Clever, warm, and, despite the involvement of Dreamworks, Yorkshirish

Rating: 10/10 (28 December 2000)

I must admit, my heart sank for a few seconds when Rocky opened his mouth and punctured the North English atmosphere with his American accent. Was it true, after all? Had Aardman traded its soul for an American audience?
No, it hadn't. The film got better, not worse, after Rocky's entrance (neither because nor in spite of him, I think); it became more, not less, true to itself. It's probably the best Aardman work so far; better even than "A Close Shave", which it somewhat resembles - it's better because it's longer and more ambitious, yet scarcely puts a foot wrong. The understated, lovably daft characters are similar to those of the Wallace-and-Gromit world, but they're more than mere copies. The rat duo was an inspired creation; and Ginger is an endearing chicken indeed.
Every aspect of the art direction is excellent. If you've made allowances for the story's perfect construction, and the wit, and you still think the film is more exhilarating than it ought to be, you've probably forgotten the cumulative effect of such flawless visual world-spinning. Why does anyone bother making computer-animated films, when this kind of thing is possible? Taken together, "Chicken Run" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas" - very different in style - form a decisive refutation of computer animation. The world of "Toy Story", to which the computer style is ideally suited, doesn't have half the richness or solidity of "Chicken Run" or "Nightmare"; and one can't help thinking how much better "A Bug's Life" would have been if it had been made in stop-motion. -It couldn't have been as good as this, though.