Day 24: Let's Not Lose Our Heads

CHICKEN RUN (2000)

Directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park

Starring the voices of: Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks, Lynn Ferguson, Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall

On a small English farm, a group of hens spend their days laying eggs and spend their nights plotting their escape.  It sounds like an easy job, but this particular farm is little more than a POW camp, complete with watchdogs and barbed wire.  And if a hen doesn’t meet their quota of eggs, they become dinner for the greedy Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy.  The mastermind behind every failed escape plan is Ginger (Sawalha), who never gives up the hope of someday being free, despite the fact that she is captured every time and sent to solitary.  Things begin to look up one day, as a cocky American rooster (hahaha) named Rocky (Gibson) literally flies into their coop (with the aid of a cannon).  This, Ginger thinks, is the answer – they’ll fly out.  Except no one, especially Rocky, bothered to tell the hens that chickens can’t fly. 

Chicken Run is the first feature film from Aardman Studios, the British animation team that gave us Wallace & Gromit.  All those years of doing short subjects and music videos (my favorite being Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”) paid off, as this film looks and feels like it was done by seasoned pros.  And best of all, it doesn’t have the feel of a movie that was done specifically for kids. 

The animation is done in stop-motion, which, until Flushed Away years later, is Aardmans preferred method.  And they take full advantage of the medium, using it to give a full, three-dimensional look to not only the characters, but the world around them.  This is one of my  favorite methods of animation because it really forces the film makers to think about things cinematically.  This was near the beginning of the big 3D animation boom that is still dominating the business.  With a computer, it’s easy to move the “camera” around, pull a rack focus, do a dolly shot or simulate a Steadicam.  All of that can be done in stop-motion, too, but it’s nowhere near as easy, since there’s still an actual camera involved.  I have a soft spot in my heart for “the hard way,” especially when it’s done well. 

The story is very much inspired by classic POW films such as The Great Escape and Stalag 17 – in fact, there are several visual references to both.  It follows pretty much the same pattern as both of those films and several others.  But it never gets boring.  It’s genuinely funny and heartwarming without resorting to outright schmaltz.  The humor is very character-driven rather than gag-driven for the most part; there are a few cringe-worthy puns from a couple of crooked sales-rats, but besides that, everything works. 

Although it’s pretty standard animated fare, it’s done very well.  It may not change your life, but at least it’ll make you laugh.