Chicken Little is the latest animated offering from Disney and definitely one of their best for some time (bar the PIXAR movies released under the Disney label). It follows the story of a little chicken, who comes to be known as… Chicken Little, unsurprisingly enough.

With an opening that takes pot shots at several animated films, we start with the point in time where everything started going wrong for the little chicken. Convinced that part of the sky had fallen on his head, he raises the alarm in his little town. (Strangely this is done by ringing the school bell, but that doesn’t matter as the whole thing is a little whacked out.) Once the whole town is in panic however, he can’t find the piece of sky that supposedly fell on his head and in fact the only thing that can be found is an acorn. He becomes the laughing stock of the town, a book is written about it, even a movie made… he keeps coming up with plans to be great so that the whole thing will be forgotten and his father can be proud of him… but, just perhaps, his stupid idea wasn’t quite so stupid after all… (the story is very loosely based on “The Sky Is Falling”, a Bulrovian fairy tale – though “Bulrovia” doesn’t actually exist, it’s a euphemism for Aesop’s fable style stories.)

This is very much an animation for kids but it’s quite watchable for adults in the mood for some light and funny entertainment. Admittedly the character development is, in the main, fairly non-existent, but really for an 81 minute movie with this many laughs it’s not a problem. The animation is superb, and the pacing of the film is handled well by Director Mark Dindal. There is quite a bit of satirical humour if you look for it hard enough, and while quite a bit of the humour comes from slapstick, there is also plenty in the dialogue. The thin characters themselves however are the source of the humour – one-joke wonders they may be, but for each of them the one joke is used sparingly and ingeniously enough to be funny several times. Abby Mallard (known as the Ugly Duckling) is always trying to get Chicken Little to talk to his father and get proper “closure” Runt of the Litter (he’s enormous) is forever singing 70’s songs; Fish out of Water is just completely hyperactive and seems to spend much of his time making sly references to movies. (The least subtle, but one of the funniest, saw him making a mock Empire States Building and model biplanes, and acting out the final scene of King Kong.)


The voice acting is spot-on, with Zach Braff as the voice of Chicken Little himself, Joan Cusack as Abby, and Steve Zahn as Runt of he Litter. (Fish out of Water doesn’t speak as such, just makes strange noises.) There are a slew of other characters with rhyming names such as Goosey Lucy, Foxy Loxy, and the ultra-cool Morkubine Porcupine (who only says three words in the entire movie, but is oh so cool…) I’ve seen a lot of criticism of this film for lack of character development, but in this case it didn’t seem to be a big problem.


The plot, thin though it is, rattles along at a merry pace and throws up a few surprises along with a lot of laughs. There’s nothing groundbreaking about it and nothing very deep, but it is good solid entertainment for young ones and quite watchable for adults in a silly mood – at least, unless they are subjected to watching it every day for a while! Overall it’s not quite 5 stars but I did enjoy it more than Madagascar, though not as much as the likes of Finding Nemo or Ice Age.

Main Cast

Zach Braff .... Chicken Little (voice)
Garry Marshall .... Buck Cluck (voice)
Don Knotts .... Mayor Turkey Lurkey (voice)
Patrick Stewart .... Mr. Woolensworth (voice)
Amy Sedaris .... Foxy Loxy (voice)
Steve Zahn .... Runt of the Litter (voice)
Joan Cusack .... Abby Mallard (voice)
Wallace Shawn .... Principal Fetchit (voice)
Harry Shearer .... Dog Announcer (voice)


Related Links

Top Ten Animated Movies


_-*********-_

See Also

Top Ten Films of 2005

-_*********_-


Recommended:
Yes