Hi everyone! It is great to see you all back on the blog site again! Today, we are going to be traveling back to the time of the early 2000s, the year 2000 itself, as a matter of fact. What’s more is that we will be going into the world of DreamWorks Animation. You know, the company that came out with animated films like the Shrek movies, the Kung Fu Panda trilogy, the How To Train Your Dragon trilogy, the Madagascar trilogy, Flushed Away, Shark Tale, and all those animated films. However, we will not be reviewing any of those animated films. Instead, we will be reviewing what is called a stop motion animated film. It was a film that was released before movies like Shrek, and Madagascar came around in the first place, when DreamWorks still believed in making both hand-drawn, and computer-animated, or, occasionally, claymation films before going full on with the two latter types of animation. Oh, and did I forget to mention that , first of all, DreamWorks teamed up with companies Aardman, and Pathe for this particular film, and, second, this particular animated DreamWorks movie was released just three months after the company released their second hand-drawn animated film, The Road To El Dorado? Yeah, much like how in 1998, which gave us DreamWorks animated films Antz, and The Prince Of Egypt in October 1998, and December 1998 respectively, 2000 also had two animated films released that same year, with The Road To El Dorado, and Chicken Run getting released in March 2000, and June 2000 respectively. How about that!?! That being said, let’s talk about the 2000 DreamWorks animated/claymation film, Chicken Run, which starred Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Jane Horrocks, Lynn Ferguson, and many other stars.
Plot: Set in London, England, in the 1950s, Ginger (Julia Sawalha), the leader of the chicken coop, a Scottish assistant to Ginger named Mac (Lynn Ferguson), Babs (Jane Horrocks), who loves to knit, and quite a few other hens live on a farm run by greedy farmers Mr., and Mrs. Tweedy (Tony Haygarth, and Miranda Richardson respectively). The farm is set up like a Nazi prison camp. Though the chickens can’t fly, can they still find a way to escape with the help of new friends that come to their aid in the form of a former circus rooster star named Rocky (Mel Gibson), and two rats named Nick, and Fetcher (Timothy Spall, and Phil Daniels respectively) before the Tweedy decide to make pot pies out of the chickens?
Alright, so for those of you who read my review for The Great Escape, you may recall me mentioning that sometime after I put Chicken Run on the docket for me to rewatch sometime this year, that I came to discover that Chicken Run was loosely based on The Great Escape, yes? If you do, you may also recall me telling about how I wanted to see The Great Escape because of that, yes? Well, just a reminder that I wanted to see The Great Escape for this purpose, save it for one of the special reviews, and then rewatch, and review Chicken Run shortly after. Because of this, I wanted to rewatch Chicken Run shortly after seeing The Great Escape, even though the review of the film didn’t quite immediately follow my review of The Great Escape as originally planned. Oh well! Definitely better late than never. With all of that out of the way, I will say that I remember watching this film quite a few times at least for the first couple years after I got to own it. Now that I’ve got to revisit it, and see it through adult eyes, does Chicken Run still hold up twenty-two years later, and counting? I’m delighted to say that yes, it does. First of all, when I was a kid, soon to be a teenager, I thought that Chicken Run was just a fun animated films with chickens trying to escape a farm run by evil farmers. And yes, of course the film has that plot setup. However, what I was surprised to discover somewhat shortly before planning to revisit Chicken Run was that this film was set in the 1950s, and that we had a story about chickens trying to escape a farm that was designed just like a Nazi concentration camp, and that Mr., and Mrs. Tweedy were basically acting like German Nazi soldiers running the camp. Really creative, when you think about it, is it not? And that’s what the storyline is overall, creative. First of all, having chickens basically symbolizing the Jews, or even American prisoners of war during WWII has a clever premise in and of itself. And of course you have the Tweedy parents being these evil prison Nazi guards, along with a chicken named Mac (how interesting, considering The Great Escape had a character named Mac, with a Scottish accent, who was a make, not a female, in that case), a chicken that was part of the Royal Air Force named Fowler, and a lot of other creative characters, and details to go along with this film. As far as characters went, it was also great that even though there were many chickens in this film, this film decided to focus on at least a few, and flesh them out. They are likable, especially characters like Ginger, Mac, Bunty, and Babs. Babs especially is likable. She also has some really hilarious lines. If you liked those types of characters, such as Dory from 2003’s Finding Nemo, or Mittens from 2008’s s Bolt, you’ll like Babs for her sweet, and playful nature, and lines that are often funny, and memorable. And how could we not mention Rocky the circus rooster, or even rats Nick, and Fetcher being memorable characters as well? What’s even more is, you know how at the bottom of the DreamWorks logo, you have the initials SKG? Well, those letters stand for the last names of the founders of DreamWorks; the famous director Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg (who used to be one of the creative heads at Disney until his feud with former Disney CEO Michael Eisner in the mid-1990s), and David Geffen. The reason I bring this up is because, well, one, many of us hopefully at least know Steven Spielberg for making films like Jurassic Park, Minority Report, and great plenty more, yes? He really seemed to especially help put his creative mind behind a great many of these DreamWorks films, animated, or live-action. Chicken Run was certainly no exception. What makes Chicken Run an incredible movie is that it does well at acting like a great fable that represented the difficulties of life especially for prisoners in Germany in decades like the 1950s, and even earlier. The script for this film is also brilliant, whether it be jokes about vultures, or even a couple of the animal characters bringing up the Scripture, Matthew 21:22, that says, “Ask, and you shall receive,” and one of those characters saying that’s Biblical, and from an animal character of all characters, for example. Seeing that this film was release almost a year and a half to couple years after The Prince Of Egypt (which, as many of us hopefully know, was based off the Biblical event of Moses’ life), it should come as no surprise that such a line was inserted in a film that came shortly after like Chicken Run. As mentioned before, the rest of the dialogue is charming, witty, and quotable more often than not. It’s also nice that, seeing as DreamWorks seemed to believe in inserting foul language, and crude humor back when these earlier films were being released, it was also nice to see that for once, DreamWorks didn’t insert words like the “s” word, or the “h” word in this film. Of course, how could we also not appreciate that Chicken Run was one of the rare to few animated films from DreamWorks, along with 2002’s Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron, to be rated G instead of PG, and rightfully so? Additionally, what also makes Chicken Run really well done is how, though this may feel like a kid’s movie on the surface, you realize, as you watch it, that all ages, be it kids, teenagers, or adults, are bound to enjoy it, for seeing fun talking chickens, jokes, and lines overall that land well, and a story that can either be lighthearted, or rather dark, and gritty at points. And the tone doesn’t even feel off whenever the tone of this film may change from time to time. There’s also the score by John Powell, and Harry Gregson-Willliams. Wow, though the score may not quite be worthy of winning an Oscar, these guys clearly went all out with this score. I mean talk about really capturing the type of music from this time period, and overall really capturing the emotions of the audience in the process. I would say that since John Powell also made good scores even for animated films like 2010’s How To Train Your Dragon, 2011’s Rio, and many more animated films, Powell should become legendary like Alan Menken, Hans Zimmer, and some of those composers. It was also good to not have quite all of the animals talk, as the two dogs that are owned by the Tweedys are the only animals that don’t talk. The stop motion animation is also really good. Even when objects like the sky are captured, the animation for this film is still really great. One other thing to mention is that Chicken Run could potentially feel rather thought-provoking at points. Oh, and there’s the ending for this film. I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say that, like the endings for done of DreamWorks earlier films, you’d be surprised by certain aspects of this ending. The only thing that could have maybe made Chicken Run slightly better is that Rocky’s character arc could have probably been handled a little better than it was. It was still good for what it was. Still, it could have maybe been rewritten a little better.
And that’s my review for Chicken Run. Now, you all may be wondering, if the Best Animated Feature award had been invented earlier than 2001/2002, could Chicken Run have won that award? Well, there were other good animated films from 2000, like Disney’s Dinosaur, Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove, and DreamWorks The Road To El Dorado. Still, Chicken Run may yet be the best of these bunch for it’s creative premise, likable, and memorable characters, a mostly quotable script, a fantastic musical score, and quite a few other great things about it. That being said, it wouldn’t have been surprising if Chicken had won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, had that category come around earlier than 2001/2002. Also, one has to wonder, why aren’t films like The Prince Of Egypt, Chicken Run, or even The Road To El Dorado talked about as much as DreamWorks films like Shrek, and How To Train Your Dragon, and some of those animated films from DreamWorks? Well, they should be, since they’re all worth seeing. That said, if you haven’t seen Chicken Run, make a point to. Even a couple that’s in their dating stages before marriage is bound to likely love this film. Also, if you liked animated films with mature storylines like 1996’s The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, 1998’s The Prince Of Egypt, or even 2016’s Zootopia, for example, Chicken Run will more than likely be up your alley.
Final Grade: A
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 