track fun.
How did you want to musically differentiate Reggie’s friends?
What we wanted to do is make the two worlds of Reggie and Bug quite disparate musically at the beginning. But as the film went on and the group became closer and realize that they have rubbed off on each other and aren’t as different as they once seemed, their musical vernacular become more closely related to each other. Reggie’s theme became the main theme of the journey and film, but Bug’s theme and a couple of other motifs relating to the connections between the dogs and some of their special skills (like Maggie’s nose) also repeat in the score.
When you have a movie where what’s being said, and shown, is so outrageous to begin with (as with the humans of “Barb and Star”), how “funny” do you want to make “Strays’” score?
Overall we wanted to make sure we spoke to the dogs’ POV. So, if something is happy-go-lucky to Reggie even if the audience knows better and that’s the comedy of it, we played to Reggie musically. Likewise, if the situation is dire to the dogs like in the fireworks scene but again, the audience knows better, we wanted to take the situation as seriously as the dogs take it. So sometimes in playing against the comedy, we in a way played into it.
Conversely, there are moments of real tenderness and emotion in the score. How difficult was it to find a tone that people wouldn’t also take humorously?
I think that one of the most impressive things about this film as that as hilarious as it is, it is also quite tender and heartfelt which really makes you care for the characters. Themes and instrumentation were important in scoring the emotional beats as bringing back familiar themes helps stir the audience and the use of soft strings, lonely acoustic guitars, and innocent piano really speaks to the fragility that the dogs feel along their way. Even Bug, who is hardened at the beginning, begins to thaw and his theme is brought back in a soft piano later in the film.
Talk about the more snare-drum led “inspirational” parts of the score.
I had a lot of fun with percussion in the score overall. I definitely used snare drums in the more rousing, inspirational parts of the form, but also big taikos and toms for action scenes, drum kit for some journey moments, and a healthy dose of found percussion from PetCo (dog bowls, antlers, plastic cones, kibble, etc) for an extra layer of unique whimsy, even though these added elements were often added in quite intense moments.
In a way, did you see the human voice actors when you were scoring this?
I actually did not. The performances of both the dogs and humans were so true to life that I did only notice the characters, much like you would only see the character and not the actor in a live action human film. I think that really helped when it came to sympathizing with the individual and collective plights of the animals.
You’re a new member of the Academy of Motion Pictures. What’s it like being part of that new class, and what do you think it says about your work that you got in?
I’m so thrilled and honored to be part of the new 2023 class. It really does feel very validating to be inducted amongst such immensely talented people whose work I respect so much.
What would be your favorite animal to score? And what rating would you want for it?
I do very much love dogs, so I’m thrilled they were my first introduction to the talking animal kingdom. I also love cute things with potty mouths so the R-rating was perfect for me. If I were to pick another animal it might be perhaps a dolphin, mostly because they constantly show so much intelligence in the real world already and I’m pretty sure they’re currently working on an evil plot for world domination. So, a gritty, R-rated wartime dark comedy about dolphins.
Catch the “Strays” in theaters now, with Dara Taylor’s score available on Back Lot Music HERE
Visit Dara Taylor’s website HERE
Special thanks to Nikki Walsh and Qin Yu at Back Lot Music