Animation, good; music, good; film, overrated...

Rating: Null/10 (26 December 2001)

I know I should have loved this, but the scene where the "crate" was unveiled cemented it for me... this was a plasticine take on "A Bug's Life" by way of "The Great Escape," and not a patch on either.
Aardman's animation is great, of course; and like the subsequent (and also (though less) overrated) "Shrek" it has a terrific score by John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams that played a big part in getting me through this film. Unfortunately, maybe it was too big a part - some Luddites object strenously to sitting through the Disney/Pixar movies because they're CGI animated instead of being done by hand (and they don't know what they're missing...), but John Lasseter and Co. devote as much time to the story and characters as they do to the animation. Here we're served up an ex-RAF rooster called Fowler who's an intentional stiff-upper-lip British stereotype - but everyone else is a stereotype as well (from the fellow chickens to the human villain Mrs. Tweedy).
I should have been laughing and I should have been cheering them on as they try and try again to escape, and to be fair it does have an entertaining finale; but for the most part "Chicken Run" just doesn't really engage the emotions the way it should. What with this and "A Close Shave" (which everyone other than me seems to have found a masterpiece), it's beginning to look as if Nick Park peaked with the truly classic "The Wrong Trousers." Or maybe this should have been a half-hour project. I'll stick with Buzz Lightyear and "The Red And The Blue", thanks. For you, the review is over.
PS: For those wondering what the "crate" is... sorry, you'll need to see the movie. Or "A Bug's Life," which is where we came in.