Chicken Little

Plot synopsis:
In the small town of Oakey Oaks, Chicken Little causes widespread panic and mayhem when he rings the alarm bell, claiming the sky is falling. He is humiliated in front of his father Buck Cluck and the entire town when, after telling everyone a piece of the sky "shaped like a stop sign" had hit him on the head, he is unable to find it. All the residents assume an acorn must have fallen on him and Chicken Little becomes a laughing stock.
One year later, Chicken Little is still being ridiculed for the incident and is bullied at school by Foxy Loxy and Goosey Loosey. His best friends Abby Mallard, Runt of the Litter, and Fish Out of Water advise him to talk about his feelings with his father, but Little is more concerned with restoring his reputation outright.
During dodge ball, following a bust-up with Foxy and a rough beating by Goosey (on Foxy's orders), his father is called in and Little overhears the school principal Principal Fetchit stating that Buck had been the school baseball star in his youth. Determined to rekindle his relationship with his father, Chicken Little signs onto the baseball team. In the final inning of the big Oakey Oaks pennant game, with all the other players injured, he is called up to bat and manages to hit an inside-the-park home run. Despite some confusion, the umpire ultimately declares the game won; Chicken Little is hailed as a hero for winning the pennant and Foxy is humiliated.
Later that evening, Chicken Little prepares to go to a victory party being thrown for him by Abby, Runt, and Fish, but another "piece of the sky" identical to the one he had been hit by the previous year falls through his bedroom window. Not wanting to bring the matter up with him again, Little hides the sky piece from his father and examines it more closely, discovering it to be a bizarre panel-like device designed to blend in with its surroundings. Realizing that this is why he was unable to find it the first time, Chicken Little immediately calls his best friends over to help figure out what the device is.
While playing around with the panel, Fish presses a button on its underside and it carries him out of Chicken Little's bedroom and into the sky, where it appears to fit into a gap. Disturbed by this, Little, Abby, and Runt immediately give chase and follow Fish to the ball field, where a series of similar panels appear in the sky; revealed to be part of an invisible UFO's camouflage. The three sneak aboard the ship and retrieve Fish, but Runt locates a map of the solar system that seems to indicate Earth is being targeted for an alien invasion. Thinking that the UFO is being used to sneak aliens onto the planet undetected by disguising itself as the sky, the group immediately flees to warn the town, inadvertently releasing a small orange creature from the ship in the process, which follows them.
Two metallic aliens give chase and Chicken Little rings the alarm bell once again to alert the townsfolk. The sound of the bell makes the aliens flee, leaving the orange creature behind in their haste, and the citizens fail to reach the ball field in time to see the UFO taking off. As such, no one believes Chicken Little's claims that aliens are planning to invade, thinking it a repeat of the acorn incident, and he and his father are ridiculed once again. In space, the two aliens send out a distress signal.
The following morning, Chicken Little's best friends try to console him, but he wishes to be left alone in dismay. Soon after, the orange creature, having followed Little home, approaches them and identifies itself as Kirby, the child of the two aliens. The group look up to see the sky apparently cracking open, revealing a vast fleet of cloaked spaceships, which descends on the town. Kirby tells them that his parents, usually peaceful people, think he has been kidnapped and plan to vaporize Earth in retaliation.
Chicken Little, with the evidence he was telling the truth raging above them, tells Buck off for not believing him and heads towards the chaos, with Kirby in tow. Heartbroken, his father follows and the two finally reconcile in the safety of a movie theater. With his father's help, Little evades the rampaging aliens, who have already zapped Foxy and Turkey out of existence, and delivers Kirby to his parents' ship atop the town hall, urging them to stop the invasion.
Kirby's parents beam the two aboard the ship and threaten to kill them for the "kidnapping", but Kirby explains that they had helped him and the aliens release them, restoring Oakey Oaks and its citizens to normal. The parents Melvin and Tina apologize for the misunderstanding, explaining that they visit Earth once a year to pick acorns, renowned in Oakey Oaks as "the best in the universe", and never planned to invade at all, simply wanting to keep hidden to avoid causing panic (the map Runt found was a chart showing that acorns could only be found on Earth, not an attack plan). Tina reveals that one of the panels on their ship's underside is loose; this is what had hit Chicken Little on both occasions. The townsfolk thus realize that Little was right all along as the aliens depart with Kirby.
The film ends with all the characters watching a parody Hollywood version of the events, in which Chicken Little is portrayed as a comically macho action hero named Ace. Chicken Little, his reputation restored, celebrates with his father and friends.

Tags: psychedelic, cute, entertaining

Review:
Whreas most kids can watch films like "Shrek" repeatedly because of the sight gags, talented voice-over performances, and hidden jokes that they might not catch the first time around, "Chicken Little" is likely to be forgotten the moment the credits roll.
"Chicken Little" definitely falls into the "anywhere else" camp, but while it won't siphon away fans from John Lasseter or Nick Park - especially since Disney's delayed its UK release for a few months, the way they did with "Sky High" (but not "Herbie: Fully Loaded," I notice.
More deliberately cartoonish in its look and feel than many recent features, it's also probably a little too sentimental for some tastes - an awful lot of the movie involves our feathered hero wanting not only to redeem himself for the whole "the sky is falling" farrago but also to open up two-way communication with his single dad, with all the Family Issues that implies.
Fortunately it never really swamps the movie, with the family message never overriding the main intent, i.e. to entertain.Unlike the inexplicably hugely successful "Madagascar," it doesn't drag and the voice cast (Zach Braff, Garry Marshall, Joan Cusack, et al) doesn't get in the way of the movie's effect; it relies a little too much on popular culture references and songs for its effect (particularly in the opening - that works in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in live action - and in the case of Runt of the Litter, the show-tune-loving pig voiced by Steve Zahn), but it's a colourful, charming little movie that thankfully ends well before it has a chance to wear out its welcome, and it's nice to have a movie with a message that doesn't try to ram it down your throat.
Perhaps some are only a financial success, like "Treasure Planet", but certainly they were popular enough with one group of moviegoers or another to have a good box office take.Unfortunately, "Chicken Little" is not a success.In pooling my thoughts to review this movie, I am so highly disappointed that good animation is its only high mark.
I wanted this to be the movie that starts another Golden Age revolution, where it is possible that Disney takes the top spot in producing awesome animated movies.I fear that there aren't many good storytellers left at Disney Feature Animation, and there didn't seem to by any present for the making of "Chicken Little".
Instead of solid, premise-building scenes where it's main characters interact well with others (and get the audience laughing along the way), we get a sappy, melodramatic mini-soap with voice actors who don't have a good script...followed immediately by, more times than I'd care to recall, potty humor gags.
Judging by the audience of my screening, made up of at least 40% little kids, only they found that funny.With so many 3D animated movies coming out recently, like "Madagascar", "Robots" and "Valiant", all released this year, many companies are trying to prove their movie-making chops to us movie-goers.
Computer animation is, indeed, not the shoe-in, cure-all solution to a great movie.To boot, "Chicken Little" has a weak soundtrack, composed mainly of songs that were popular at one time or another...to the pre-teen-aged crowd.
I believe said pencil pushers are what made last year's "Home on the Range" fail, critically and financially.All in all, I believe "Chicken Little" is a failure that I define as hot having a good story to match its sweet computer animation.
Next day everyone finds that aliens have come, and mass hysteria unravels.Chicken Little is Disney's first computer animated feature, which seems to taken a long time to have been made.
Sure it had a touch of drag, and it was most definitely a kids flick, but one thing that stood out was that it wasn't infested with fart jokes and potty humour, which is a step above most kids films these days.The CGI was ho-hum, but one thing I liked was the expressiveness which was highlighted by some wonderful voice work by Joan Cusack and Steve Zahn.
I also loved the Adam West cameo at the end.The problem with the film was, as pointed out by a few, that the story was thin and they filled the empty spaces with fun moments, like the Spice Girls karaoke scene which cracked me up.
They ("Polar Express," "Robots," "Cars," "Madagascar," "Barnyard," "Ice Age," etc.) all seem to have the following positive characteristics that I found in this movie:1 - Fabulous colors; 2 - Great artwork; 3 - likable, humorous characters who care about; 4 - excellent jokes, both visually and audibly, many that make adults laugh; 5 - excellent surround sound that is entertaining in itself; and 6 - a nice story without a lot of sexual innuendos and other questionable (for kids) material.
Like the old "Leave It To Beaver" TV show, these animated films also end with a positive message for kids and adults.In fact, I would say that I - as an older adult - have seen more good animated feature films in the past two years than the previous 50 years put together.The main character in this movie, "Chicken Little" (voiced by Zach Braff) has to be one of the cutest little animated figures I've ever seen.
Their big motion pictures these days are simply made-for-TV or straight-to-video material compared to such phenomenal classics like "Fantasia" and "Snow White", or contemporary classics like "The Lion King" and "Mulan".The story revolves around the title character (voiced by Zach Braff), who warns everyone that the sky is falling (a term which means "the world is ending, but in the film it literally is).
One things for sure about Disney, leave computer animated movies to Pixar, not unless they are going to make them they way they did to "Dinosaur".Rating: * out of 5..
With that said, nothing makes me more sad than to see Disney continuously putting out films like Chicken Little.The concept was interesting, the animation phenomenal, but the story was atrocious (not as bad as the Blue Sky offering "Robots," but still not worthy of the Disney name.) Disney used to be the pioneers of the industry, always pushing the competition to do better, as well as pushing themselves.
I still am optimistic for the future, and I think that the films currently in production have a lot of potential, but they will have to raise the bar quite a bit to move beyond Chicken Little.For a more enlightening animation experience, I say that you should save your money and go see the Wallace and Grommit movie instead..
No not me, I like the new films better because they cater to a wider audience, are satiric, and they demand more intelligence from the viewer because archetypes (like heroes, villains) are not as defined.I thought my endless affection for these modern kinds of animation would mean I would enjoy Chicken Little (2005) - but I was clearly wrong, because this is a barely competent Disney film with very few laughs.
Oh, please,what a bad film.I do not believe that this is a Disney film.It is boring,very boring,without any sense.It is not a typical close Disney film,but leftovers which the only thing that surprises the public is the amount of trivialities and stupidities that the characters say.This film does not follow the tradition of Disney like others like " Finding Nemo" or "The Beauty and the Beast",no.This film,to say it of some way,betrays the wonderful Walt Disney and gives a bad image of him.Happening to the characters;they are pathetic and give true pain.Who is going away to think that a dumb,pathetic,tiny chicken with big glasses and fallen trousers is going to be the principal character of an animation film?
in very simple words the worst computer animated movie of all time it was horrible beyond imagination it should be given a rating of R so that no child has to endure the pain of watching this movieonly 3 things happened!!the opening scene, the baseball scene and the alien sceneIt was so pathetic, this as to be Disney's lowest point.
We the buying public must question why we should allow this type of sub standard nonsense to pass for entertainment anymore and why we should let our children be exposed to anything less than imaginative, original story lines and quality film making.Disney, you should be disgusted with yourselves!.
Well, I think it is better for children to watch a nice, charming, simple Disney movie and be talking about it and saying "the sky is falling" rather than having them burping in your face as they do after watching, let's see...
Taking the classic children's story of "Chicken Little" by E.L.Easton and converting it into a visual treat for all ages, the Walt Disneys' studios has laid a golden egg.
I mean I really tried to like Disney's newest animated venture, "Chicken Little," directed by Mark Dindal ("The Little Mermaid," "Oliver & Company"), but the humor was so forced (and lacking) that the whole enterprise smacked of pure desperation.As if they were trying just a bit too hard.And while the computer animation is really well done, the recent releases of "The Corpse Bride" and "Wallace & Grommit" remind one just how artistic and craft-worthy the old ways of stop-action and claymation really are.Everyone knows the nursery rhyme of "Chicken Little," the paranoid clucker who is hit by an acorn and then tries to convince his friends (Cocky Locky, Foxy Loxy, Goosey Lucy, Turkey Lurky, the Ugly Duckling, et al) that the sky is falling and that everyone should run for their lives.In this film, the title character (voiced by Zach Braff - I think Woody Allen would have been a much, much better choice), a resident of Oakey Oaks, is hit by an octagon-shaped thing with clouds on it that he believes is a piece of the sky.
A year later, Little is still treated like a total loser, but he is inventive and resourceful, so he is not completely overwhelmed, even though his best friends are pretty much worthless (except for Ugly Duckling - Joan Cusack).The other two, a huge pig, Runt of the Litter (Steve Zahn) and Fish Out Of Water (Dan Molina)are pointless and lame - the former breaks into several popular songs ("Staying Alive," "Wannabe," "I Will Survive") and eats a lot (yeah, he's a pig, get it?), and the latter, wears a diving helmet filled with water.
Wanting to take the kids (3 and 6) out to a movie, I thought "Chicken Little" would be an innocent foray to the theater.
The thing about recent Disney/Pixar movies was that they were great for children and for the parents.
Most of the animals that inhabit Chicken Little's world are not up to Disney standards, they look like cardboard cutouts, the same size, a few different colors, nothing special.
Amazingly, neither of them were impressed with the trailers either, and so they didn't.But as fate would have it, I received free tickets to a sneak preview, and having nothing to risk except gas and popcorn money, decided to take the kids to see "Chicken Little." In short: I found the movie surprisingly enjoyable, and liked it a little more than the Wallace & Gromit film we saw just a week earlier.As one might expect, the movie "Chicken Little" takes the concept of the "sky is falling" to a whole new level for the 21st century, this time involving aliens from outer space, baseball, and high school nerds.The film is computer animated, but not a Pixar film.
My own children found most of the film rather boring, and only liked the ending.One thing I especially enjoyed is a bit of voice-over work done by none other than Adam West, who is famous for playing Batman on the 60's era TV show by the same name.
How can a Disney animated movie called "Chicken Little" be dominated by frightening alien attack scenes where established characters are vaporized?
How can you make a Disney animated movie called "Chicken Little" and have the central theme be "closure?" For those who haven't seen it, this last question is not a figurative one.
Not bad for grown ups; however, if "Chicken Little" is an example of post-Pixar Disney computer animation then there's trouble for the mighty entertainment monolith.
As with most other Disney movies, chicken little was a very funny and entertaining movie that my kids could watch again and again.
It's not on par with a Pixar film, and I don't see it becoming a classic, but it's a fun watch.ADDITION: As I've been reading the other comments, I've discovered one thing: if you thought Shrek was the height of animated hilarity, please don't watch Chicken Little.
You do everyone a disservice by comparing the two, since Chicken Little is truly a family film (with likable characters and a little intelligence) and Shrek is for those who find 8th-grade bathroom humor funny (or gags that simply make fun of Disney) and don't care about character development..
Both of these themes are expressed throughout the film, which is barely above 80 minutes, perfect for an animated children's movie.I, being 17, felt left out when I watched this because I couldn't stay interested as much as my siblings were.
This is a very funny film, it has some witty moments and is a must for all ages of the family, the producers certainly used their imagination as how school children of all ages act when in school and away from their parents, in one scene when the teacher leaves the classroom for some reason or another what swiftly followed had everyone laughing even my 15 year old was blushing too so it must be true as too what goes on in all schools by today's standards.In comparison to King Kong which is way too long although the special effects are a great treat to watch, Chicken Little is by far a family film worthy to see and long after its over you will be relating to numerous scene after scene, I suppose its only downside and I mean only downside is the film is too short just as your getting into it the film ends, however its a must with anyone with children whatever their age do watch it..
"Chicken Little" is the first computer-animated feature from Disney Studios, after its split from Pixar.
I can appreciate animation movies as stories and not just "kids movies".But Chicken Little sucked.I'm sorry, there's just no other way to describe this movie.
The only time it looked like there was a storyline was the 5-minute film-within-a-film at the very end ("The REAL Chicken Little Story").
Yet another film about talking animals, this story is based on the classic Chicken Little story, but this time, the sky looks like it's actually falling and the little chicken finds himself face-to-face with alien invaders.
They completely disregarded that a Disney movie is supposed to have elements like magic, memorable and inspirational characters, a wonderful music score, songs we would remember or love to sing to, a captivating story, adventure and just good old fun.
When, Chicken Little is telling the animals that "The sky is falling", that time he is very funny.
I don't know who would have come up with the idea of taking a rather bare-bones fairy tale like "Chicken Little" and turning it into a feature length animated movie, but whoever did and then came up with the story deserves credit.
(My official "assistant critic" - my 3 year old daughter - laughed over and over again, and she's often not that interested in kids movies, so I have to judge this a success!) The story - which explains what it is that actually fell from the sky - is fun, funny, full of action and, yes, admittedly quite preposterous.
It is truly unique from the other Disney films because it starts with a little chicken ringing his school bell, wailing that the sky was falling.
The ending was surprising, I had to admit, but there was one lousy fact that the animals just broke out into song whenever the movie writers couldn't cook up anything.In my opinion, Chicken Little is a great movie for kids, but adults might sleep through it.
And, of course, the last and most important issue, the decision Pixar took of becoming and independent company, that leaves Disney trying experiments like "Chicken Little".Experiments determined by an intense focus on the little kids, made with a Computer Animation that leaves a lot to desire after we have been through "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo".
But the sky is actually falling, and the father underestimates the son; and there we have the first plot line that ends the way we know.On other level, I believe that when you do an animated movie and you have non-human characters, you commit and represent their world exactly as it is; however, during the first scene of this film, the main character, who has no ears, is running throughout the city with glasses, and the glasses don't fall off his eyes.The tremendous attempt of making the characters lovable or very interesting is taken with the writing of stupid jokes involving Spice Girls and Barbra Streissand's songs and incredible situations that lead to a whole school laughing of the main character that can't get anything right.
Chicken Little was a fun movie, granted it's no classic sweeping sappingly sweet flick but my kids laughed through the whole thing!
after over 60 years as storytelling leaders in the animation genre, you'd think Disney could come up with something a little more original.Doesn't this story(son and father) and the marketing(do you know...) remind you of Finding Nemo?.
If I were Disney, I would be literally throwing money in Pixar's direction to get them back in the fold after this latest piece of junk.A bit too frightening for little kids, not savvy enough for teens, or adults, this movie can only possibly be enjoyed by the 7-10 year old.
The plot was typical but the characters and the movie was great Disney animation.