Six recording days include choir led by voice of “Sid,” 100 piece orchestra

(Los Angeles, CA) John Powell scores the animated feature Ice Age 2: The Meltdown for 20^th Century Fox and director Carlos Saldanha. Powell and Saldanha had previously collaborated on another animated feature, Fox’s Robots. Powell is a leading composer and musical producer/arranger in the animation genre, with Shrek, Chicken Run, Road to El Dorado and Antz under his belt, and Happy Feet coming in “Novemburrrr,” but he has a diverse repertoire with music for action features like Bourne Identity and jazzy scores for Be Cool and Alfie.

Powell will record the score with a choir for one day, and then with a 100-piece orchestra for five days. John Leguizamo, the voice of “Sid,” will lead the choir in one number, which Powell describes as “a cross between a sing-along rock concert and an Indonesian monkey chant.” Powell will also record an arrangement of “Food, Glorious Food,” from the Broadway musical Oliver, sung by vultures.

Ice Age’s familiar voices Ray Romano, Leguizamo and Denis Leary join Jay Leno, Queen Latifah and Seann William Scott for Ice Age 2. In the sequel, the Ice Age is in its twilight. Manny, Sid and Diego delight in new water parks and geysers, but once they realize that the miles of melting ice will soon flood their valley, they rush to warn everyone and find an escape.

Powell’s long and storied career in music began in Britain where he joined performance art group Media Arts while attending Trinity College of Music. While composing music for television and commercials for Air-Edel Music, he worked alongside composers Hans Zimmer and Patrick Doyle and made his first foray into feature films. After Powell co-founded the commercial music house Independently Thinking Music (ITM) with longtime collaborator Gavin Greenaway, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue feature film composing. He immediately scored several projects for DreamWorks Television, but it was his stirring score for John Woo’s blockbuster Face/Off that put him on Hollywood’s short list. He has since scored a wide variety of films. In addition to animation, Powell is well known for his scores to actioners Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Italian Job, The Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy as well as jazzy scores for Be Cool and Alfie.

Powell’s upcoming slate also includes Jason Bourne’s next adventure, The Bourne Ultimatum.

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