Morbid, yet surprisingly adventurous and comedic

Rating: 10/10 (16 September 2014)

Ginger is a chicken in a small egg farm, where the two owners, rather harmless, bumbling Mr. Tweedy and cruel, sadistic Mrs. Tweedy are strict and quick to butcher any hen who doesn't make the quota each day. When Mrs. Tweedy discovers an ad for a new system that makes mass-produced meat pies, the greedy couple realize that if they use the chickens for food rather than eggs, they'll pay their bills faster and can afford more. Ginger and her friends have all become very depressed, knowing that their fate is coming sooner than later... until a rooster from the Untied States who escaped from the circus lies to Ginger about being able to fly, giving the hens a small ray of hope. With the help of two rats, the well-meaning rooster tries to teach every hen to fly... will the group make it out of the Tweedy farm alive? Chicken Run may not have been intended for children. It shows in detail the slow-killing machines within a factory farming system, shows a hen being decapitated, all sorts of disturbing scenes that may be more for adults who want to know about the cruelty of factory farming. For anyone who doesn't know, factory farming is using farm animals (cows, chickens, pigs, geese, etc.) in cruel, uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions. These animals rarely, if ever, get exposed to the outdoors, and when they are killed for food it often involves processes that kill the animals slowly, leaving them suffering from anywhere between seconds to an hour or so before they pass away completely. I'm not one of those P.E.T.A. activists or anything, but killing any sentient being in a sadistic way seems wrong.
The animation in Chicken Run was very different, animated by the British company that released Flushed Away and Wallace & Gromitt. The soundtrack wasn't exactly the type of music I'd listen to while driving to work but it was certainly catchy, and the voice cast was well-chosen. It has one or two crude humor jokes but is otherwise very funny without the use of them, and it's funny to watch the Tweedy Couple as the hens fight back for freedom. Still, it's hard not to feel sorry for Mr. Tweedy, who doesn't really enjoy harming the chickens, when he lets his wife get squashed to death because he was sick of her constant abuse and greed.
What ever happened to movies like this? These days it's garbage like Frozen (2013) and The Hunger Games (2012), that's popular, it's incredibly annoying. If you really want to see something original, have a love for morbid comedy, animal rights, original animation or all of the above, check out this movie!