Disney’s popular animated series Elena of Avalor is coming to an end with a 70-minute finale episode. ‘Coronation Day’ airs this Sunday August 23rd at 7pm on Disney Junior. Tony Morales composed the music for every Elena episode (more than 75) and shares what he’ll miss most about the show.

Tony Morales: It’s a little surreal, to be honest. It’s been quite a ride. It’s been five years of my life. In what I do as a composer, our jobs are usually in and out, in a much shorter time. It’s been a real fabric for me, day-to-day for so long.

Jackson Murphy: Do you re-watch a lot of the episodes on the Disney Channels with your daughters?

TM: Absolutely. They were right in the age bracket when I started on the show, but as they’ve gotten older, it’s been really sweet to watch them still be interested in sitting and watching an episode with Dad when a new one comes out. They’ll still sit and enjoy it with me.

JM: I met Craig Gerber (EP) and Silvia Cardenas Olivas (Producer) at the end of 2016 when the show was just starting to air. And they told me that their kids were “focus groups” for Elena. Same for you?

TM: Yeah, of course. I was involved a good year before the show even premiered. I had a lot of fun showing the girls the first images that were coming in. When I first got hired, all that existed that I could see was an image of Elena. I couldn’t wait to get the first episode to see what the characters are gonna look like and what the tone will be. Anytime I got to work on some of those early shows, I definitely would bring the girls in and play them the music and show them the episodes. And they had a blast with it. And as a parent, it was the coolest thing to be able to do.

JM: Especially for a show that’s part of the Disney family. This is the first major animation project of your career. You’ve done a lot of TV and film dramas and thrillers. Is the reason why you were attracted to Elena because it was Disney?

TM: Yeah. My household was a fan of Sofia the First because my girls… were right in the wheelhouse of the target audience when Sofia came out. The composer from Sofia and I were college buddies. I’ve known Kevin Kliesch for a good 25 years now, if not more. He basically reached out when they were doing their composer search for Elena and said, ‘They’re looking for a composer for this project. Would you think you’d be interested? I can put your name down for it and you can see if anything comes out of it.’ When I got the call [from Disney], I was so excited. It was crazy… I couldn’t have been more excited about the opportunity ahead of me.

JM: That’s amazing. And one of the other things Craig and Silvia were telling me about a few years ago is that, ‘We want to structure the show from her being a princess to her Coronation… if she can make it there.’ And now she is here! When you found out how these final episodes were going to be structured, how did you approach really concluding this multi-year saga?

TM: Well, the really fun part of working on the show… was how they serialized the storylines. Even though some episodes may not pick up on the over-arching story, it still would come about every now and then just enough to keep you moving. I had been building up this Coronation moment even longer than just these last few episodes. Getting there musically was a combination of having some particular themes for characters who we were getting introduced to throughout Season 3 and before that would all be a part of this Coronation episode. [It was good] having some musical material that was familiar at that point… to prepare us for the story that was gonna unfold in it.

And on another note… more than 70 episodes is a long time. [I didn’t want to] get burned out and stay inspired to continue. I wanted to make sure I saved everything I had for these last episodes – to go out with an epic, bang Coronation finale sound. And it came-out exactly how I envisioned it, so I’m excited for it to be released.

JM: Lately, a lot of animated/family shows really put an emphasis on wanting to go out with a satisfying conclusion. And when I was growing up watching animated shows, I don’t think that was on a lot of creators’ minds at the time. But with you and the music, is it tricky to get the tone right to express, ‘Look, we’re being sad here because this is the end but still positive for kids to understand this kind of goodbye’?

TM: Yeah, exactly. It’s bittersweet in a lot of ways. For Elena’s story, we never wanted to underline anything that felt like a goodbye, and the message was more that she succeeded in her journey to becoming Queen. So it’s a positive ending, and it’s a joyful ending. It’s celebratory that she got here because when the series started out, she wanted to be Queen right away. And the whole premise was that she needed to learn and have to go through these life events that she would eventually grow through and then become the person she became to get to this stage of becoming Queen. Musically, we’re supporting all the fun and epic-ness of the finale.

I can be honest with you, as I was writing some of the music towards the end of this episode, I felt bittersweet. My emotions were running high. This is a big moment, and how do I balance my personal attachment to her character v. what I know that, musically, it should be to support the scene? The story that everyone’s gonna see is a real joyful conclusion to her story.

JM: That’s great. Three Daytime Emmy nominations and an Annie nomination for your work on Elena over the years. That has to feel gratifying.

TM: It’s incredible. When you set out to do this line of work, we just love what we do. Writing music and being able to write music for picture and being a composer for media is a dream come true. Those accolades are so humbling.

JM: I know you’ve been mentoring some aspiring composers for about a year two.

TM: Yeah, I’m kind of passing it along. Composer friends of mine who have also randomly been hired on other Disney shows, including Vampirina and Mira, Royal Detective… they were very curious as to the process, creatively and schedule-wise. You have to have a system in place to keep up with the demand of the schedule and the output of music as well as balancing you’re making sure you’re putting in the best work you can under the constraints of writing music for an episodic series. It’s been great. I’ve been happy to help people and pass it along – what I’ve learned from doing this show.

JM: You also did the music on Quibi’s new version of The Fugitive with Kiefer Sutherland. Do you think that you’ll look into doing more family animation projects now based on the success you’ve had with Elena or are you going back to more shows and films like The Fugitive?

TM: I would definitely love to continue working in the family animation world. I hope to line-up with Disney again on something else down the line – and continue to be working on things like The Fugitive and anything else that comes. I hope to be able to continue to have a variety and land with Disney on something else in the near-future.

JM: What are the one or two things you’re going to miss the most about the Elena of Avalor part of your life?

TM: I’m gonna miss the crew a lot. We really bonded over this show that we’ve worked together on for the last four or five years. And equally as much, I’m gonna miss just writing for her character and her story. It’s been such a part of my day-to-day and seeing her character grow and get to where she is. And then on my side of things, developing this musical language for her and continuing to let it grow. I’m gonna miss continuing to advance that. But I’m really proud of where we got to, and I’m really proud of the final product of this epic ending. I’m just gonna hang my hat on that anytime I start to miss it and know that we all did the best that we possibly could with this character and are super proud.