'Wallace and Gromit' progenitor Nick Park's first big screen
outing is an animated pastiche of 'The Great Escape'. Life on
Tweedy's Chicken Farm is far from pleasant for the inmates; they
are badly treated by Mr Tweedy and his domineering wife, and kept
alive only as long as they keep producing eggs. Ginger the hen's
(voiced by Julia Sawalha) various attempts at escape have failed
due to the lethargy and downright incompetence of her fellow
prisoners, but when Rocky (Mel Gibson) - the famous Flying
Rooster - c lands in the farm, she sees the chance she has
been waiting for: Rocky can teach everyone how to fly, and they
can stage a mass break-out! However, the braggardly Rocky is not
all that he seems; can he really help Ginger and the others find
freedom before Mrs Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) hatches her fowl
plan to turn them all into chicken pies?
From .co.uk
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As warming as a nice cup of tea on a cloudy day, Chicken Run is
that charming singularity, a commercially successful British
family movie that has near-universal appeal without compromising
its inherent British pluckiness (that will be the first and last
poultry-pun in this review). It invites us into the
Plasticine-world of Tweedy's farm, a far-from-free-range egg
factory ruled with an axe of iron by greedy Mrs Tweedy. One
intrepid chicken, Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha) sets her
s on breaking out the whole flock, a cast of beautifully
individuated chicken characters including ditsy Babs (voiced by
Jane Horrocks), matronly Bunty (Imelda Staunton) and
practical-minded Mac (Lynn Ferguson). Each effort is thwarted,
and Ginger repeatedly reaps a spell in the coal bunker for her
troubles, prompting the first of many allusions to The Great
Escape, one of several World War II films name-checked
throughout.(Grown-ups will have a ball playing Spot-the-Allusion
Game here.) When an American rooster named Rocky (Mel Gibson)
literally drops in from the air, the hens are set all a-flutter
with excitement thinking he'll help teach them to fly away at
last. But Rocky is not all he seems.
Although the action sags just a fraction around the 40-minute
mark, it's the set pieces that really lift this into the realm of
cartoon genius: the montage of inept flying attempts, Rocky and
Ginger's narrow escape from Mrs Tweedy's new pie machine (an
horrific contraption of chomping steel and industrial menace) and
the magnificent, soaring climax. Despite the fact British
animators (such as the directors, Nick Park and Peter Lord,
themselves) regularly scoop Os for their short films, our
record in full-feature length cartoons has been scrappy at best.
There have been a few highlights--Animal Farm (1955), The Yellow
Submarine (1968), Watership Down (1978)--and, er, that's about it
really, unless you count The Magic Roundabout: Dougal and the
Blue Cat. ChickenRun, made by the Aardman production house who
produced the delightful Wallace and Gromit shorts among many
other treats, has proved that Britain can compete with the most
calculated, merchandised and screen-tested Disney production and
win. --Leslie Felperin
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From the Back Cover
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Trapped behind barbed wire, fearing for their very lives, Ginger,
Bunty, Babs and Fowler are chickens with a mission. Ginger and
her fellow flock are determined to make a break for freedom but
every escape goes "fowl" when they are caught by the evil Mrs.
Tweedy and her oafish husband who want to turn them into chicken
pies. When an all-American rooster named Rocky lands in the farm,
Ginger sees her chance - these chickens won't cross the road;
they'll fly the coop. Together they prove that chickens are
anything but, as they escape in a daring and spectacular escape.
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