Well I have to say I am not a fan of scores for animated movies, well most of them anyway, although in recent years with John Powell writing some truly great material for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and Patrick Doyle on board with his score for BRAVE there have been a few exceptions, I say a few please make note of that. When I heard about SAUSAGE PARTY I thought this is animation gone nuts, when you think of animation you automatically think it’s for the kiddiewinks, come on now you know you do. Well stop it because unless your ankle biter is 15 or above there is no way they will get to see SAUSAGE PARTY at the cinema, what you do when it comes out on DVD is entirely up to you.
The food products at Shop-Well’s Supermarket are led to believe a code that helps them live happy lives until it’s time for them to leave the comfort of their store and travel to the Great Beyond. However, after a trip to the Great Beyond goes wrong and leaves one sausage named Frank and his companion Bun stranded, Frank goes to extreme lengths to return to his packaging and make another trip to the outside. But as he makes his way from one end of the store to the other, Frank’s quest to discover the truth about his existence as a sausage turns incredibly dark and uncomfortable. Will he be able to tell his fellow foods what lies in store for them beyond the doors of the supermarket and persuade them to take action and rise up against their human masters?
The soundtrack for this somewhat unusual and bizarre animated feature is now available and contains a mix of songs and score, music is a collaboration between Alan Menken and Christopher Lennertz, both of whom are well versed in how to score an animated feature. This however is a little different from your run of the mill animated capers, I think it contains more bad language than SOUTH PARK and any of the Tarantino movies put together, it’s an attempt at humour but to be honest I was not that amused. The songs on the release include items by WHAM, MEATLOAF, SPANDUA BALLET and ERIC CARMEN. But it’s the score I am concerned with so onwards and upwards, I have to say although I am not impressed with the movie I do like the original score and was amused by the various musical references from other film scores that Menken and Lennertz managed to weave into the fabric of their score. In fact, I found the score more entertaining than the movie for which was created, there is even an Italian western flavoured cue (track number 9, HE’S COMING) which contains soaring trumpet, electric guitar and a nod in the direction of Morricone’s THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY for a brief moment.
The most amusing and entertaining cue has to be track number 10 FOOD MASSACRE, which starts out as a very light and typically cartoon like piece, then suddenly bursts into psycho like strings that segue perfectly into a take on Jerry Goldsmiths satanic chorus from THE OMEN, it’s all a bit tongue in cheek but oh so effective. There are a number of these big orchestral cues within the score, brass and strings combining to create highly dramatic and fearful sounding pieces with choir and percussion in tow, THE BIG FIGHT for example is in my opinion another nod in the direction of a classic in the form of Bill Conti’s ROCKY score, striving strings, timpani, a bell and brass flourishes are in full flight and then it just stops in its tracks and slides into a Mexican mariachi type trumpet composition, but you have to see the movie to appreciate this. There is no doubt that SAUSAGE PARTY contains an entertaining score, and both the composers have delivered a work that I know as film music collectors you will just love, there are so many film music references thrown in here or at least sound-alike cues and interludes it is just a blast listening out for anything that they might want to throw in and it’s got to be a first an Alan Menken track with explicit lyrics, I kid you not. Also check out the multicultural end song THE GREAT BEYOND, AROUND THE WORLD, this is a score worth investing in. It’s great, it’s fun and you should so check it out. So what you waiting for, available on CD, Spotify and I Tunes.
MOVIE MUSIC INTERNATIONAL. (MMI) . 