In addition to being a rollicking, first class feature debut from the gifted animators who created the lovable Wallace and Gromit, CHICKEN RUN also fills an echoing void in the family entertainment market: It's one of those rare movies that will appeal to both children and adults, one that is certain to become a favorite and reveal new layers of enjoyment over a lifetime of viewing.
The plot is lifted almost directly from THE GREAT ESCAPE, except in this case, the POWs are pullets. Plucky heroine hen Ginger must organize a motley crew of hens -- and one crotchety old rooster -- to escape from Tweedy's Chicken Farm before the whole lot of them are marched into the barn to become the raw ingredients for chicken pot pies. After several clever but botched attempts, Ginger concludes the flock must do the impossible: learn to fly.
The attention to detail and the level of complexity in the animation is marvelous, each scene dripping with background business that enhances rather than distracts from the subject at hand and leaves you to marvel at the process of meticulously manipulating the myriad tiny motion changes from frame to frame. Remarkably, for a cast of chickens, each is imbued with a distinct personality and an astonishing range of facial expression and body language.
Kids will be entranced by the almost non-stop action and the cleverly executed small-scale sets (including a monstrous automated pie-making machine and the tiny hen houses rigged up with secret passages and ill-fated escape inventions). Adults will appreciate the film's many nods to 1940s war and homefront epics, as well as subtle homages to everything from HOGAN'S HEROES to STAR TREK. (These little set bits are few and fleeting, and never detract from the story with a look-at-us-making-hip-anachronistic-references wink, a fool's path too many recent Disney feature animations have followed.)
A few of the earliest scenes in the movie, including a chilling sequence where a hen who has failed to produce her egg quota is marched off to slaughter, may be a bit intense for very little children, although violence and death are never shown on screen, only hinted at.
On the whole, however, CHICKEN RUN is a visual delight that will have young and old cackling and crowing with laughter. Its messages of cooperation, dedication and personal esteem as means to success are true, and its unique animation style should win the respect of generation jaded by schlock cel-work and CGI. (It may also, only incidentally, create more than a few converts to vegetarianism.)
Take a friend, young or old, to see CHICKEN RUN...take several, and do it repeatedly. It's fine family fun in its own right, and represents a class of family-friendly films -- like last season's THE IRON GIANT -- which deserves to be supported and encouraged with a healthy box office return.
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