• Composed by Florian Tessloff
• moviescore media MMS-09019 / 2009 / 40:18

Everyone loves penguins.  Jasper is a particularly cute blue one who has been the subject of various tv shows and movies.  This 2009 big-screen adventure was scored by young German composer Florian Tessloff, who has filled the penguins’ icy world with delightfully warm music.  It follows the pattern of modern orchestral scores for animation – generally short cues filled with warm-hearted themes and fun action music.  For sure, one might say it’s a bit generic, but it’s become pretty hard for composers to be truly creative in such a well-established genre.

One of the traditional problems with short cues is certainly here – with 40 minutes of music spread between 22 different tracks, there is little time for any real development – but, credit to Tessloff, it doesn’t feature the other traditional problem, which is the disjointed feel that can often dog such scores.  Anyone who enjoys scores which follow this template (like the various DreamWorks animations) will surely find a lot of enjoyment from this.  And I imagine we’ll be hearing more from Florian Tessloff in future – let’s hope so.  ***