| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | Chicken Run (2000) |
| Director | Peter Lord, Nick Park |
| Writer | Karey Kirkpatrick, John O’Farrell, Nick Park, Peter Lord |
| Lead Actor | Mel Gibson |
| Cast | Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson, Timothy Spall, Phil Daniels |
| Genre | Animation, Adventure, Comedy |
| Release Date | June 23, 2000 (United States) |
| Duration | 1h 24m |
| Budget | $45 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 7.0/10 |
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The action is funny for kids while adults delight in the wit and allusions to earlier movies and TV shows. I saw it with my teen daughter. She chuckled at the movie references she recognized, and I enjoyed the sheer adult wit of it. We heard a small child somewhere behind us shrieking with delight at individual actions or events, although I don’t know how much of the story she understood.
So it’s not just a movie for kids that parents can sit through. It’s truly a family movie. The plot is in a grand old melodramatic/comic tradition.
The animated characters are a coop of chickens. Transform that coop visually to a WWII concentration camp reminiscent of Stalag 17, but set in England. The prisoners chickens are overseen by a bumpkin farmer and his severe and mean-spirited wife, who is really in charge. The hens must produce their quota of eggs or be sentenced to beheading. But the greedy wife is not happy with her profit exploiting the chickens for eggs. She decides to invest in a huge Rube Goldberg machine to turn them all into chicken pot pies. All this is darkly told with few words in the delightfully exaggerated visuals of the cartoon tradition.
Meanwhile the chickens are organizing, united around the leadership of a scrappy hen, Ginger. But elaborate charts, plans and gizmo-filled breakout attempts end with Ginger in “solitary confinement.” In a running gag the farmer thinks the hens are up to something, organizing themselves. But his wife thinks he’s crazy until she discovers the truth too late.
In flies a rooster from the other side of the pond. They think he’s the answer to their prayers. But he’s no savior, just a clever cad. He resists helping them with their escape, but Ginger is one tough chick and tries to force cooperation out of the selfish, arrogant “American.” Instead he leads many of the hens astray with his charm, dissipating the discipline which the lead chick has been instilling.
In its cartoon way it uses all the extreme angles and spatial freedom to keep the drama strong. When the rooster escapes he was supposed to be teaching the hens how to fly he sees a billboard advertising the chicken pies that will be the destiny of those he has left behind. He turns back and escapes with the chicks to a heavenly kingdom.
So who would suspect that in this sheer entertainment, this hilarious cartoon lurks a spiritual message? It’s there. The take-away from Chicken Run is all about our human yearning for freedom from oppression. And of course it champions integrity and true (altruistic) love. And other virtues we value, like hope and persistence. You may miss them for the laughter. But you take them home anyway. That’s what makes it a family picture.
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