Chicken Run
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| Chicken Run | |
 British theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Peter Lord Nick Park |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Nick Park Peter Lord David Sproxton |
| Written by | Peter Lord Nick Park Karey Kirkpatrick |
| Starring | Mel Gibson Julia Sawalha Miranda Richardson Benjamin Whitrow Timothy Spall Phil Daniels Jane Horrocks Tony Haygarth |
| Music by | Harry Gregson-Williams John Powell |
| Studio | Pathe Pictures International Aardman Animations Allied Filmmakers |
| Distributed by | DreamWorks Pictures |
| Release date(s) | United States June 21, 2000 United Kingdom June 30, 2000 |
| Running time | 84 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$45 million |
| Gross revenue | US$224,834,564 |
Chicken Run is a 2000 stop-motion animation British film made by the Aardman Animations studios — the production studio of the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The Tweedys run a failing chicken farm in Yorkshire, England, the chickens producing fewer eggs than previously, and Mrs. Tweedy kills those chickens that fail to make their quota. Mrs. Tweedy decides to change the farm's production, moving into the making of chicken pies instead of selling eggs. The chickens themselves live in a World War II POW-like fenced area, and one chicken, Ginger, continues to try to escape the coop with the help of the other chickens and a pair of rats ("scroungers", common in prison films) that help get them contraband for numerous plans, but always ends up getting caught and put into solitary confinement by Mr. Tweedy who locks her in the coal shed. Ginger realizes that the only way to escape for good is to fly over the fence, something that chickens cannot do.
One day, Ginger witnesses an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes "fly" into the chicken coop. Though the other chickens fawn over him, Ginger is able to learn that he just escaped from a nearby circus. Ginger insists he teach the rest of them how to fly, despite his wing being injured when he landed. Rocky leads the chickens on several seemingly-futile exercises to help prepare them to fly. When the pie-making machine is delivered to the farm, Ginger realizes they must escape soon, and presses Rocky to speed things up. After Mr. Tweedy finished constructing the machine, they test it out by selecting Ginger as the first chicken to be used in the machine. Rocky manages to rescue her, disabling the machine in the process.
While Mr. Tweedy repairs the machine, Ginger discovers that Rocky has fled, leaving behind part of a circus poster that shows that he was only a stunt rooster, "flying" out of a cannon at the circus, and does not know how to actually fly. Ginger becomes dejected, willing to give into fate, until she recalls that Fowler, the farm's rooster, was an honorary member of the Royal Air Force, and has been around aeroplanes. With the help of the other chickens, they quickly begin a plan to build an aeroplane, using all their resources to build it while Mr. Tweedy is fixing the pie machine.
When Mr. Tweedy finishes the repairs, Mrs. Tweedy sends him to collect ALL the chickens in order to turn them into pies. The chickens fight back, tying up and gagging Mr. Tweedy and set their plane ready for take-off. Mr. Tweedy manages to get free and prevent the plane from flying the coop. Mrs. Tweedy then intervenes, armed with a hatchet, but she is hit on the head as Rocky, riding a tricycle, returns back to the farm to help Ginger and the others. Mrs. Tweedy falls onto the ground and watches as the hatchet falls and hits into the ground beside her.
The plane finally takes off but Mrs. Tweedy catches up and, still with her hatchet, grabs onto a string of lights hanging from the plane as it takes off. Ginger manages to trick Mrs. Tweedy into chopping the string of lights in two, and Mrs. Tweedy falls away from the plane into the pie-making machine, causing it to rupture from pressure build-up and explode, along with the barn in which it was housed. The chickens celebrate as they fly away.
Sometime later, they have found a wide open pasture to live in and raise their chicks, with Ginger and Rocky becoming a couple. The camera pans out to show it was a bird sanctuary, but the sign has "BIRD" crossed out and replaced with "chikin". The rats unwittingly engage in a philosophical "What came first, the chicken or the egg" debate as they wish to start a new farm to get eggs.
[edit] Cast
- Mel Gibson as Rocky
- Julia Sawalha as Ginger
- Miranda Richardson as Mrs. Tweedy
- Jane Horrocks as Babs
- Benjamin Whitrow as Fowler
- Timothy Spall as Nick
- Phil Daniels as Fetcher
- Imelda Staunton as Bunty
- Lynn Ferguson as Mac
- Tony Haygarth as Mr. Tweedy
- John Sharian as Circus Man
[edit] Production
[edit] Background
Chicken Run tells the humorous story of a band of chickens who seek to escape from their coop before their owners, the dim-witted egg farmer, Mr Tweedy, and his greedy, overbearing wife Mrs Tweedy, turn them all into chicken pies, as she is not making enough money by selling eggs.
The film proved a success with both children and adults, and showed that Peter Lord and Nick Park had the ability to handle the technical and writing challenges posed by a feature film, and thereby serving as a test bed for the 2005 movie outing for Wallace and Gromit, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
[edit] Production notes
- Chicken Run was the first feature film in Europe to use the Digital Intermediate process, digitally storing and manipulating every frame of the film before recording back to film.
- In early versions of the movie, Ginger had a little brother named Nobby, but the idea was dropped in order to make the film less cute.
- An early storyboard idea was that the plane would breakup in the middle of its flight and that the chickens would suddenly find the ability to fly; the idea being to show that you can do things if you "believe in yourself". This was dropped because the directors thought it was a little far fetched.
- It was also suggested that Fowler would be a drunk who felt useless and neglected until Ginger convinced him that he was needed. In the final film it is a sober Fowler who is made to believe in himself and fly the plane.
- The reason all the chickens wear scarves is to hide the joint between the head and the body. The scarves hide the 'seam' which is present because the bodies of the chickens are articulated steel frames coated in silicon rubber while the heads are plasticine (this is similar to the reason why Ewoks in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi wore hoods: to hide the seam between the head and the body parts of the suit).
[edit] Reception
The film has received outstanding reviews from critics since its release and currently garners a 98% "Certified Fresh" rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website.
[edit] Awards and nominations
- Annie Awards:
- Best Animated Feature
- Best Individual Achievement in Directing (Nick Park and Peter Lord)
- Best Individual Achievement in Writing (Karey Kirkpatrick)
- BAFTA Awards:
- Best British Film
- Best Visual Effects
- Broadcast Film Critics:
- Best Animated Feature
- Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics:
- Best Animated Feature
- Empire Awards:
- Best British Director (Nick Park and Peter Lord)
- Best British Film
- Best Debut (Nick Park and Peter Lord)
- European Film Awards:
- Best Film
- Florida Film Critics:
- Best Animated Feature
- Golden Globe Awards:
- Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
- Kansas City Film Critics:
- Best Animated Feature
- Las Vegas Film Critics:
- Best Family Film
- Los Angeles Film Critics:
- Best Animated Feature
- National Board of Review:
- Best Animated Feature
- New York Film Critics:
- Best Animated Feature
- Phoenix Film Critics:
- Best Animated Feature
- Best Family Film
- Best Original Score (Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell)
- Satellite Awards:
- Best Motion Picture - Animated or Mixed Media
- Best Sound
- Southeastern Film Critics:
- Best Film (3rd place)
[edit] Video game
Chicken Run is a stealth-based 3-D platformer based on the movie. The game is a loose parody of the famous The Great Escape movie, which is based in WWII.
[edit] See also
- Nick Park
- Aardman Animations
- Wallace and Gromit
- List of animated feature-length films
- List of stop-motion films
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Chicken Run at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- Chicken Run at Allmovie
- Chicken Run at the Internet Movie Database
| Preceded by Gladiator |
Box office number-one films of 2000 (UK) July 2 July 16 |
Succeeded by Mission: Impossible II |
| Preceded by Mission: Impossible II |
Succeeded by Stuart Little |
|
| Box office number-one films of 2000 (AUS) | Succeeded by Vertical Limit |
