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.

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.

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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 Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For John Debney reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.23 (in 49 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.01 (in 42,775 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.