Chicken Run
rated G 85 minutes Dreamworks SKG featuring the voices of Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson, and Lynn Ferguson written by Karey Kirkpatrick directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park
A Review by Frankie Paiva
In the tradition of Toy Story 2, Chicken Run is an animated movie for anyone and everyone. Not only do sharp wit, droll one-liners, and hidden inside jokes get marvelously packaged into one, Chicken Run is also a remarkable looking film. This is one of the few films made with stop motion animation, more commonly known as claymation. Veteran animation studio Aardman Animations, who created all three of the Wallace and Gromit shorts as well as the Academy Award winning short Creature Comforts is behind this movie. Director and Aardman head Nick Park (director of the three Wallace and Gromit shorts) brings the animals to life. The screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick does borrow heavily from several claymation and computer animated movies, but is full of brilliant humor. There is a perfect balance of jokes for adults and kids, and it's likely to please both audiences.
Ginger is the ambitious leader of a group of hens. She focuses on getting the entire group out of Mrs. Tweedy's egg farm. Mrs. Tweedy is an evil individual with a dim-witted husband who always believes the chickens are organizing an escape. She ignores her spouse, and often gets angry with him and the minuscule profits she's making on the farm. Seeking more money, she orders a chicken pie machine and begins to fatten up the chickens. There may be hope for the chickens in their time of need though. Rocky the Rooster is a flying chicken from the circus. Through several misunderstandings and lies the hens believe he can teach them how to fly the coop, so to speak. In actuality, Rocky flies because he gets shot out of a cannon. However, he soon has the hens doing flying exercises and tries to get them to take off in the air. How much longer can he keep up the charade without the others finding out, before they all end up as pies?
The comic actions of these chickens as they deploy their genius escape plans are ineffable. Chicken Run is really a wonder to behold, a movie you really have to see for yourself. The jokes are that funny and unexpected. One of my favorite lines occurs when Rocky first meets the hens and tells them he's from America, the land of the free. This prompts Mac, the scientific and brainy chicken to say, "You mean Scotland!" Another highlight is a half-witted hen who views laying several eggs a day only to get killed later as a living. There's also two hilarious rats that try to sell a variety of small items (like a set of thimbles as a tea set or a shuttlecock as a two-way hat) to the flock. All the voices are excellent. Mel Gibson plays the perfect womanizing rooster, and Julia Sawalha and Lynn Ferguson are energetic and exciting in their roles.
For all of the little touches in Chicken Run, the main plot is rather derivative. Elements from all three Wallace and Gromit shorts appear. Another large chunk of this movie seems to be from the 1998 computer animated feature A Bug's Life. Many movies get spoofed, but just as many movies get copied from. The familiarity felt with scenes like Rocky and Ginger getting caught in the chicken pie machine (similar to Wallace and Gromit getting caught in a dog food machine) hurt my overall enjoyment of the movie. It felt like I'd seen this material before. A feeling not felt throughout the rest of the movie.
Every chicken in this movie acts like a human, that's one of its many charms. You will find people you know resembling these characters. Despite the human resemblance, the chickens are never stereotypes of human characters seen in other movies. This is a movie intended to get taken lightly. Never before has any animated movie kept me needing more like this one has. Chicken Run is pure fun that will delight all ages. The crazy antics are unparalleled from any other comedy this year.
Will we be seeing a Chicken Run 2 in the near future? I sure hope so.
A
Frankie Paiva SwpStke@aol.com http://www.homestead.com/cinemaparadise/mainpage.html
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