Missing Link

Missing Link (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2019 film of the same name. Featuring an original score composed by Carter Burwell, the album was published and released by Lakeshore Records on April 12, 2019, through digital providers while Mondo released its vinyl LP edition on the same date. Preceding the album, was the original song "Do-Dilly-Do" written and performed by Walter Martin, which released on March 21, 2019 as its lead single. Development The musical score is produced by Carter Burwell, in his third animated feature after A Goofy Movie (1995) and Anomalisa (2015). Burwell recalled that he studied animation course in college, and also worked as an animator, though he seldom contributed music for animation films; speaking to Charles Steinberg of Under the Radar, Burwell explained that "animated films so often have a very distinct point of view because they have to choose how to represent their world. They have to make all these choices that live action films don’t have to make. They are working from the ground up and have a strong point of view because of that". While stop-motion animation had been basically created on a table top, Laika wanted it to get off and create a film which was "sweeping in its action and panoramic in the visuals" and the music is insisted to emulate the same, while he would "push the humanity of these characters and to push the scale of the adventure and amplify both of those". Unlike Burwell's approach for darker, disturbing and philosophical material, and "more of a tense mix of psychological experiences", the score for Missing Link consists of a brighter side, which was challenging for Burwell. It ranged from various emotions, from "perilous to light-heartedness" and not being whimsical as the soundtrack for several animation films. The music was fairly emotional which Butler demanded, and also referenced the 1956 film Around the World in 80 Days; he had the theme from the film in mind while writing the film. Burwell admitted that "he liked the idea of going back to that travelog action-adventure that’s also a comedy and has romance" while demanding a strong melody and distinctive instrumentation that would capture the different locations that the characters were visiting in the story, such as the Pacific Northwest, the American War Southwest, India, or the Himalayas.