Chicken Little

Composed by John Debney

01 - Stir It Up (3:43)
       Patti LaBelle and Joss Stone
02 - One Little Slip (2:53)
       Barenaked Ladies
03 - Shake a Tail Feather (3:05)
       The Cheetah Girls
04 - All I Know (3:25)
       Five For Fighting
05 - Ain't No Mountain High Enough (3:28)
       Diana Ross
06 - It's The End of the World As We Know It (4:05)

       R.E.M
07 - We Are the Champions (0:38)
       Chicken Little
08 - Wannabe (0:50)
       Abby Mallard and Runt of the Litter
09 - Don't Go Breaking My Heart (1:53)
       The Chicken Little Cast

The Score

10 - The Sky is Falling (2:49)
11 - The Big Game (4:05)
12 - Dad Apologizes (3:15)
13 - Chase to Cornfield (2:00)
14 - Dodgeball (1:15)
15 - Driving with Dad (1:45)

Orchestrated by Brad Dechter

Conducted by John Debney

Produced by Chris Montan and Jay Landers

Released by Walt Disney Records on November 1st, 2005

Total Running Time: 39:09

     Disney tries to prove it can do CG-animated fare just as well without Pixar (whose contract expired with The Mouse this year). The result is the first film without the famed animation studio, Chicken Little, and one that hasn’t exactly been a good start for Disney’s in-house efforts. The reviews have been decidedly lackluster, and while the film hasn’t been panned, it has been greeted more with a “ho-hum”.

     The soundtrack album is a definite oddity. The first two-thirds of the CD are loaded down with an array of pop-songs, with one consisting of a tune from the Barenaked Ladies, and the other being a cover of the Spice Girl’s song Wannabe, sung by the Chicken Little cast. If this strikes you as an odd selection of pop songs for a film that will largely be seen by a younger audience, than you share in my befuddlement. The songs will be dismissed out-of-hand by those interested in Debney’s score, and simply passed over by those too young to have remembered when most of these songs were in vogue.

     And speaking of Debney’s score, it’s on here more as an afterthought than anything else. Taking up six tracks for a total of about fifteen minutes, Debney’s score last long enough to make a slight impression before the CD abruptly comes to an end. The impression starts off quite strong with “The Sky is Falling”, an endeavor into straight orchestral bombast (replete with a rousing choir), that belies the fact that this is CG kiddie fare. This opening track would lead you to believe that the rest of the score is going to blaze in and make the most of its fifteen minutes, but unfortunately this is not the case.

     The next cue is a brassy heroic mixture that keeps up the excitement, but in a different nature than what was in the previous track. The combination of pounding brass and driving strings comes together in the second half of the score as a slight homage to the Western scores of Elmer Bernstein. Following that is “Dad Apologizes”, an odd piece that features a guitar effect over typical Carl Stalling moments. Things immediately pick back up with “Chase to the Cornfield”, which has Debney layering his orchestral bombast with electronic beats to good effect. The last two tracks however return to the standard musings found in “Dad Apologizes” and then simply ends, with no cue to tie everything together. The result is a score that feels like it would be really good, but which in no way has enough material to make a final thought on. This is really disappointing in light of the fact that Debney’s other similar venture with Zathura is really good.

     Ultimately, Chicken Little’s skewed production on disc will hurt it more than anything. Song-wise, there’s nothing to recommend it on, and Debney fans would be better served with a bootleg of the complete score. Definitely a pass on this album, though not so on the score itself.

Reviewed on Tuesday, December 13, 2005

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