Chicken Run (2000)

The Long Review:

d: Today, we're going to talk about Chicken Run, one of the big hits of the summer. It's a movie about chickens planning a great escape from a chicken farm. Lots and lotsa chickens put their heads together to concoct a plan of escape from their coops... They gotta try or they're chicken pie. After several half-boiled plans that didn't pan out, help drops in (literally) in the form of Rocky the Flying Rooster, who agrees to teach the feathered friends how to fly the coop. Are they going to fly? Or are they going to fry? So what did you think about it? What were your initial expectations?

m: Well, when we saw the previews, they really made it seem like a total comedy, calling it CR:1, spoofing M:I2, and the scenes that they showed us had these chickens running like they literally had their heads cut off. So I was expecting cute, 100% comedy.

d: Well, I was initially expecting a 3 because of the initial reviews. That was only because I thought it would be more like a cartoon, gag-a-minute type of movie, which really had no substance. It was just there to purely entertain on its cartoony-like merits. But what's unusual is that the trailers for Chicken Run were playing at the same time as the Me, Myself and Irene trailers were playing and I remember thinking that I would've preferred to watch Me, Myself and Irene over this Chicken Run. But the reviews came out pretty positive and I started to raise my initial expectations. So I thought it would be a 4.

m: Yeah, that's what happened to me, too. I heard it got pretty good reviews so I got pretty curious. I jumped the bandwagon!

d: So we did end up watching it before Me, Myself and Irene. What can we say? I thought it was pretty good. One of the things that really impressed me was the stop animation.

m: I've never seen a movie like that before. I'm not an expert or anything, but I thought it was pretty fluid. Those chickens really looked like they were alive. 'Made me hungry. Just kidding.

d: The animation was way beyond what I expected. It was a lot more fluid, like you said. It looked almost cartoon-like, as though it was computer-generated. And it was just as good, if not better, as those Brisk commercials that you see on TV now with the Karate Kid or Elvis.

m: Those commercials are cool! Like I said, it almost looked like those chickens were alive. It was hard to believe that they were made by men.

d: Well, made by men they were. And, to back it all up, it really had a good storyline, too!

m: There was a mature touch to the story. It was deep, man. It was deep.

d: It actually had a storyline. Like I said, I thought it was going to be a gag-a-minute type of thing, but what resulted was a movie more about repression and the need for freedom.

m: Talk about philosophical! I really went into the movie not knowing what the plot was. I thought it was going to be a comedy about chickens in a chicken farm but it turns out to be this dramatic struggle, you know? I think the characters were made to be very human.

d: I agree with you there. That was another thing I really liked about the movie. The characterization. Even though it was just basically clay, the animators did a really good job of animating it to the point where I felt I could tell the emotions of these… chickens! I could tell when they were sad or when they were surprised. It was a great job!

m: Ebert made a comment that the plot here is more human than a lot of human comedies out there. And my first reaction was, well, Chicken Run is not really a comedy. As far as I know. It's more of a commentary on human nature, only they used chickens.

d: How so?

m: Well, as a human, how would you feel if you were in prison and you were just used to produce this product and if you stopped producing, you were killed…literally chopped off?

d: Well, doesn't that happen at work? If you don't produce, you're fired!!!

m: I don't think it's that extreme in the work world. Think about it this way. What if I was imprisoned and the only reason I was being kept alive was for my eggs? And if I stopped producing, I'd be killed?

d: So the plot, like I said, wasn't as gag-a-minute like I expected. So that led to some slow parts.

m: Yeah, I was bored at times. I just wanted to see what would happen next. But you can't have action all the time, right?

d: Well, to me, it was more like a cartoon in some senses…It's animation. Just a variation. And most animations that are presented as comedy are usually…

m: Pretty fast?

d: Pretty fast-paced. So this one, I found kind disappointing on that merit just because of the fact that it was meant to be an animation. If it were real live people playing it, I don't think I would've rated the pace as low as I did.

m: You have a point. If they had used humans, we wouldn't be so critical. It's just that with animation come expectations. You expect to be entertained every second. But it wasn't that bad. I thought it was a really intelligent movie. It had its ups and downs but the characterization was built up at a nice pace.

d: I agree. And that led me to have an overall good impression of the movie. It was generally well-done. And for that, I gave it a 4. I'd watch it in the theatre at full price.

m: That's the rating I gave it, too. I don't regret seeing it at full price and I don't think other people will, either.