The latest dazzling animation to support a weak story

Rating: 2/10 (18 July 2000)

Being a fan of animated features, I went to Chicken Run full of anticipation, what with all the positive reviews and the high esteem bestowed upon the film's creators (whose Wallace and Gromit shorts I've never seen).
But instead of a charming, witty, light-hearted fable, I got a leaden, trite, obvious trifle. It doesn't take 10 seconds of heavy-booted footsteps to figure out a character is evil, but that's how this story is told. And someone should advise the scriptwriters that a joke you can guess in advance ("beautiful chicks") is not funny.
Sure, the animation is amazing. A lot of animated features these days are visually amazing. But a good animated film needs a good story with characters you care about to make all that painstaking effort worthwhile. Sadly, Chicken Run doesn't have one.