Chicken Little

Voices of: Zach Braff, Garry Marshall, Don Knotts, Patrick Stewart, Amy Sedaris, Steve Zahn, Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, Patrick Warburton, Adam West
Directed by: Mark Dindal
Rating: G
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
2005

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After claiming that the sky was falling, no one believes Chicken Little, which is unfortunate, because he tries to warn the town of an impending alien invasion.

Review:

Tim: I know that Chicken Little is mostly viewed as a forgettable Disney film. I actually enjoyed the movie as an interesting update of the old story. We all know "the sky is falling, the sky is falling!" so it was kind of fun to see a new twist on that. This movie is certainly not anywhere near the best of Disney's work, but I still had fun with it.

The voice cast was important here and I thought they did a good job. I really liked Zach Braff in the lead role. I like Braff and he has a distinctive voice. He worked well as Chicken Little. It was also great fun hearing Joan Cusack, Steve Zahn, Don Knotts, Garry Marshall, and Patrick Stewart. Each of them brought something different to their roles and I enjoyed their voice performances.

The animation was fairly solid. The film is certainly beautiful to view, at times. The anthropomorphic animals, the aliens, it was all animated quite strongly. I was certainly impressed with the visuals.

The story is pretty weak- it's certainly the biggest problem with the film. There's nothing especially exciting or memorable about the story. You think about the greatest Disney films and you'll never forget the story, even after one viewing. That's not the case here. The story is totally forgettable. That's a major flaw. And yet, while the story is bad, there were still decent moments. The heart of the story is the relationship between Chicken Little and his father. That was very well done. The scene after the big baseball game was especially touching. Although, I do have to say the placement of that scene felt so odd to me- it came in the middle of the film when it felt more like a concluding sequence. That was the end of the first half of the film and the transition to the alien invasion half, but it was still so bizarrely handled. I have no idea why it was done like that. Truly, the story needed a lot of work.

The characters were decent. I liked Chicken Little- he was sympathetic and you wanted him to be successful. The fish character was awesome, probably my favorite of the film. He provided great comedic relief. Steve Zahn's large pig character was pretty humorous as well. While none of the characters are classics, they worked well enough.

Maybe part of the reason I liked this movie is because I was able to watch it with my son. At 2.5, he's too young for it, but we still had a good time watching it. It was entertaining enough so I didn't want to jump out a window, but it was accessible enough for him. It's interesting, to think about how my viewing perspective will change as he gets older and I watch more movies with him. This is one of the first he was able to sit through (albeit not in one sitting).

Chicken Little certainly isn't a great film, but despite its flaws, I found the movie entertaining. I enjoyed it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Chicken Run, Lilo & Stitch