Chicken Run

Synposis: Ginger (Julia Sawalha) is determined to lead her fellow chickens to freedom, she tries one escape plan after another - but nothing works. Then one day a new arrival crashlands in the barnyard: Rocky the Flying Rooster (Mel Gibson), a quick-talking American escapee from a nearby circus. Ginger persuades Rocky to teach the chickens to fly before Mrs Tweedy (Miranda Richardson), the farmer's wife, turns them into chicken pies...

If you are familiar with the adventures of the Aardman studio's claymation superstars, Wallace and Gromit, the only thing you'll miss in this full-length feature is the Lancashire lad and his dog themselves. Although they do not make an appearance, stylistically all remains intact, the extraordinary animation, the parodic, slightly dark humour, the Heath Robinson visual inventiveness and attention to detail and the "ee, by gum" accents. The only difference is now the characters are chickens. Not quite as engaging, it must be said, but still a highly enjoyable and undeniably remarkable effort (the segment where Ginger and Rocky get caught in the pie-making machine is a wonder to behold).

Chicken Run begs comparison with another outstanding animated (and for my money better) film, Toy Story. Flight is one of the central themes of both pictures. A ready metaphor for transcendence and self-determination, it is here more literally interpreted, and the nuances of human behaviour that were so brilliantly interwoven into the Lasseter film are absent in this one. And Mel Gibson's Rocky, the escaped American circus rooster is unmistakably reminiscent of Tom Hanks's Woody, a seemingly unnecessary characterisation, unless it was perceived as a winning ploy for the US market.

If you're a fan of animation, an animal liberationist, or a looking for a film to take your over-5 year old kids without subjecting yourself to the Disney Studio schmaltz machine, this is the one.

 

 

Want more about this film?

    

Want something different?