Chicken Little (Promo)

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

If you consider how many composers have so little assignments today, perhaps John Debney has in the end too many. For a couple of years now, John Debney has been scoring like crazy, one assignment after another. With all due respect, this diminishes the sometimes creative or especially innovative process of the scores. Apart from Passion of the Christ, the rest has been a bunch of expected comedy music, with a couple of orchestral bombastic efforts that were fun while they lasted (Zathura). Chicken Little was no different, sorry is no different. Released as a song / score soundtrack, the Walt Disney Records CD covered just about 15 minutes of Debney music and while this is little to say the least, it covered some wild music where Debney soared like never before in a less serious sense. Well, that's taking it too far because while the orchestral music was a bit in the line of the wonderful sprightly Little Giants music, the choir sounded demonic and big like nothing you expected to hear in a movie like this. And that's what made the CD. For most this of course wasn't enough and so it was inevitable that Chicken Little had to be heard like it was meant to be heard, through promo size. The promo carries at least 15 minutes more of music, and several cues work longer then their commercial counterparts. Yet eventually, you still feel its missing something. For most it will be a blessing to have more music, but considering most tracks are just around the 2 minute length, its fair to say that a bit of development could have really made my day. And for that, I still feel that a little bit of length could have made it all so much better for Chicken Little. The score starts in the same vein as the commercial soundtrack, sweet innocence leads to demonic choir in 'Storybook / Run for your Lives'. Further its noticed that the soft music carries the same technique as Powell and Gregson-Williams utilized in that other Chicken adventure namely Run, and this is clear in 'Chicken Tries to Explain' and 'Lay Low', having that same rhythm and instrumentation.

With 'Drive Home' we have the soft main theme on piano, further noticed in tracks as 'Dad Apologizes to Crowd' with further sweetness. But its when Debney utilizes this theme as rollicking western fun and fanfares that Chicken Little rocks. 'Play Ball' is noticeably longer (about a minute) but rocks the same way, with the theme getting attention ala Randy Newman or Elmer Bernstein. Also in 'Chicken wins Pennant' it receives this orchestral / choral treatment. The middle part yet again throws some underscore into the development, leading a couple of times the tried and tested formula of alien sounding techniques (Mars Attacks) but its when Debeny returns to the demonic choir that it soars like never before. 'Ship Lands at Oakley' is choir rising in scale, 'Space Craft Escape' a fast paced orchestral action track (with beat) and choir handling the demonic aspects, continuing in 'Cornfield'. This however is a case in point where they just had to link these tracks together to form one amazing piece, now its divided into 3 parts, and they just are too short to really make a statement. The soft scoring leads to some mellow smooch and some sweet Debney tunes, but again these are just a minute or a minute and a half long, what good can they possibly do! Even the wonderful brief choral statement at the last dying seconds in 'Chicken Little Story' is so to the point, it doesn't leave a lasting effect whatsoever. This is not the way to end the disc, nor was the commercial CD a proper finishing score and this proves my point saying, with all the brilliance lying around, Chicken Little doesn't end the way it began. You feel there is still material missing, you feel they could have linked it more together, you feel there is an aftertaste still after 30 minutes. Like Zathura, you want more. Which makes Chicken Little 15 minutes more rich of material, but leaving you equally thirsty, despite the way Debney soars his arsenal of tunes.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Storybook / Run For Your Lives (1.53)

2. Chicken Tries To Explain (1.37)

3. Lay Low (1.41)

4. Mutton Class (1.26)

5. Drive Home (2.23)

6. Play Ball (5.05) Excellent Track

7. Chicken Wins Pennant (1.21) Excellent Track

8. Investigating Panel (1.14)

9. The Big Debate (1.33)

10. Flying Fish (1.08)

11. Ship Lands At Oakley (2.08)

12. Space Craft Escape (3.10) Excellent Track

13. Cornfield (1.19)

14. Dad Apologizes To Crowd (1.52)

15. Alien Invasion (1.57)

16. Dad's Realization (1.31)

17. Aliens Depart (0.50)

18. Chicken Little Story (1.08)

Total Length: 33.26

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=== Link to Composer Site: John Debney ===