Tag: Film

Stitch and Lilo nose to nose.
Lilo & Stich releases May 23, 2025

Lilo & Stitch

Creating trouble worldwide

Our latest Disney project is the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch. This version features the original 2002 animated film’s writer/director Chris Sanders once again as the voice of Stitch. SoS transcribed sung vocals from the film to create sheet music for localization.

To learn more about how our work helps Disney characters sing in dozens of languages, see the news from some of our other recent projects like, Snow White, Moana 2, and Mufasa. For those who want to dive deep, watch SoS’ Danita Ng-Poss and Jason Poss in a YouTube interview about transcribing Moana 2 alongside film composer Mark Mancina.

Lilo & Stitch is in theaters May 23, 2025.

Snow White (2025) film poster

Snow White

Transcription of Songs Old and New

SoS’s latest Disney feature is Snow White; a musical with over a dozen songs featuring choirs and multiple characters that needed transcription to sheet music for localization. In addition, some songs had separate edits for the film’s soundtrack album, requiring review and sometimes completely different sheet music.

One of the highlights of the project was the inclusion of some of Disney’s earliest songs, like “Heigh Ho”. Our work provided the opportunity to dissect and marvel at the superb musical craft that causes these songs to remain classics nearly 90 years later. And, yes, there was some whistling while we worked!

Colin Hay and Eden Contez sing on a darkened stage. Behind them can on the right be seen the wind and brass sections. To their left is the guitar, piano, drums, bass, and part of the string section. Behind them is a large screen displaying the 6th Annual SCL Awards logo.

The 6th Annual SCL Awards

The 6th Annual SCL Awards were held on Wednesday, February 12th, in Los Angeles, California. SoS once again assembled the orchestra and provided music preparation. In addition to the winners of competitive categories, the ceremony also honored the filmmaker-composer team of Ridley Scott and Harry Gregson-Williams with the Spirit of Collaboration Award, which featured Gregson-Williams conducting live performances of pieces from The Martian and Kingdom of Heaven.

Hosted by Grammy winner Colin Hay, the 6th SCL Awards featured musical performances by Eden Kontesz, Colin Hay, the SAG-AFTRA Singers, and an orchestra featuring LA’s finest musicians.

The 6th Annual SCL Awards Orchestra:

Tom Scott – tenor sax, clarinet
Jacob Scesney – tenor sax, clarinet, flute
Jeff Driskill – alto sax, flute
Ian Dahlberg – bari sax, oboe, english horn, flute

Laura Brenes – french horn

Ryan Deweese – trumpet, flugelhorn
Knox Summerour – trumpet, flugelhorn
Chris Tedesco – trumpet, B-flat french horn

Andy Martin – trombone
Craig Gosnell – trombone, bass trombone

George Doering – guitar, oud
Rich Ruttenberg – keyboards
Trey Henry – acoustic & electric bass
Gary Novak – drumset
M.B. Gordy – percussion

Stephanie Bennett – harp

Alyssa Park – violin (concertmaster)
Kyle Gilner – violin
Songa Lee – violin
Julie Rogers – violin
Shalini Vijayan – violin
Irina Voloshina – violin

Colleen Sugata – viola
Lynne Richburg – viola

Evgeny Tonkha – cello
Charlie Tyler – cello

Gold lettering shows “Disney Mufasa The Lion King” on a black background.
Disney - Mufasa: The Lion King. Movie poster shows Mufasa characters on a snowy mountaintop. Text reads, “The story of an orphan who would be king… in theaters December 20 in Dolby Cinema, Read D 3D, and IMAX.” Credits are small and hard to discern in this image.

Mufasa: The Lion King

The end-of-year theatrical releases continue with “Mufasa: The Lion King”. SoS has been working on this film throughout the last year, providing music transcription for localization.

Our work began almost a year ago, transcribing small sections of character performances to create sheet music used by language territories to cast local voice actors. During postproduction the work continued, transcribing full versions of the songs and updating those transcriptions whenever edits to the film affected the vocals. The amount of music and number of characters in the film made this no small task.

“Mufasa: The Lion King” is in theaters worldwide December 20.

Beyond Multi-language Video

Disney showcases Moana 2 song “Beyond” in 27 languages

Symbols of Sound created the notated vocal transcriptions used to localize Moana 2 in 45 languages. Disney featured 27 versions of the song “Beyond” in this video.

The video is another excellent feat of voice-matching actors recreating the tone and interpretation of the original performance while adapting it to their local languages. The performances are a reminder of the amazing international collaboration required to bring the quality and passion of Disney films to worldwide audiences.