Chicken Little (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Nice film, funny and great soundtracks .
Disadvantages:	Short compared to other Disney films and the voice of the chicken maybe .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

While my sister was going places (with her lovely husband) . . . she left behind a couple of toddlers for me to look after (weep). “You can’t ‘Have Fun’ with two kids under three years old!” she said. Therefore, she left the kids with our parents (and with me), and took off for a whole 14 days!

My aging parents wouldn’t be able to keep up with two little ‘monkeys’ so I offered to look after them each day when I came home from work; also to share my bedroom and MY BED with them (which was pretty hard for me as I like my own space!); Sometimes I woke up at night with a child’s feet over my head or a another one sleeping over me!

Sometimes they missed their parents and started to cry so I tried my best to entertain them and keep them busy as long as I could. Fortunately my sister had included a nice set of children’s DVDs packed with their clothes and toys; I had a quick skim through almost 50 DVDs until I found an interesting one to watch . . . It was Chicken Little.

What I liked first about this DVD was the cover . . . it is an animated film featuring animals and the hero (chicken little) looks funny with unbalanced oversized head comparing his to his tiny and short body. His big round eyes look smaller with those green, nerdy, big-circle glasses fitted into his baby face features! I thought, “Yes, this looks interesting and could keep them busy for a while; at least they might settle down and stop throwing toys at me!”

The Origin of Chicken Little

The story is based originally on an old fable explaining the phrase “the sky is falling” this was used as a common turn of phrase to indicate a hysterical or erroneous conviction that disaster is about to happen and in the chicken little story . . . it’s all about a predictable disaster!
There have been two films based on this fable.
The first one is pre- World War II (1943) and talked about chicken little who believed that the sky was falling; then 62 years later . . . the newer 3D animated Chicken Little (2005) which I’m going to review.

Cast

There were a nice group of fine actors; I liked mostly Buck Cluck voice, very fatherly and warm. The main characters with are voiced as follows:
Zach Braff . . . . . . chicken little voice
Garry Marshall . . . Buck Cluck voice
Joan Cusack . . . . . Abby Mallard voice
Steve Zahn . . . . . Runt of the litter voice
Amy Sedaris . . . . . Foxy Loxy voice
Don Knotts . . . . . . Mayor Turkey Lurky voice

The story

It’s all had started when a smaller than average (cute) teenage chicken (who looked no older than 6 years old) started to clang the Enormous school bell to alert the town of Oakey Oaks of a disaster is about to occur (ringing the bell is like a warning siren to the town). All of the sudden the quite peaceful town turned in to a big chaotic mess and the talking animals (birds, dogs and tigers) started to run frantically everywhere, all trying to risk them selves and their children! Turmoil, madness and confusion speeded on the town and no one asked what’s going on! Until someone dared to ask . . .

The sky is falling . . . The sky is falling . . . the tiny chicken shouted! All of sudden everyone frozen and looked at him up clinging next to the school bell . . . The sky is what?

Little Chicken started to talk about the falling piece of sky and how it did hit him on the head which looked a lot like the STOP SIGN shadow reflecting on the land where he stand! Maybe he was hit by an acorn then? The acorn tree was just behind his crime scene!

What did he do? Alerted the people and turned the town upside down for some weird reason? Maybe he should stop day dreaming . . . this kid has a vivid imagination!

One little slip . . . and he became the most hated chicken in the town, the chicken little news was all over the TV, they were even making a film about the crazy chicken little. He is the fool of the town and everyone keeps talking about his big mistake. Since a piece of the sky has fallen on him nothing stayed the same . . . everything has been changed since.

Chicken Little: “Who are we talking about?”

His single dad (Buck Cluck) tried his best to cope with his son’s weird actions and did the best for him (in his standards); but to listen to his son and have one to one talk with him? He never even tried to.

Buck Cluck: “You gotta be ready to listen to your children, even if they have nothing to say.”

Only a bunch of misfit kids were his friends, Abby (the ugly Duckling) who has the ‘hots’ for chicken little, always stand up for him and defend him; they also encourage him to have that CLOSURE with his dad and solve things out with him.
Abby Mallard: Hey, remember when that icy blue stuff fell from the sky? Everybody thought it was from space and stuff, and it just turned out to be frozen pee from a jet airplane.

Runt the pig . . . the smallest one in the family . . . but he is an over-sized pig, a sensitive pig with a musical ear, who loves Barbra Streisand and has all her music records! And finally . . . fish out of the tank . . . he is the entertainer of the story; never talked only gurgled but still a great dancer and a comedian!

A year later . . . Chicken Little is still trying to put the past behind him and started his day with his famous phrase . . . Today is a new day . . . but sadly . . . every day was the same for him: he was bullied by the school kids and Foxy Loxy also kept on bullying the poor Chicken and making fun of him.

Chicken Little wanted his dad to be proud of him after he announced that he was ashamed of his son in many occasions . . . he showed interest in baseball but alas . . . his less than average size couldn’t help him and the coach always left him sat on the bench . . . until . . . one day . . . a chance came across for him and he proved himself!

He thought he had that chance and confirm to himself that he can be successful like his dad and be like him (Ace). His dad was very proud of him and his achievement. For the first time in 12 months, Chicken Little thought that everyone has forgotten about this shameful past and he is the hero of the town!

However, it wasn’t for long until another piece of the sky hit him straight in the face in his own bedroom! So it wasn’t a dream . . . or an imagination! This piece can change colour and it took any image it wanted. This time he didn’t tell his dad and kept the truth away from him.

Chicken Little: A piece of the sky? Shaped like a stop sign? Not again!

Things got even more complicated when a little fury three-eyed alien left behind by his alien parents and couldn’t get back to the space ship and when the alien parents discovered the loss of their son . . . they invaded the earth for real looking for their fur ball son!!

What will happen next? Will the earth be destroyed for the sake of Kirby the alien? Can Chicken Little, with the help of his friends, save the earth? Or, will he chicken out! Will it be too late? Was Chicken Little right? Was it all made up?

Chicken Little: Modern Mallard says avoiding closure can lead to moulting, and I'm already small and on top of that I don't think I can handle being bald!

My Opinion and views about the film

A nice little story, packed with a lot of actions and fast incidents. We have seen hundreds of science fiction films and alien invasions, but this time it was different, even the aliens look children-friendly. I never found any single minute boring but there were a couple of weak scenes. For children, it was a super film. It’s not the best of Disney’s but we should remember that it was made nearly 4 years ago when 3D films were just making their way.

The director was excellent in bringing up the whole story together and simplified it to reach the children minds without struggling to understand, every thing was just about right, there was one major thing that annoyed me (maybe it was only me), some of the voices were not right for the character, for example . . . chicken little’s voice . . . he was a very small chicken, but with BIG manly voice, maybe it would have been better if the director had replaced it with a woman’s voice or a kid’s voice? Or did he do that out of irony. Still, I didn’t find that voice right - especially with his singing voice . . . the actor (Zach Braff) was trying to tone down his voice as much as he could (like Michael J fox did when he did Stuart Little’s voice) but it still seemed very strong for this character.

Another point against the film, it was very short comparing to other Disney films especially when you consider all the songs you will end up with 65 minutes maximum which wasn’t enough.

Soundtrack

I quite liked the song tracks, especially the one performed by the “Barenaked Ladies” with very fast music and rhythm: it gets stuck in the head. I even had it as a ringtone and my three year old nephew keeps singing it (and so do I . . . lol). OK, “It’s the end of the world” and the song by Diana Rose were brilliant, but I felt that some of these songs were a bit too much for little children especially when it comes to sad, heart-breaking, moving songs. I remember my niece crying every time the chicken sad song was on . . . and asked me why he is crying!
Some good selection here . . .

1. Stir It Up - Patti LaBelle and Joss Stone
2. One Little Slip - Barenaked Ladies
3. Shake a Tail Feather - The Cheetah Girls
4. All I Know - Five For Fighting
5. Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross
6. It's the End of the World As We Know It - R.E.M.
7. We Are the Champions - Chicken Little (Zach Braff)
8. Wannabe - Abby Mallard (Joan Cusak) and Runt of the Litter (Steve Zahn)
9. Don't Go Breaking My Heart - The Chicken Little and some other songs performed by the cast.

DVD Extras

I like DVD extras, to be honest I didn’t know they were there; I always repeat the film when finished . . . and I never wait to see what comes after!
Anyway . . . as it happens:

It seems that little effort was made when the DVD extras were inserted . . . maybe because they thought a lot of the audience won’t watch it and I’m one of them! The extras start with a group of four sections

“Deleted scenes”

(13 minutes long, with optional introductions from director Mark Dindal and producer Randy Fullmer, 10 minutes). This part was showing how the Chicken Little Character was designed with some funny bits and parts and how did they come to the final result.

"Music & More"

You can see the music videos for The Cheetah Girls' "Shake Your Tail Feather" (oy) and Barenaked Ladies' "One Little Slip," as well as karaoke and sing-a-long versions

“Games & Activities"

Not the brightest of games, I have to say. Contains the interactive trivia quiz "Where's Fishy?"

"Backstage Disney"

Find the 5-part "Hatching Chicken Little: The Making of the Movie" (18 minutes) which I found extremely boring but informative if you are interested in “see the making of” types of extra.

Awards and nominations

This film has been granted three wins and 13 other nominations. In 2006 in has won Top Box Office Films, Best Animated Voice-Over best animated film and Casting and Best Performance in a Voice-Over Role - Young Actor, while the nominations varied from best family movie, best production design, best animated features and effects, also a nomination for Outstanding Motion Picture.

Prices and availability

This film is available on DVD and blue ray and can be found at most DVD shops and mega stores also in supermarkets. You can also order online from Amazon and ebay. Also can be rented from rental shops like blockbuster, lovefilms and many others

The DVD prices are varied from as little as £2- £5.85 or a little bit more depending on where you are buying it from, while the blue ray version can be bought for a higher price £14-98 to £23.99

Quick Summary

Runtime: 81 Minutes
Director: Mark Dindal
Language: Originally in English, can be changed to French and Spanish.
Subtitles: only in English.
Certificate: Universal, suitable for all.
Awards: three wins and 13 nominations
Genre: Animated, adventure comedy with a touch of Sci fi suitable for families.
Production year: 2005
Produced by: Walt Disney pictures.

Conclusions

A nice film, very entertaining story with a different view and approach to aliens and spaceships, funny in places, jam packed with excellent soundtracks, worth watching.

Thank you for reading

© Karimkha ~ ~ ~ April ~ ~ ~ 2009