I thought Chicken Run was a complete load of tripe...

Rating: Null/10 (10 August 2004)

Its always a pleasure to see an animated, clay rendered movie, that has a hero, antagonist and a romantic story-line, with some humour along the way. 'Chicken Run' has all that however fails to capture and acquire viewers attention.
'Chicken Run' discredits its Academy Award winning predecessor Wallace and Grommet and creators Nick Park and Peter Lord.
Chicken Run won the Best-Animated Film in 2000 as well as being nominated for the best visual effects, and if anything it has that. The phenomenal amount of detail, right down to the when Ginger leaves the charcoal bin covered in soot highlights the directors attention to intricacy. However the slow-paced and implausible storyline fails to ensnare adults and older children's attention.
The whimsical and monotonous storyline features the unsuccessful frequent escape attempts from the prison-like Tweedy farm lead by altruist, Ginger. Ginger's irritating determination is illustrated in the beginning of the film, shortly before the tyrannical, influential Mrs Tweedy is introduced. Mrs Tweedy is sick of making miniscule profits and with that decides to leave the business of egg farming, to chicken pies. It soon becomes a matter of life and death for the chickens to escape, and Gingers prayers are soon answered by the cocky and very arrogant Rocky, who has escaped from the circus.
References to Stalag 17 and The Great Escape are crammed into scenes making no impact on the audience, from the movies being so long-standing. These conceptual spoofs are mediocre to Shrek, one of the latest and greatest animations, also produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg.