Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #874
Written 11/4/99, Revised 9/17/06
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Buy it... if you're a sucker for inspirational kiddie sports
music... the kind of hopelessly optimistic marches that John Debney has
seemingly perfected.
Avoid it... if, like the film, the score is so formulaic that its
endlessly positive orchestral vibes become tiresome after ten minutes.
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| Debney |
Little Giants: (John Debney) If formula children's
sports films need a definition, Little Giants would suffice in
every regard. If you were ever dragged to an inspirational kiddie sports
flick as a kid, then Little Giants is an inevitable nightmare of
boredom or irritation for you. It's hard to imagine how so many
collaborating screenwriters could have written such predictable and
insidious trash, and thankfully critics blessed to be witness to the
film's release in 1994 applied the appropriate hammer to the film's
hopes. The plot essentially follows the tradition of teaching kids that
no matter how nerdy, ugly, or uncoordinated you are, you can still
succeed in life. Or, in this case, football. Rick Moranis is his usually
dorky self as he coaches a team of hopeless younglings of similar
coolness against a team of more superior offspring coached by his
character's brother, a Heisman Trophy winner no less. A girl eventually
throws on a helmet to save the say for the bedwetting nitwits, and the
underdogs actually win the big game at the end of the film. The only
redeeming aspect of the film is a set of cameo appearances by actual
football greats, with famed coach, announcer, and hardware store guru
John Madden suffering a broken-down bus in the small town where the film
takes place. Madden and more current football greats (who knows exactly
how many of these huge players Madden's luxurious bus can hold?) stream
into the picture to help the nerds accomplish their limited life goals.
Critics correctly commented that the film would have been far more
interesting had the film gotten back on the bus with Madden instead of
continuing its kiddie inspirational formula. One wildcard in the film
was John Debney's score, a piece of music so perfect for the film's
heroic message that the score itself begins to become as obnoxious as
the story. To Debney's credit, he nailed the film with his hopelessly
optimistic militaristic comedy rhythms, but unless you personally find
this kind of music inspirational apart from the film, it only serves to
exude its own formulaic construct in doses so grand that it becomes
tiresome to sit through.
One could only imagine the hard drinks the musicians
needed to seek after recording this one. And hopefully they were versed
in performing the works of America's official march-maestro, John Philip
Sousa, for Debney successfully applies Sousa's techniques to rural Ohio
youth football for
Little Giants. There are several influences
pulling at Debney's score, and one, of course, is the composer's own
ability to write harmonious comedy themes and reprise them with
considerable flair and orchestral prowess. The scope of the score is
grand in style, often featuring bold brass themes over free-flowing
string counterpoint and a nearly constant snare rhythm. Also evident is
the Americana spirit of Sousa, whose work Debney lifts in significant
pieces in several places. More interesting is an overarching
foreshadowing of both Debney's own and David Arnold's future patriotic
works, with the finale, "The Big Win" not only providing a glimpse into
Debney's massive
Cutthroat Island the following year, but also
illuminating some of Arnold's heroic schemes for
Independence
Day. There are also seemingly pieces of Jerry Goldsmith's influence
throughout as well. Most obvious is the somewhat more dramatic and
serious turn the rhythms and themes become when Madden and the other
football greats step into the film; Debney employs pieces of Goldsmith's
victorious
Patton march in "Madden and the Big Boyz Arrive."
While Debney doesn't capture the same spirit of competition that
Goldsmith would endeavor to define with his concurrent
Rudy
score, there are several Goldsmith-reminiscent usages of brass and
thematic progression in
Little Giants. Overall, though, the
score, despite its high production qualities and success in
accomplishing its own goals, is a trial of your patience. It's swinging
attitude can be as potentially abrasive as Robert Folk's (also
concurrent)
In the Army Now, and unless you're cool with several
quotations of "Stars and Stripes Forever," there's nothing really
original enough about
Little Giants to warrant a search for the
rare Debney promotional album of music from the film. As the lyric in
the famous Sousa piece goes, "Sing out for freedom and the right," and
in this case, we can all sing out for the freedom to walk out of the
theatre halfway through the showing.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For John Debney reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33
(in 56 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.1
(in 49,960 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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