It’s been almost a month since Disney’s The Naughty Nine premiered, a holiday heist movie about a group of kids who sneak into the North Pole to take back the gifts they feel they deserve. With just a few days left before Christmas, I had the honor of reconnecting with director Alberto Belli and composer Kenny Wood about the film and the warm feedback it’s received so far. Our interview happened to coincide with the good news that Kenny Wood has been nominated for an award for his score by The Society of Composers & Lyricists. And if you’ve seen the film, you know it ends with a tease for a potential sequel, so I had to ask about that.
(Disney)
Alex: Kenny, you just found out that your score for The Naughty Nine has been nominated by The Society of Composers & Lyricists. How does it feel to know your work is already being recognized by your peers?
Kenny Wood: It's amazing. I can't even quite grasp it yet. Like, I'm still kind of floating here with butterflies and everything, so ask me again when I come down from this super high cloud.
Alex: You’ve collaborated several times before. How did you two come to work together, and how has your working relationship evolved over the years?
Kenny Wood: Alberto and I were in the same music film class. It was a special class where they taught how music impacts film. This was at USC when we were grad students over there, but we didn't really talk to each other then. We were just getting to know each other from afar. And then Alberto did his thesis film a couple of years later and invited me to work on the score. Since then, we've done so many things together, and it's been awesome. He's like a dream collaborator.
Alberto Belli: Oh, thank you. Same here. It's funny because we’ve done commercials, short films, features, web series, viral videos, and hopefully, a TV series soon.
Alex: That’s awesome. It sounds like you two are at the start of a long collaboration like Steven Spielberg and John Williams. Alberto, I’m sure you went into The Naughty Nine with an idea for the type of score you wanted. What were you looking for? And Kenny, how did you take Alberto’s ideas and put your own stamp on them?
Alberto Belli: I always imagined it to have a very recognizable theme. Ken and I, that's what we really love. A lot of scores are very ambient; they don’t have that recognizable theme. To feel big and old school, and also have that heist vibe to magical action-adventure Christmas sound, I think it was a very unique task he had to do. And he killed it.
Kenny Wood: I think a lot of it has to do with Alberto and I having done so much together. We're really in sync on everything, and I know from his style that he will switch emotions at the snap of a finger. You have to be ready for that kind of stuff. It makes his movies so fun. The pacing is always exciting. Even for something that's dramatic and intense, it's a very edge-of-the-seat feeling but not in a stressful way. It's in a cool way where you just want to see what's happening next. So part of the thing we do musically is themes, which is awesome. But we're also pushing forward, and we're making it exciting for things to be discovered around the next corner at all times.
Alex: You mentioned the two film genres blended in The Naughty Nine, a heist and a holiday movie. Audiences have their own musical expectations from each of those. How did you handle blending those two distinct sounds?
Kenny Wood: What's nice is that the opening Heist scene is not too saturated with holiday cheer, even though the kids are in the auditorium watching Miracle on 34th Street. I got to play that like a very normal, traditional heist. And then as the movie goes along, I started sprinkling in these little elements, so we have sleigh bells, choirs, big church bells, peppering the score with all those holiday elements. It felt natural because it all goes back to just how the story is structured. It kind of dunks you in this chocolatey Christmas goo, and then and then it pulls you out to to be enjoyed by the rest of the story.
Alex: As a composer, do you plan your themes just around the emotional narrative, or do you create location and character-based themes?
Kenny Wood: For this one, it was definitely character-driven. But I made sure that there was something to represent [the feeling of being] naughty because that's our title. The kids are laden with this attitude, so I made sure that there was something that represented all the naughty things that were going on. That little motif goes through a lot of evolution as the story goes along. And then we have this magical Christmas theme and a Santa theme that doubles for not only Santa himself but also for the village and the whole landscape that we see when we get to the North Pole. In addition to all of those, I had character themes for all The Naughty Nine characters. So I got to sprinkle those in and let the audience know who's up to what and how they're doing it. It's a cool thing to do. It's not something you see in every movie nowadays, but when you get an opportunity to do it, it's a playground for composers.
Alex: Alberto, last time we talked, you mentioned that directing a Christmas movie, and specifically a Disney Christmas movie, was high up on your bucket list. For both of you, what are the holiday movies that inspired you to want to create something like The Naughty Nine?
Alberto Belli: I usually say Home Alone because the music is fantastic and the pacing is awesome. Score-wise, I also love Polar Express. It's one of my favorite Christmas scores.
Kenny Wood: Batman Returns has a cool wintry score. It's not necessarily about Christmas, but the film is set during Christmas, and it's got all the tones for when you need brightness and darkness.
Alex: That’s my favorite Batman movie. I’m curious to know what the scoring process for The Naughty Nine was like. Did you have a full orchestra?
Kenny Wood: Actually, no, this was all done with virtual instruments, with the exception of these amazing singers. One of them was Suzanne Waters, and she sang all of the solo vocal parts. If you can remember back to the scenes where Albert is giving his adorable innocent face, Suzanne is the one singing underneath those moments. She's amazing. And then we had a traditional Spanish Christmas Carol sung by Jeirmarie Osorio and she is incredible. She's originally from Puerto Rico and has some of the best vocals I've ever heard. We stretched all of that vocal mileage we could, but everything else was done with computers and a lot of massaging with me and the other team members who helped me
Alex: What they can do these days. Kenny, I’ve heard that you’re a passionate member of a mentorship program called TEAMMATES. Can you tell me more about it, and why it’s so important to you?
Kenny Wood: A big influence on me was the mentorship I got from my music teachers growing up in school. I always felt the responsibility that, if things go well for me and I turn this into a career for myself, I definitely want to give back and make things better for the people that are coming up from underneath. TEAMMATES is a way to do that, so for for those who don't know what it is, it's a community that was originally founded to support the assistants of composers. You hear Hollywood stories all the time of ghostwriting and people getting abused, verbal abuse, and sometimes sexual abuse. TEAMMATES was the response to that. We make it a place where we can educate people, we can tell them these are the good signs and bad signs, depending on what studio you might be working at. And we make people informed and a little more aware of their own personal value and worth and help them make their situation better. It's awesome. We've got over 3,000 members and it's a really vibrant, thriving community. I'm really proud of it.
Alex: That’s amazing. Alberto, do you know of any similar programs for up-and-coming directors?
Alberto Belli: Yes, I have done some work with a group called Latinx Directors. Only 2% of the directors out there at Latino, and the excuse [from studios] was always that “We couldn’t find them,” so we created a website where you could search by genre, how much experience they had, and then it was a list of any kind of Latino with experience. That was an effort to try to give my peers an easier way to be found for jobs.
Alex: That’s very inspiring. It’s been about a month since The Naughty Nine came out. Have you gotten a lot of feedback from family, friends, and fans?
Kenny Wood: Oh yeah, for sure. Everyone in my circles loves it, and it's been great. The reviews have been amazing. Every now and then, even on my Instagram, I'll take highlights from some of the reviews I see and just put them out there for people to enjoy. I'm biased, of course, but the movie itself just feels like a classic. It feels like something that's going to have a lot of staying power.
Alberto Belli: There was a list that just came out of the most-watched holiday movies this season, and only three of them are new. The Naughty Nine is one of them, and it's the most-watched new holiday movie on the platform, so it's been pretty good. Like Kenny was saying, I've gotten so many voice messages or recordings of my friends with their kids watching the movie, and then telling like how much they love it. I cannot tell you how much that warms my heart because kids are very honest, right? If he didn't like he wouldn’t want to record anything, so it has been my favorite part, getting these random messages from friends.
Alex: Speaking of the film’s staying power, the film ends with a tease for a potential next adventure. Since no announcements have been made yet, and since Disney doesn’t release streaming numbers, I’m assuming there’s no word on a potential sequel yet. But are you thinking about where this could go if Disney called and said let’s make another one?
Alberto Belli: We'll have to wait to see what happens. They’re very secretive, and the strike happened in between, so we will see what happens. As you said, Disney doesn't release any official numbers, but Samba TV provides unofficial streamer numbers. We'll see what happens, but we would love to go back. Not in cold weather, hopefully.
Kenny Wood: The vision we have, at least, is that we both want to do it, so we're ready when they are.
Alex: I will keep my fingers crossed, and I’ll do my best to manifest a plot where Santa is stuck on a tropical island and needs The Naughty Nine to help him get out so you can film it in a warmer climate. Thank you both so much for your time, and congratulations again on all your success with The Naughty Nine.
The Naughty Nine is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.