Juan Luis Guerra Talks Creating Soundtrack For Animated Film ‘Capitán Avispa’: ‘We Did it Full Orchestra’

Sigal Ratner-Arias
·3 min read
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Capitán Avispa is already here, or at least flying to a nearby cinema. In the meantime, you can listen to the soundtrack created by Juan Luis Guerra for his first animated movie.

As he revealed to Billboard Español in December, the musician, composer, singer and producer released Capitán Avispa Original Motion Soundtrack on Friday (April 5). With 41 original tracks composed and arranged by the Dominican maestro, the collection includes new versions of his hits “La Gallera,” “Bachata Rosa,” “Las Avispas” and “Bachata en Fukuoka,” as well as instrumental themes and songs especially created for the project.

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“That’s how the epic themes of Capitán Avispa, who is the hero of our movie, and Jacques Puasón, his archenemy, were born,” Guerra tells Billboard Español. “These were composed full orchestra — that is, trumpets, trombones, french horns, violins, piano and percussion — and each one of them reflects their character.”

“We worked for about five and a half years on the music of this film, since we made the first demo in 2019,” he adds.

The main song of the soundtrack is “Mi Amor,” a romantic song performed by Luis Fonsi, who voices Capitán Avispa in the film, and Joy Huerta (from Jesse & Joy), who plays his love interest, princess Honey Bee. “It’s a beautiful song that speaks of love that covers all faults, wonderfully performed by my two favorite voices of today,” Guerra explains.

Directed by his son, Jean Gabriel Guerra, and Jonathan Meléndez, the story of Capitán Avispa was created by Juan Luis, who recruited other friends and colleagues to give life to the different characters: Juanes provides the voice of Sargento Picadura, and the Colombian rocker’s wife, actress Karen Martínez, plays Ximena Colmena. Dominican actor José Guillermo Cortinez lends his voice to the villain Jacques Puasón, and Dominican actress Amelia Vega — Miss Universe 2003, as well as Guerra’s niece — voices Polibya Néctar.

Among the track stand-outs are “El Baile de los Zánganos”, “a very cheerful and fun bachata son,” says Guerra, as well as a new version of “Señorita” and another of “Las Avispas” set to a reggae rhythm. The artist also highlights “Vuelo Sobre Avispatrópolis” as “a voice and guitar tune to the rhythm of 6 x 4, but with a modern twist, in which we added marimba, xylophones and strings”.

The musical production of Capitán Avispa Original Motion Soundtrack was overseen by Guerra and Janina Rosado. “All this work was recorded in Santo Domingo by Dominican musicians,” says the multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy award winner, proudly. Allan Lescchorn and Luis Mansilla were in charge of recording and mixing, and the mastering was done by Adam Ayan at Ayan Mastering in the U.S.

Capitán Avispa had its premiere on Monday (April 1) in Santo Domingo with the presence of many of the participating artists, before opening in theaters in the Dominican Republic on Thursday (April 4). In the coming weeks, it will reach more than 34 countries under international distribution of Caribbean Films Distributions.

Listen to the Capitán Avispa soundtrack and check the confirmed premiere dates in the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and beyond below.

Release dates:

April 4:
Dominican Republic
Bolivia 
 
Abril 11: 
Puerto Rico
United States
Aruba
Antigua
Curacao
St. Croix
St. Kitts
St. Maarten
St. Thomas

April 18: 
⁠Mexico
Argentina
Ecuador
Paraguay
Uruguay
 
April 21:
Canadá
 
April 25:
Colombia
 
May 2:
Antigua
St. Lucia
Guyana
Trinidad
 
May 30:
Costa Rica
Panama
Guatemala
Honduras
Nicaragua
El Salvador
Belice 
 
June 7: 
Spain

July 11:
Venezuela
Brasil
Peru
 
August 8:
Chile
 
According to a press release, more dates will be announced soon.

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