| Chicken Run |
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UK, 2000. Rated G. 84 minutes.
Cast: (voices) Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Miranda Richardson,
Jane Horrocks, Lynn Ferguson, Imelda Staunton, Benjamin Whitrow, Tony
Haygarth, Phil Daniels, Timothy Spall
Writers: Nick Park & Peter Lord (story), Karey Kirkpatrick (screenplay),
Mark Burton (additional dialogue)
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell
Cinematography: Dave Alex Riddett
Producers: Nick Park, Peter Lord
Directors: Nick Park, Peter Lord
LINKS
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| Grade: B+ |
Review by Carlo
Cavagna |
riple
Oscar™-winner Nick Park has taken clay-animation, or "claymation," to a new
level. His Wallace & Gromit animated shorts, involving an eccentric English
inventor and his loyal dog's escapades with murderous sheep-rustling dogs, shifty
penguins, and cheese, have become a cult sensation and won two Oscars™ for Best
Animated Short this decade, for The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave).
In fact, the series' first installment, the hallucinatory A Grand Day Out,
is the only one not to win an Oscar™... because it lost to another Nick
Park short, Creature Comforts, a spirited condemnation of animal captivity.
Until now, Nick Park and his studio, Aardman
Animations (which also earned acclaim for the multi-award winning Peter
Gabriel video Sledgehammer), have never attempted a feature film. This
is no surprise, given the amount of work involved in claymation, which requires
shooting meticulously created clay sculptures one frame at a time, altering
them after each shot. With the success of Wallace & Gromit, a full-length
theatrical release was inevitable. Park directed and shot his short films on
his own, but for Chicken Run he has wisely sought help. He co-directs
Chicken Run with Peter Lord (who has produced other Aardman projects)
and has enlisted a cinematographer and screenwriters, all under the auspices
of Dreamworks Pictures.
As those familiar with other Park stories may expect, Chicken Run is
also sympathetic to animal rights. It is a tale of chickens yearning to range
free. Ginger (voice of Julia Sawalha–Saffy from Absolutely Fabulous)
and her fellow chickens (including AbFab's loopy Bubble, Jane Horrocks,
as dim-witted Babs) live on a English chicken farm run like a Nazi concentration
camp by the chillingly nefarious Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson–no stranger
to AbFab herself) and the henpecked Mr. Tweedy (Tony Haygarth)
.
Chicken Run kicks off in high gear with a depiction of the chickens'
numerous unsuccessful escape attempts, which always end in the same way–with
Mr. Tweedy throwing Ginger, the mastermind, into the chicken farm's version
of solitary confinement, like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. When
a cocky American rooster named Rocky (Mel Gibson) literally drops in, he brings
new hope for escape to the chickens, who believe he can fly. The chickens' desperation
escalates, however, once they discover Mrs. Tweedy's plan to abandon egg production
in favor of chicken pot pies.
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The Big Picture
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| Alison |
B+
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| Carlo |
B+
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| Dana |
B+
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| Glenn |
B+
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| Jeff |
B+
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| Kris |
-
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Unlike the Wallace and Gromit series, which is as much for adults as
it is for children, if not more so, Chicken Run is a children's movie
foremost, an animated farce with an easy-to-follow plot and uproarious action
sequences, particularly Ginger's close encounter with the pot pie machine. Adults
will enjoy it, too, as Chicken Run possesses more intelligence than much
of the competing summer fare for grown-ups. There are more than a few parallels
to World War Two, most evidenced by the old rooster Fowler (Benjamin Whitrow)
who struts around reminiscing about his Royal Air Force days and grumbling about
Rocky with the British slogan used to complain about American soldiers living
in England during the war–"Overpaid, oversexed, and over here!" Chicken Run's
satirical touches and movie references ranging from The Great Escape
to Star Trek are enough to keep adults mentally occupied even during
repeat viewings. There are so many movie references that one half expects Gibson
to declare (as Braveheart's William Wallace), "Every chicken dies! Not
every chicken truly lives!"
There are no characters as memorable as Wallace or Gromit in Chicken Run,
and the film drags just a tad in the middle, but these are forgivable shortcomings
when the material is so hilarious. There is a scene in which a chicken gets
the axe offscreen, but other than that, Chicken Run is wholly appropriate
for young children, and parents yearning for a respite from sloppily-animated
drivel featuring an annoying yellow Japanese dog, or whatever the heck Pikachu
is, are particularly encouraged to go. You'll likely have to sit through Pokemon
or Rugrats trailers before the movie starts anyway, which should make you appreciate
Chicken Run's well-crafted, sophisticated creativity all the more.
Review
© June 2000 by AboutFilm.Com and the author.
Images © 2000 DreamWorks LLC, Aardman Chicken
Run and Pathé.
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