Chicken Run (2000) review

(9/10)

This movie was a great part of my childhood. The humor is clean and funny, the voice choices are great, the animation is good for its time, and it's very entertaining overall.

PLOT:Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) is a tough, greedy owner of a chicken farm. These chickens have pretty much dedicated their boring lives to laying eggs for Mrs. Tweedy, except for one brave chicken named Ginger (Julia Sawalha), who constantly tries to escape and lead the other chickens to freedom. No attempt has ever been successful, however, because of Mr. Tweedy (Anthony Haygarth) and his dogs constantly watching. Ginger's just about ready to give up when she meets an American circus rooster named Rocky (Mel Gibson), who flew into the farm and hurt his wing. At this moment, Ginger convinces Rocky to stay and teach them to fly. However, there seems to be something fishy about this rooster; not to mention, egg sales are going down so Mrs. Tweedy might have to resort to drastic measures to make a profit off of the chickens. It's a good plot executed greatly.

 

VOICES:The voice acting in this movie is great. Mel Gibson and Julia Sawalha play a great pair as the American rooster, Rocky, and the dedicated rebel, Ginger. Miranda Richardson and Anthony Haygarth also played a couple of great parts as Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy. There really wasn't a bad voice in here. The other shiners would have to be Jane Horrocks as Babs, Lynn Ferguson as Mac, Imelda Staunton as Bunty, Benjamin Whitrow as Fowler, Timothy Spall as Nick, and Phil Daniels as Fetcher.

SCORE:The score was pretty good as well. The score was simple but matched the moods of each situation and reminded me a lot of Aardman's previous works (the Wallace and Gromit shorts). There were also a couple memorable musical numbers, including a rather entertaining scene with "Flip, Flop, Fly".

ANIMATION:The animation in here was really good for its time. The claymation was fun and very cartoonishly detailed. However, compared to today's claymation marvels (Coraline, Corpse Bride, Curse of the Were-Rabbit), it seems a tad outdated. It's not as detailed.



OTHER CONTENT:This movie is just an entertaining treat. There's plenty of charm to go around as well as mostly-clean slapstick humor. It was a lot of fun. This movie has enough charm, humor, action, and slower moments to have the spirit of a great variety show. The only flaw I had with it is that the animation kind of took me out of it. Though memorable and a great part of my childhood, now it just seems outdated. However, I still love the spirit of this movie. They just don't make them like this anymore.

OVERALL,an awesome animated movie with a great plot, great acting, simple yet fun score, memorable animation, good slapstick, plenty of charm, lots of action, and a handful of slower moments to balance it out, but the animation is getting a little outdated and took me out of the experience a little bit.