Chicken Run

Voices of: Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Tony Haygarth, Jane Horrocks, Miranda Richardson, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, Benjamin Whitrow
Directed by: Peter Lord, Nick Park
Rating: G
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
2000

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: A group of chickens are determined to escape captivity at any cost.

Review:

Tim: I first saw Chicken Run in theaters in 2000 and not again for about 17 years. What's interesting is that I felt the same way about the movie both times, even though they were so far apart. This is a perfectly fine animated film. There's nothing really all that special about it, but it's not a bad movie, either. It's a decent movie, but certainly not one that I got overly excited about.

The stop motion quality to the animation is indeed a big differentiator. I can't even fathom how labor intensive the process is, but Chicken Run just looks different. That's one of the big strengths of the film, it just looks so unique. This obviously wasn't the first stop motion animated film and we've had many since its release, but never so many that you don't stop and marvel at the screen. The colors, the textures of everything just feel so real, it draws you into the story. I really appreciated the look of the film.

The story is fine. A bunch of chickens want to escape their eventual demise in captivity. It's a bit of a hard "G" (not sure I've ever heard or said that term before right now). It's a kids' movie, but some of the sequences weren't exactly designed for young children. I watched this movie with my almost three year old (I know I shouldn't have done that) and there were a few moments when I needed to distract him so he didn't watch what was happening on screen. Still, the story is simple in its straightforwardness- chickens try to escape. I couldn't help shake the feeling that there were some purposeful parallels to concentration camps. I suppose using this as an analogy for that might have been clever, but it bothered me all the same. It's not exactly what I want to watch when I sit down for a children's animated film.

The voice cast is really good. Julia Sawalha did a good job as Ginger. It felt like she was a very non-American heroine, which was really good. She's not the type of character we'd see in a lead role in an American production and I appreciated that. Mel Gibson does great work as Rocky. He certainly attracts the most attention as a character, but I can't say I liked him as much as Ginger. Still, his arc is a solid one. The rest of the cast was quite strong as well, especially Miranda Richardson and Timothy Spall. Really, everyone did a good job.

Chicken Run is the fourth Dreamworks Animation film, but as it was done in partnership with Aardman Animations, I always forget it's Dreamworks. It just doesn't feel like one of their films. It's an outlier. I didn't dislike the movie either time I watched it- it's a perfectly fine animated film. It has some nice sequences and a few laughs. However, it's doomed to always be a lower tier production and is never one of the first films that come to mind. It's decent, but in the world of animation, you have to be better than that.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Chicken Little, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit