Chicken Run

Chicken Run is a 2000 stop-motion animated adventure comedy film produced by Pathé and Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Aardman's first feature-length film, it was directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park from a screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick and based on an original story by Lord and Park. The film stars the voices of Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Tony Haygarth, Miranda Richardson, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, and Benjamin Whitrow. Set in the countryside of Yorkshire, the plot centres on a group of British anthropomorphic chickens who see an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes as their only hope to escape the farm when their owners want to turn them into chicken pies.
Released to critical acclaim, Chicken Run was also a commercial success, grossing over $220 million, becoming the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film in history and DreamWorks Animation's biggest success until Shrek in 2001 doubled it in terms of an animated film, but Chicken Run still holds it as a stop motion.
A sequel, titled Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, is set to be released on Netflix on 15 December 2023. Its Netflix release followed its world premiere at the 67th BFI London Film Festival on 14 October 2023, which will also see preview screenings taking place at UK cinemas at the same time.
Plot
In the countryside of Yorkshire, a flock of chickens live on an egg farm structured like a prisoner-of-war camp. The farm is run by the cruel Mrs Tweedy and her submissive husband, Mr Tweedy, who kill and eat any chicken that is no longer able to lay eggs. Led by the rebellious Ginger, the chickens constantly devise new ways to try to escape but are always caught. Mr Tweedy suspects the chickens are organized and plotting resistance, but his wife dismisses his theories while being frustrated with making minuscule profits.
One night, Ginger witnesses an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes glide over the coop's fences and crash-land; the chickens put his sprained wing in a cast and hide him from the Tweedys, who were promised a handsome reward by Rocky's owner for his return. Inspired by Rocky's apparent flying abilities, Ginger begs him to help teach her and the other chickens to fly, so they can escape. Rocky gives them training lessons. One evening, a load of equipment is delivered to the farm, containing the parts for a chicken pie machine that Mrs Tweedy has ordered as part of a plan to convert the farm into a profitable pie-making factory. When the Tweedys increase the chickens' food rations and ignore the decline in egg production, Ginger deduces that the couple's new plan is to fatten the chickens for slaughter. After Ginger and Rocky get into an argument, Rocky holds a morale-boosting dance party during which it is revealed that his wing is healed. Ginger insists that he demonstrate flying the next day, but Mr Tweedy finishes assembling the machine and puts Ginger in it for a test run. Rocky saves her and sabotages the machine, buying them time to warn the chickens and plan an escape from the farm.
The next day, Ginger finds Rocky has left, leaving behind part of a poster that shows that he is in fact part of a "chicken cannonball" act with no ability to fly on his own. In the midst of being devastated, Ginger is inspired by elderly rooster Fowler's stories of his time in the Royal Air Force to build an aircraft to flee the farm. The chickens assemble parts for the plane, with a deckchair as a take-off ramp and a line of Christmas lights to light a runway as Mr Tweedy fixes the pie-making machine. Mrs Tweedy orders Mr Tweedy to gather all the chickens for the machine, but the chickens subdue him and finish the plane, which Ginger persuades Fowler to pilot.
Meanwhile, Rocky comes across a billboard advertising Mrs Tweedy's chicken pies and returns to the farm out of guilt for abandoning the chickens. Mr Tweedy knocks over the chair before being knocked out, and an alerted Mrs Tweedy attacks Ginger as she helps the plane take off. Mrs Tweedy is subdued by Rocky, who leaves with Ginger by holding onto the lights, which have been snagged by the departing plane. Mrs Tweedy follows by climbing up the lights with an axe; Ginger dodges an axe swipe which cuts through the line, sending Mrs Tweedy to fly through the barn window and fall into the safety valve of the pie machine. Causing the pie machine to explode into a ball of gravy due to the gravy pressure being very high. Mr Tweedy once again tells her that the chickens were organised and, now fed up with his wife's aggressive behaviour towards him, pushes the barn door down on top of her.
The chickens celebrate their victory after defeating the Tweedys while Ginger and Rocky kiss each other, and they fly to an island bird sanctuary where they make their home. Sometime later, the chickens have settled into their new home, and Rocky and Ginger have started a romantic relationship. Nick and Fetcher, two rats that have been helping the chickens throughout the film, decide to set up their own egg farm, but they cannot agree on whether they must use a chicken or egg to start it, and they decide to go over the conversation again.
Voice cast
Julia Sawalha as Ginger, the de facto British leader of the chickens
Mel Gibson as Rocky, an American circus rooster
Miranda Richardson as Mrs Tweedy, the owner of the farm
Tony Haygarth as Mr Tweedy, Mrs Tweedy's husband and the owner of the farm
Benjamin Whitrow as Fowler, an elderly rooster
Timothy Spall as Nick, a cynical rat
Phil Daniels as Fetcher, Nick's partner
Jane Horrocks as Babs, a chubby chicken who loves knitting
Imelda Staunton as Bunty, the champion egg-layer
Lynn Ferguson as Mac, Ginger's Scottish assistant
Production
Chicken Run was first conceived in 1995 by Aardman co-founder Peter Lord and Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park. According to Park, the project started as a spoof on the 1963 film The Great Escape. Chicken Run was Aardman Animations' first feature-length production, which would be executive produced by Jake Eberts. Nick Park and Peter Lord, who run Aardman, directed the film, while Karey Kirkpatrick scripted, with additional input from Mark Burton and John O'Farrell.
When a chicken speaks, each sound corresponds to a different beak that was placed on the character.
Pathé agreed to finance the film in 1996, putting their finances into script development and model design. DreamWorks officially came on board in 1997. They beat out studios like Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros. and largely won due to the perseverance of DreamWorks co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg; as a company they were eager to make their presence felt in the animation market in an attempt to compete with Disney's dominance of the field. Katzenberg explained that he had "been chasing these guys for five or six years, ever since I first saw Creature Comforts." DreamWorks secured their first animated feature with the film, and they handled distribution in all territories except Europe, which Pathé handled. The two studios co-financed the film. DreamWorks also retains rights to worldwide merchandising.
Principal photography began on 29 January 1998. During production, 30 sets were used with 80 animators working along with 180 people working overall. The result was one minute of film completed for each week of filming, with production wrapped on 18 June 1999.
John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams composed the music for the film, which was released on 20 June 2000 under the RCA Victor label.
Reception
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported approval rating and an average rating of , based on reviews. The website's critics consensus reads: "Chicken Run has all the charm of Nick Park's Wallace & Gromit, and something for everybody. The voice acting is fabulous, the slapstick is brilliant, and the action sequences are spectacular." At Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave three and a half stars out of four, writing: "So it truly is a matter of life and death for the chickens to escape from the Tweedy Chicken Farm in Chicken Run, a magical new animated film that looks and sounds like no other. Like the otherwise completely different Babe, this is a movie that uses animals as surrogates for our hopes and fears, and as the chickens run through one failed escape attempt after another, the charm of the movie wins us over."
Chicken Run has been noted for its depiction of feminism, revolution, Marxism, and fascism. According to Florentine StrzeIczyk, Chicken Run points to the way that masculinity and femininity are mediated in popular film genres. It also received attention for its female-led cast. Film School Rejects called the movie feminist, noting that "the stereotypical 'woman's work' of these female chickens (such as their sewing and knitting) is crucial in constructing their mechanism for escape and vital towards the revolution itself." The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network argued it was a way to disguise Zionism and Western propaganda.
Box office
On opening weekend, the film grossed $17,506,162 for a $7,027 average from 2,491 theatres. Overall, the film placed second behind Me, Myself & Irene. In its second weekend, the film held well as it slipped only 25% to $13,192,897 for a $4,627 average from expanding to 2,851 theatres and finishing in fourth place. The film's widest release was 2,953 theatres, after grossing $106,834,564 domestically with an additional $118,000,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $224,834,564. Produced on an estimated budget of $42–45 million, the film was a huge box office hit. To date, it is still the highest grossing stop motion animated movie.
Accolades
Home media
Chicken Run was released on VHS and DVD in the United States on November 21, 2000 by DreamWorks Home Entertainment.
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released Chicken Run on Blu-ray in North America on January 22, 2019.
Sequel
In January 2022, the title for the sequel was revealed as Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and was announced for a 2023 release on Netflix. Zachary Levi, Thandiwe Newton, Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays were revealed to be replacing Gibson, Sawalha, Spall and Daniels as the voices of Rocky, Ginger, Nick and Fetcher; David Bradley will voice Fowler due to Whitrow's death in 2017, while Horrocks, Staunton and Ferguson will reprise their roles as Babs, Bunty and Mac. Bella Ramsey has been cast as Molly, while Nick Mohammed and Josie Sedgwick-Davies will voice two new characters, Dr Fry and Frizzle, respectively. Sam Fell would direct with Steve Pegram and Leyla Hobart producing. Kirkpatrick and O'Farrell wrote the script with Rachel Tunnard. In June 2023, Gregson-Williams was revealed to be composing the sequel. Later that month, it was officially announced that the film would release on Netflix on 15 December 2023. Its Netflix release followed its world premiere at the 67th BFI London Film Festival on 14 October 2023, which will also see preview screenings taking place at UK cinemas at the same time.
Video game
Chicken Run is a stealth-based 3-D platformer based on the movie. It was released in November 2000 on most consoles. The game is a loose parody of the film The Great Escape, which is set during World War II.
See also
Lists of animated feature films
List of stop motion films
Colditz Cock, a glider built by British prisoners of war for an escape attempt during World War II
References
External links
2000 films
2000 comedy films
2000 animated films
2000 directorial debut films
2000s American animated films
2000s British animated films
2000s French animated films
2000s stop-motion animated films
2000s children's adventure films
2000s children's comedy films
2000s children's animated films
2000s adventure comedy films
2000s English-language films
Clay animation films
American children's animated adventure films
American children's animated comedy films
American adventure comedy films
American prison comedy films
American aviation films
British children's adventure films
British children's comedy films
British children's animated films
British adventure comedy films
British prison films
British aviation films
French children's adventure films
French children's comedy films
French animated comedy films
French adventure comedy films
French prison films
French aviation films
Animal adventure films
Environmental films
Best Animated Feature Broadcast Film Critics Association Award winners
English-language French films
Animated films about chickens
Films about mice and rats
Films about farmers
Animated films about aviation
Animated films about revenge
Films about animal rights
Animated films set in the 1950s
Films set in Yorkshire
Films set on farms
Animated films set on islands
Films directed by Nick Park
Films directed by Peter Lord
Films produced by Nick Park
Films produced by Peter Lord
Films with screenplays by Karey Kirkpatrick
Films scored by Harry Gregson-Williams
Films scored by John Powell
DreamWorks Pictures films
DreamWorks Animation animated films
Aardman Animations feature films
Allied Filmmakers films
Pathé films
British animated comedy films