Chicken Little

I first watched this cartoon short when it was part of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, in an episode titled "Man Is His Own Worst Enemy." It was also my first time learning of the Chicken Little story. It was, honestly, a pretty sad story to watch, seeing Chicken Little and the rest of the bird family meeting an untimely fate in the hands of Foxy Loxy. Some of parts of the short was, though, pretty entertaining to see when Chicken Little and friends think the sky is falling, thereby, running around frantically. The characters were zany and the animation was great.

Overall, it's not a bad story. It gives children a harsh reality that not every story has a happy ending and that life could be pretty complicated.

Grade B-

This Disney short is a bit preachy, but in its original incarnation, it was a lot more obvious and a lot more dated. That's because Walt felt that the obvious references to WWII would date the film. In hindsight, although the film isn't perfect, it does hold up pretty well today.

This is a retelling of the old story of Chicken Little. It's pretty obvious that it was meant to be a metaphor for spreading and believing rumors during wartime, but no mention is made of the war--just Chicken Little and all his stupid poultry friends believing ANYTHING that the wicked Fox tells them.

I give this one a 7 despite the dated theme. Why? Because the Fox is a great character and I loved the very dark and twisted ending. Well worth your time.

One negative, by the way, was the film's use of repetitive animation. Like the lower quality Hanna-Barbera films of the 60s, you see the same images again and again--in the hopes that the audience wouldn't notice this. I certainly did.

The Disney shorts have seen a large number of classics and a lot of very good shorts too, there are very few that I didn't care for. Chicken Little(1943) is very different for Disney, who have rarely been more cynical or morbid, but here different equals great results. Chicken Little is terrific, maybe not quite one of the Disney masterpieces or among my personal favourites, but is bold well-made stuff and one of the better Disney shorts of the 40s. The animation is fluid and colourful, the backgrounds moving from frame to frame smoothly and the colours as vibrant and well-textured as you'd hope. The characters are well drawn too. The music is typically lush and energetic if ever so slightly repetitive. The writing can be much enjoyed, the gems being with Foxy Loxy and his psychology book dialogue. It will admittedly most likely go over children's heads but not over adults, who be impressed and amazed by how daring Chicken Little and how much of its content it manages to get away with, considering the time when it was made. The story is very true in detail to the original story but with a unusually twisted(especially for Disney) ending that will shock the viewer as much as it shocked the narrator. It also has a point that is made clearly and not heavy-handedly, and is as relevant now as it was then with stuff that parallelled WW2 and also parallels now(especially from a militaristic viewpoint). The characters carry the narrative very well and their personalities do stand out, the most memorable and entertaining by a mile being Foxy Loxy. While Frank Graham does a superb job voicing almost all the characters(Florence Gill and Clarence Nash do their distinctive hen and duck noises), particularly the narrator- the role of which is well written and doesn't try to explain too much- and Foxy Loxy. To conclude, terrific short that succeeds at doing something different from what Disney usually do. 10/10 Bethany Cox

At first i didn't know there was a 1943 short of the same title called Chicken Little even though Chicken Little had a movie back in 2005 also known as the movie that got so much hate just like Home On The Range back in 2004 and Cars 2 the third hated movie from 2011. I still like Home On The Range, Chicken Little and Cars 2 but that doesn't mean you need to take it to the extreme and treat it like it's worse than Hitler, not trying to sound like an opinion basher and i think the worst movie made by Disney is The Wild also known as the worst movie from 2006 which The Wild is a rip-off to Madagascar and the other worst Disney movie ever from 2008 is The Little Mermaid Ariel's Beginning and many more unnecesary sequels from Disneytoon Studios since it shutted down in 2018.

I remember reading the 'Chicken Little' book as a child but this cartoon turns it on its head with one eye on the time it was made, 1943, during the Second World War.

The sly and hungry Foxy Loxy reads from a text which describes how to lie and cheat your neighbours - in this case to persuade Chicken Little and others than the sky is falling, and so the world is about to end.

It showcases the power of propaganda, panic and persuasion to achieve an aim (Foxy of course wants a hearty supper of chickens and ducks). Cocky Locky is the political leader who gets depicted as a fool, while Henny Penny and her cronies spread gossip and hysteria.

A clever cartoon, perhaps too sophisticated for children, but enjoyable on some levels to a younger audience with a bit of forethought, a bit like 'Animal Farm'.