ironhorse_iv Review of Little Giants

Little Giants (1994)

It's time to wake up, the sleeping giant. I think, this long forgotten kid's movie from the 1990s is still worth tacking. It's rewatchable.

[6/10 · 16 January 2019]

Inspired by an early 1990s McDonald's ad about Pee-Wee Football that ran during the Super Bowl & 1992's sport movie "Mighty Ducks' with a similar premise. This 1994 family sport comedy about an underdog ragtag peewee football team challenging another more advance team is still somewhat amusing to me, even after all these years. Yes. While, I do know, this film might not be a huge touchdown as it once was. Nevertheless, it's still a guilty pleasure of mine. Directed by Duwayne Dunham for the most part & written by James Ferguson and Robert Shallcross. The film does overused the 1976's film 'Bad News Bears' sport formula a little bit, too much. It does have some really, dated one dimensional shallow stereotypical children characters like the fat kid that eats & fart all the time, the geeky weak looking nerd with oversize glasses, and overdramatic tomboy girl. Some of the slapstick scenes, including them, could be tiresome and annoying to watch, especially during the bumbling practice antics & the big game showdown. Still, there is no need for unnecessary roughness. "Little Giants' ragtag bunch of misfits are very likeable. All the child actors portraying them, are decent enough to care about, even if some of the conflict involving them, seem forced, like Becky O'Shea (Shawna Waldron) getting mad at her father, Danny (Rick Moranis) for not treating her to the social norms of the day, despite the fact, that forming a rival football team was originally her idea. As for the adult actors. I found Moranis as the team's coach, alright to watch. However, his off and on love relationship with Patty Floyd (Susanna Thompson) was a bit forced & not needed. The whole thing is a little bit more awkward to watch, as his daughter has a crush on Patty's son, Junior (Devon Sawa) as well. If Danny marries Patty; yikes, talk about highly cringe-worthy. It will seem a bit incest like. Not good. Better, just to scrap Danny's crush, out of the picture. Despite that, Moranis gave a lot of heart to this otherwise, highly cartoony movie. However, the best actor in this film has to go with Ed O'Neill as Danny's older brother, over the top smarty football fanatic, Kevin O'Shea. He was amazing in this role. He had some of the best one-liners & insults. It's like if Al Bundy really did get to live up to his football fantasies, past scoring four touchdown in one game in high school. The jokes involving him, were mostly funny. However, some of them haven't aged well. Jokes like him, being arrested for peeping at children are cringe-wringing. Despite the detours into immature humor, the movie does upholds some positive messages, namely that all type of people can play football if they want, regardless of their talent level, gender, age or race. However, maybe the film should had portray the underdog team having more respect of game, by not, making them, cheated. After all, that's the villain's job, yet they barely do, that, besides Spike Hammersmith (Sam Horrigan). Instead, it's the protagonists that do all the dastardly things. Like how can it, be fair friendly-competition, if many of hold and facemask penalties made by the Giants, were uncalled for throughout the game? Better yet, how was the acid indigestion pills part, not an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty? Are the refs that blinded!? I guess so. They didn't notice that one of the team has a player trying to use an illegal sticky tar type substance. The game should had been throw out, just for that! Regardless, I didn't mind the notorious "The Annexation of Puerto Rico" fumblerooski climax of the film, as there were several variations of the play that were legal at the time. Since then, peewee football has made the move outlawed. Regardless, overall: This movie still score points with me. It was entertaining from start to end. I even dig the cameos from multiply NFL players; including John Madden, but it was a bit jarring to see Emmitt Smith help the Giants, despite playing for the Dallas Cowboy, most of his career. In the end, while the movie might not be a masterpiece. The film is decent enough to watch & have some fun. So, go see it. Don't drop the ball. You will thank me, tomorrow.