GOAT

GOAT, an NBA-inspired animated film, slams into theatres this Friday. It features a goat who becomes an underdog champion of roarball (like basketball, but played by animals, and more dangerous). To open the trailer we have a 6-second microteaser featuring basketball icon Stephen Curry (he’s a co-producer and voice actor in this film).

Now, what makes this trailer special musically is its use of Skee-Lo’s 1995 rap hit “I Wish,” a track which not only references basketball aspirations, but also features Skee-Lo’s iconic hook “I wish I was a little bit taller...”

Last July’s Teaser Trailer for GOAT also licensed the same Skee-Lo track, a double play we don’t often see in trailer campaigns these days, but hey, if the song’s a perfect fit for the story, why not get some extra mileage out of it?

After the microteaser, the trailer picks up with our protagonist, a young goat named Will Harris (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin) who is being taken by his mom to see his first pro roarball game. By 0:19 we see him in the stands, a tiny goat dwarfed by the other animal spectators around him. The music starts to fade in, starting with a pulsing backbeat. At 0:32, over the production companies’ title cards, the instrumental groove from “I Wish” enters. A voiceover reminiscent of a Miles Morales SPIDER-MAN opening sequence catches us up to present day Will Harris, now a teenager.

At 1:02 we hear Skee-Lo’s vocals for the first time, and it’s “I wish I was a little bit taller” over Stephen Curry’s producer credit title card. Then the first time we see Will playing roarball (at 1:08), we hear Skee-Lo’s lyric “I wish I was a baller.”

The music in the trailer pivots away from Skee-Lo at 1:15 to what feels more like an instrumental ‘80s synth-drenched power ballad. We’re now seeing the part of the trailer montage where Will Harris gets signed to the pro roarball team that he idolized as a kid. The trailer cuts to musical silence at 1:27 to introduce the tension between Will and star player Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union), a panther.

From 1:33-2:05 we have a comedic montage introducing the players on the team, backed up musically by some more synth chords and drum machines chugging along ever more busily. At 2:06 we recycle the chorus hooks from “I Wish” a few more times just to feel like Skee-Lo’s vocals are still present in the trailer, though his instrumental track is long gone by this point.

Is this the GOAT of trailers - is it the Greatest of All Time? No, not really. Their choice use (and re-use) of a classic basketball-related hip hop track is clever. But the few and far between samples of Skee-Lo’s hit are patched together using some uninspired synths and aimless drum machines that feel flat like some of the bathroom humour in this trailer’s fourth quarter. The whole never seems to build much momentum. But who’s to say, the film may yet be a slam dunk.

Keep your eyes out for the GOAT - in theatres February 13.

— Jack Hui Litster