Have you ever seen a bad Nick Park movie? I didn't think so.

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2005)

'Chicken Run' probably gave Nick Park his long overdue credit as an extremely talented writer and director. And, with its extreme blockbuster success, we Yanks were finally able to find Nick Park's other films, such as the Wallace and Gromit short animated features, in regular release on the store and rental shelves.
This movie puts us right in the middle of a rural English chicken coup where Ginger, the unofficial leader of the hens, has been trying rather unsuccessfully to break she and her fellow chickens out of their prison, always rebuffed by either failed techniques or babbling Mr. Tweedy and his vicious watchdogs. But, fate seems to work in their favor when, at Ginger's near breaking point, Rocky the "flying" rooster, a circus fugitive, lands in their chicken coup. In order to avoid his cover being blown (no one here but us chickens!), he convinces the hens that he really is a flying rooster. Of course, his little white lie has serious repercussion as, for their last resort, Ginger wants Rocky to teach the hens to fly, as they would finally be able to escape their incarceration in the coup.
Of course, the hens must come up with a successful plan fast because, meanwhile, evil chicken farmer, Mrs. Tweedy, sick and tired of making minuscule profits, decides to turn her farm into a goldmine. Rather than worrying about egg production, she intends to fatten up her poultry darlings and turn them into chicken pies. Chickens go in, pies come out! I adore this movie most of all for its simplistic, but creative fashion of establishing its setting. The chicken coup is made to seem like a prison with the initial goal for the hens being a successful breakout. The Tweedys act as their wardens. And, as punishment for fugitive escapees--solitary confinement (or, to absent minded hens, "holiday). Every little detail is worked into the story. Second, like all Nick Park, is the pleasure of a strange, but hilarious assortment of heroes and villains such as bubbly Babs (my favorite), braniac Mac ("I swear she ain't speaking English"), and the old-timer, Fowler. Nick Park has certainly nearly perfected the arrangement of all things to make such perfectly creative, absolutely hilarious feature film and short comedies in ways I have usually seen with Tim Burton's early movies (especially Edward Scissorhands and Nightmare Before Christmas). I have yet to see him make a poor film.
And, after this movie, you may never again want to eat chicken. (Or, at least until you've forgotten about the movie).