Great Animation, but Not a Great Children's Film

Rating: 6/10 (13 July 2000)

Claymation is Impressive
I'm giving Chicken Run a mild recommendation. I loved the use of animation that was not computer generated or traditional. It is nice to see more variety from Disney and Dreamworks as animation seems to be booming once again. The fact that they had to film this movie one frame at a time while moving clay objects amazes me. I can almost forgive some of the other problems with this movie. The problems center around the screenplay, by Karey Kirkpatrick, which uses too many subtle references to movies that kids would not recognize. The Great Escape and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom are not films that six years old children will be familiar with. I personally enjoyed the allusions, but I did not think they were necessary. The writing also lacks the wit of the Toy Story movies or the charm of Babe, which was an obvious inspiration to the filmmakers. The jokes were much too British for its target audience. I laughed occasionally, but there were times where the filmmakers were trying for laughs and not getting them. I hope the next claymation production takes as much time with its writing as it did with its amazing animation. Still, as a film lover I have to recommend a movie that is trying to do something unique. It is worth a matinee admission. 3 stars out of 4