Chicken Little - Amici per le penne

There have been many, many movies that Disney has put out that I've had a high desire to see "succeed". All in all, most Disney animated movies that have made it to the big screen in the more modern cinema history of, say, from "Beauty and the Beast" all the way up to "Lilo & Stitch" and "Brother Bear", have done that. Perhaps some are only a financial success, like "Treasure Planet", but certainly they were popular enough with one group of moviegoers or another to have a good box office take.

Unfortunately, "Chicken Little" is not a success.

In pooling my thoughts to review this movie, I am so highly disappointed that good animation is its only high mark. In this pivotal point in the history of The Walt Disney Company, where its relationship with Pixar is still on the rocks while a new president is stepping up, I wanted this movie to be a smashing success. I wanted this to be the movie that starts another Golden Age revolution, where it is possible that Disney takes the top spot in producing awesome animated movies.

I fear that there aren't many good storytellers left at Disney Feature Animation, and there didn't seem to by any present for the making of "Chicken Little". The story itself, chronicling the tales of the title character proving to his community that he is not a failure, was a good enough premise. Though it wasn't executed well at all. Instead of solid, premise-building scenes where it's main characters interact well with others (and get the audience laughing along the way), we get a sappy, melodramatic mini-soap with voice actors who don't have a good script...followed immediately by, more times than I'd care to recall, potty humor gags. Judging by the audience of my screening, made up of at least 40% little kids, only they found that funny.

With so many 3D animated movies coming out recently, like "Madagascar", "Robots" and "Valiant", all released this year, many companies are trying to prove their movie-making chops to us movie-goers. They can make a very beautiful looking movie, with wonderfully rendered characters that can move so fluidly and realistic...but the very vital element of sharing a good story is missing in action. It's my belief that a great story without great animation will be a much better movie than one that looks great, but has a weak story. Though, both elements are what made Pixar's "The Incredibles" an Oscar-contending, $265 million hit. Computer animation is, indeed, not the shoe-in, cure-all solution to a great movie.

To boot, "Chicken Little" has a weak soundtrack, composed mainly of songs that were popular at one time or another...to the pre-teen-aged crowd. Instead of beautiful, original, fully-composed songs like "A Whole New World" in "Aladdin" (or anything close to it), we are treated to Spice Girls' "If You Wanna Be My Lover" (complete, by the way, with karaoke subtitles). Unoriginal and highly annoying.

Having sufficiently railed on the movie, it is my belief that the corporate suits in charge of financing Feature Animation have more blame for the steady decline in their movies than anybody working under them. It seems they think they know what makes a successful movie, over-riding many decisions of the animators and storytellers--those who are still at Feature Animation--who have proved they can make great movies. I believe said pencil pushers are what made last year's "Home on the Range" fail, critically and financially.

All in all, I believe "Chicken Little" is a failure that I define as hot having a good story to match its sweet computer animation. In Disney's quest to prove that they are still the Best of the Best, movies like this will prove to the world that they are merely the best of the rest. And we all know that it's not the Disney we grew up on and cherished.

"Chicken Little" gets 4 of 10 stars

This was a film with a somewhat interesting premise, a somewhat interesting main character, and a somewhat interesting conclusion. This was not a Pixar film: it wasn't designed to appeal to adults. Rather, the writers focus on giving the kiddies a few laughs without leaving the parents comatose with boredom.

And when everything is taken into consideration, the writers succeed. Somewhat.

It's just not a very memorable film. Whreas most kids can watch films like "Shrek" repeatedly because of the sight gags, talented voice-over performances, and hidden jokes that they might not catch the first time around, "Chicken Little" is likely to be forgotten the moment the credits roll. That's not to say that Disney doesn't provide it's standard politically correct message. Of course the best player on the baseball team is a girl (Foxy Loxy). Of course a girl (Goosey Loosey) beats up and humiliates the boy (Chicken Little). Of course the character with the most redeeming social value is physically unattractive (Abby Mallard). And on, and on, and on. Disney also manages to continue its bizarre tradition of creating single father families ("Little Mermaid", "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", "The Goofy Movie"): Chicken Little's mother has, of course, departed for the great unknown.

The relationship between Chicken Little and his father comes across as more annoying than heartwarming. The premise: A father realizes that it's probably not such a great idea to be embarrassed by his son; by the end of the movie, what his own child thinks of him actually takes precedent over the opinions of neighbors and perfect strangers! This message would undoubtedly come across as highly inspirational...if not for the fact that it's so blatantly obvious, hackneyed, and overplayed.

The voice-over's for the film were largely uninspiring, save for amusing performances by Don Knotts and Adam West. "Fish out of Water" was easily the most likable of the bunch (yes, I was suckered by the standard Disney cutesy animated character in their never ending attempt to sell more toys), and he didn't even have a speaking roll. No, "Chicken Little" is not the worst animated film I've ever seen...but memorable, it is not.

Reviewing "Robots," "The New York Times" opined that when it comes to animation there's Pixar, there's Japan, and there's everyone else (it should be noted that not all Japanese cartoons are good - "Shin Chan," anyone? - but you see A.O. Scott's point). "Chicken Little" definitely falls into the "anywhere else" camp, but while it won't siphon away fans from John Lasseter or Nick Park - especially since Disney's delayed its UK release for a few months, the way they did with "Sky High" (but not "Herbie: Fully Loaded," I notice. Idiots) - it's not DreamWorks-mediocre either.

The House of Mouse's first attempt at computer animated movies without Pixar was the skilfully made but hollow "Dinosaur"; this one is under the auspices of the team behind the wonderful "The Emperor's New Groove," and while it doesn't have that cartoon's spirit it still has some virtues of its own. More deliberately cartoonish in its look and feel than many recent features, it's also probably a little too sentimental for some tastes - an awful lot of the movie involves our feathered hero wanting not only to redeem himself for the whole "the sky is falling" farrago but also to open up two-way communication with his single dad, with all the Family Issues that implies. Fortunately it never really swamps the movie, with the family message never overriding the main intent, i.e. to entertain.

Unlike the inexplicably hugely successful "Madagascar," it doesn't drag and the voice cast (Zach Braff, Garry Marshall, Joan Cusack, et al) doesn't get in the way of the movie's effect; it relies a little too much on popular culture references and songs for its effect (particularly in the opening - that works in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in live action - and in the case of Runt of the Litter, the show-tune-loving pig voiced by Steve Zahn), but it's a colourful, charming little movie that thankfully ends well before it has a chance to wear out its welcome, and it's nice to have a movie with a message that doesn't try to ram it down your throat. There are worse Disney movies that could have been dedicated to veteran animator Joe Grant.

And if nothing else, I defy anyone to find another movie that has the voices of Don Knotts and Patrick Stewart joining in on "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" over the credits...

I can see the hate, but to me this movie is a fun, feel good story about underdogs learning about life. The start is great and I love the friend group. The animation is outdated but that adds to the charm in my opinion. This movie is a classic I like to watch at the start of the holidays to remind me about fun movies. A lot of people say this movie is a mess but I believe the whole point of a movie is to enjoy it or get something out of it. It isn't the deepest story ever but I have alot of fun whenever I watch this movie. The Sou track is also iconic and work well with it. I recommend you watch this if you are into fun movies where you don't have to analyse. Iwill never get tired of this movie.

The best non-Pixar Disney film in years. Sure it had a touch of drag, and it was most definitely a kids flick, but one thing that stood out was that it wasn't infested with fart jokes and potty humour, which is a step above most kids films these days.

The CGI was ho-hum, but one thing I liked was the expressiveness which was highlighted by some wonderful voice work by Joan Cusack and Steve Zahn. And Don Knotts was fabulous - we need to find more work for Don Knotts, he's so good! I also loved the Adam West cameo at the end.

The problem with the film was, as pointed out by a few, that the story was thin and they filled the empty spaces with fun moments, like the Spice Girls karaoke scene which cracked me up. More attention should have been made towards a linear plot - but hey, the film wasn't that long, and the fun scenes they used as mortar really did hold it together.

All in all, an amusing film, above average in terms of entertainment, but hardly a classic. I'd recommend it for a fun family outing, as the kids in the theater seemed to really get into it - and I had nearly as much fun hearing all of the kids laughing as I did watching the film. 6.5/10.