Film Composer Mychael Danna scores “Little Miss Sunshine”

By Patrick Luce Sep 15, 2006, 16:28 GMT

Don\'t be fooled by the "various artists" credited as performing on this soundtrack: the CD actually has a rather uniform tone, and mercifully it\'s a lovely one. Composer Mychael Danna is paired with the Denver band DeVotchKa, who perform his score and offer a few tunes of their own. Making excellent use of strings, tuba, and squeezebox, they set a mood that echoes the movie\'s warmly idiosyncratic one. On top ...more

Award winning film composer Mychael Danna, most notably recognized for scoring Oscar-winning "Capote," creates an emotionally poignant score to Fox Searchlight Pictures' "Little Miss Sunshine." The Fox Searchlight release starring Golden Globe nominee Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Steven Carrell remain in the top ten after two months in theaters, taking the film by director Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris to #3 at the box office.

Film composer Mychael Danna is a pioneer in the combination of non-Western sound sources with orchestral and electronic minimalism. For "Little Miss Sunshine," he collaborated with folk-indie rock band DeVotchka. Danna's score sets the mood for the sardonic tale of an American family determined to succeed, whilst enduring with each other's discernible neuroses. Soundtrack is available on Lakeshore Records.

"Little Miss Sunshine" is a comedy-drama directed by the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and this is their first feature. The movie has had high praise and acclaim, including winning the Best Feature - World Cinema Audience Award at the 2006 Sydney Film Festival, and standing ovations at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

Mychael Danna began his film music career with his score for "Family Viewing" for director Atom Egoyan in 1987. His music received the "Best Score" award from the prestigious Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Danna is most markedly recognized for incorporating ethnic influences into the body of his contemporary film scoring aesthetics. This fame led him to work with acclaimed directors such as Ang Lee, Scott Hicks, Gilles MacKinnon, Mira Nair, James Mangold, Joel Schumacher and Denzel Washington.

In addition to his film scores, Danna has proven his versatility from scoring Moroccan music in "8MM" to Americana in "Ride with the Devil" to European medieval and Persian music in "The Sweet Hereafter," as well as "Where the Truth Lies," "Arafat," "Felicia's Journey," "Exotica," "The Adjuster" and "Speaking Parts." Danna is currently working on the much anticipated feature, "The Nativity Story," which will be released on December 1st.

“Little Miss Sunshine” is now available at Amazon. Visit the soundtrack database for more information and a complete track listing.