Chicken Run was,
back then, one of those stop-motion animations you had to see. It was Aardman’s
first feature film debut and, as of 2020, their most commercially successful
yet.
Chicken Run is
an enjoyable movie and is done like a spoof of the 1963 WWII movie The Great
Escape.
The movie
introduces us to the chicken causing all the problems on Tweedy’s farm—her name
is Ginger. The Tweedys run an egg farm, and Ginger has witnessed what happens
to chickens who stop producing eggs: they become dinner. Ginger has been coming
up with plan after plan to escape the farm, only to be caught each time by Mr.
Tweedy, who keeps telling his wife that Ginger is up to something sinister. She
always dismisses him, saying it’s all in his head.
But Ginger never
stops, and things start to look up when she sees a chicken crash into the farm.
The chicken’s name is Rocky, and it seems he was flying. Ginger and Rocky
strike a deal: she will keep him hidden from those hunting him if he teaches
them how to fly, so they can escape the farm.
The movie
revolves around that escape plan.
Chicken Run is a
fun movie to watch, though in comparison to other Aardman films, it may not be
their best. For me, their best so far has been The Pirates! In an Adventure
with Scientists! (2012). But that’s not saying much from my side, as that is
the last of their films I’ve seen.
The animation features memorable voice acting, with each actor doing a great job of bringing the characters to life. However, there are a few weaknesses. The storyline is fairly predictable, sticking to the classic escape-from-capture plot. While the main characters are well-developed, some of the secondary ones feel more like comic relief and lack depth. Also, the humor and themes seem to be more geared toward adults, with some jokes and references that might fly over the heads of younger audiences.
When it comes to
stop-motion, Aardman seems to have a standard they stick to, making the
animation wacky and using screenplays that are even wackier. Aardman may not
have the best stop-motion (that honor goes to The Nightmare Before Christmas
(1993)), but their movies are still fun.
Stop-motion
hasn’t been making waves at the box office lately, and many big production
companies are staying far away from it. I think, other than Aardman, the next
big stop-motion movie of the last decade was Frankenweenie (2012) by Disney,
and even that wasn’t a commercial success.
Chicken Run and
its success paved the way for Aardman to make more feature films, and there are
rumors that Chicken Run 2 is in production. I would guess the release date
might be next year, 2021—twenty years after the first movie.
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