A Revolutionary Work of Brilliance

Rating: 10/10 (27 October 2019)

I was exposed to Wallace and Gromit as a child and found it odd and a bit creepy. Looking at it as an adult, I find it creative and intriguing. The amount of time and effort to create claymations of these scales is astounding. I saw Chicken Run as a child as well and it resonated much more with me. Perhaps it was the longer exposition that helped solidify my connection to its characters.
Viewing Chicken Run as an adult is very different though. Perhaps its deeper message was stored within my subconscious but wasn't active till I experienced working within the capitalist system firsthand. Many people like to compare Tweedy's farm to the Nazi concentration camps but I don't believe that's an accurate comparison. The chickens were born into this system while the Nazi's prisoners were forced into it. The farm is all the chickens know and all the exploitation they experience seems normal to many of them. This is evident by Babs' response "it's a living" and the general befuddlement and even resistance to Ginger's speech about escaping the torment of the "living," asking the question "So laying eggs all your life and then getting plucked, stuffed, and roasted is good enough for you is it?" This echoes the sentiment of revolutionary socialists who see the capitalist system as inherently exploitative and the unnecessary suffering that comes from it can only be eliminated by doing away with its unjust hierarchies. The top of the hierarchy of the farm is obviously Mrs. Tweedy, who represents the capitalists. Mr. Tweedy is the government and his dogs are the police/military. It actually coincides perfectly with how feudalism evolved into capitalism in how the farm is an heirloom of Mr. Tweedy's family. Before him, his family had complete control like the total monarchies of feudalism. But once he was coerced into giving control to his wife, the myth of unlimited growth fueled by greed runs the farm into the ground. This reflects the Marxist notion of the contradictions inherent to capitalism and the inevitable collapse they will cause. Ginger is the only one who sees this. While she's shown to have doubts, she knows that she must organize with her comrades to work as one to overthrow their masters. This is obvious when Mr. Tweedy says "They're organised, I know it."
The constant references to the chickens "revolting" and "organizing" made the movie's hidden message obvious to me when viewing it as an adult. I believe this is a great film to show to anyone who blames capitalism's problems on their fellow working class neighbors simply because they look different or believe different things. I believe it can subconsciously help them understand that it's the people with power, the ruling class, the oligarchs who are responsible for capitalism's problems. I hope that one day, we can all agree that we need to fight the over-privileged snobs who pit us against each other for their own gain. I still feel strong frisson when listening to this part of the soundtrack, and I hope it does for you too: