Chicken Run

Is Escapist Fun

Reviewed by Bruce Cantwell

Stop-motion claymation films are likely to be confused with children's films. Trailers for a couple of kiddy flicks were mistakenly attached to the first reel of CHICKEN RUN but nothing in the film condescends to the under ten crowd. You know the kind of pandering you usually run into when a historical figure like Hercules delivers a catch phrase from a current TV show. The closest this film comes is when an animated rat puns the title of an eighties gay anthem by exclaiming, "it's raining hen!"

Aardman animation creates comedies, not kiddy flicks. Some little rugrat sitting a few rows behind us couldn't shut up because one of the chickens was taken to the chopping block. Grow-up!

Nick Park and Peter Lord have chosen as their model one of the great summer movies of all time: THE GREAT ESCAPE. Much of the action takes place in Tweedy's farm hut (Stalag) #17. These references clearly aren't aimed at the youngsters in the crowd.

When Ginger (Julia Sawalha, a growed up Saffron Monsoon in more or less the Steve McQueen role) fails to escape time and again, she is thrown into a dust bin (the cooler) where she checks off the days and throws a Brussels sprout against the wall.

The film is much more than a catalog of in-jokes which are used mostly during the opening credit sequence to set the scene. Aardman animation creates amazingly likable characters.

Even though they're dumb chickens who often try to escape by walking through the fence we can empathize with their bird-brained instincts not to want to be made into chicken pot pies.

Farmer Tweedy (Tony Haygarth) himself is a fairly likable character, a bumbling egg farmer who continually suspects "the chickens are up to something?" while his Cruella Devillish wife (Miranda Richardson) knows it's all in his head. It's clear he's not mean by nature. He's just hen-pecked.

The Aardman guys have the knack of creating great comic moments away from the central action of a scene. In their frequent shots of chicken pile-ups a character off in the corner of the frame will have a hilarious expression on its beak.

For fans of WALLACE AND GROMIT, there's a Rube Goldberg chicken pie making machine and some menacing but cute Dobermans on patrol.

There is a charm to the other-worldliness of stop-action animation that computer generated images have passed over in their race for perfection.

It may seem quaint to those who didn't grow up with Ray Harryhausen's skeletons battling Jason or the inhabitants of MYSTERIOUS ISLAND trying to cook an overgrown lobster in a geyser but I enjoy seeing what has evolved from an artform that began with Gumby damn it!

One of the promotional packages sold at the concession stand was a clear super ball ((remember those?)) with an imbedded rubber character on the inside. I'm not sure if it was Ginger or Rocky Road (Mel Gibson) but I wanted one and only the humiliation of ordering a child's popcorn and soft drink kept me from getting it!

If you enjoyed this film, try:

Wallace and Gromit: The First Three Adventures