Chicken Run (2000)-"G"

Run Time:84 minutes

3 & 1/2 stars out of 4

I went into Chicken Run, a "claymation" movie, with high expectations, seeing as how much I loved the Wallace & Gromit films, the other famous works directed & animated by Nick Park. I was also hyped-up to see it because of all the good things I'd heard about it from friends, family, etc. I was not disappointed. Peter Lord's script overflows with subtle jokes, film references, and slightly sophisticated humor, so this film is definitely not just for the Disney crowd. One major aspect of the film was the parallelism/parody of the Great Escape (1963). This was fairly obvious throughout the course of the film, and easy to spot if you're familiar with both films. Anyway, Chicken Run is set on a poultry farm in 1950's York, England. It starts out with the main character, a chicken named Ginger (voiced-over by Julia Sawalha), who is determined to escape Mrs. Tweedy's (Miranda Richardson) evil chicken farm, where Mrs. Tweedy is determined to make all of her former egg-producing chickens into chicken pot pies. The only problem with Mrs. Tweedy's evil plan is that the deadly machine is temporarily broken, buying Ginger some much-needed time to plan an escape. Her only hope is to fly the entire farm's chicken population over the fence, having exhausted all of her previous options earlier at the hands of, Mr. Tweedy (Tony Haygarth). The only one who can teach the chickens how is a circus renegade, Rocky Rhodes the Rhode Island Red Rooster (Mel Gibson). Rocky escaped the circus via cannon, but to Ginger and all of the other hens, it appears that he flew in, and only Rocky knows in truth that he can't fly. Rocky can't take the pressure, and leaves by himself. Ginger is resourceful, however, and just when things look their blackest, she hatches a new plan, with the help of the former RAF mascot, Fowler (Benjamin Whitrow), the math genius, Mac (Lynn Ferguson), and the rat-duo, Fetcher and Nick (Phil Daniels and Timothy Spall). Now, I don't want to give away the ending, even though it is rather predictable, so I won't describe the plot anymore. Despite a few minor weaknesses, like some of the annoying characters, I enjoyed the film, though I kind of felt myself hoping the chickens wouldn't escape, and end up being processed in the machine, which was actually a pretty cool machine, what with all of the cool features and complete processing. I felt that this film on the whole was immensely satisfying and left me with a great anticipation for what Nick Park will cook up next.