I was recently given a video as a gift for doing one of my neighbours a favor, Chicken Run.
The front cover boasts that the film is made by the same team that made the Wallace and Gromit features.
Can’t be that bad then, as I adore that broad Yorkshire man and his play dough canine friend.

There is always one of the three 20 minute Wallace and Gromit films on TV over the Christmas holidays, in fact seeing them at Christmas has almost become as mandatory Yuletide viewing as the Indiana Jones movies or The Snowman cartoon.
Anyway I’m wandering, back to my Chicken Run opinion.

PLOT:

Chicken Run is about the escapades from a group of (you guessed it, Chickens) on a sinister egg farm in the Yorkshire Dales.
The flightless birds led by a rambunctious hen named Ginger, constantly try to escape the fenced off compound, to a place just over the horizon where they can live in total freedom.
The farm is owned by Mr and Mrs Tweedy and is run like a strict prisoner of war camp, mean snarling dogs and all.

Each chicken has to be up and ready at the crack of dawn with a nice clutch of fresh eggs for the Tweedys to collect and sell. Mrs Tweedy keeps a chart for each chicken to see which ones are successfully laying eggs and which ones are not.
For the poor few that can no longer lay, they are plucked from the ranks and used for the Tweedys evening meal.
This egg’s the chickens on (excuse the pun) to try and escape their miserable lives on the farm.

After several humorous failed attempts to break out of their prison, Ginger begins to give up hope on the fact that they will ever be able to escape, when out of the night sky, a flying rooster lands in the chicken coup.
It soon becomes apparent that the rooster (Rocky) has just escaped himself from a traveling circus and has no intentions of going back there.

With that in mind, Ginger makes a deal with Rocky to hide him from the clutches of his circus master and also Mr and Mrs Tweedy, in exchange for him teaching the chickens to fly.
Rocky agrees and begins to school the chickens while soaking up the fact that he is the only young rooster on the farm and has all the female chickens falling over themselves to tend to his every need.
It soon becomes apparent though, that Rocky might not be the miracle escape route that the chickens had hoped for.

Ginger also enlists the help of two thieving rats, Nick and Fetcher to steal certain items needed for their one last escape attempt.
These two rats however, won’t work for chicken feed.

Then, in a flash, a huge truck roars onto the farm carrying a large sinister looking machine, which Mrs Tweedy has bought.
Ginger knows that the machine is not good news for the chickens and that they now have only a little time left if they are to escape.
What follows is a series of near misses and hilarious consequences involving Mr Tweedy and his scheming chickens.

CHARACTERS:

Ginger – Julia Sawalha

Ginger is the leader of the chickens escape attempts and is desperate to get away from the farm.
She is one of the liveliest characters in the film and she develops a crush on Rocky as the film progresses. Ginger is always the one that gets caught in the middle of an escape and she is Mr Tweedys least favorite chicken and often spends time being thrown into the coal shed as punishment for trying to escape.

Colour – Ginger (but is often seen with a black behind due to the amount of time she spends sitting in the coal shed)– Dress code – wears a green hat and a yellow/white/blue scarf. – Favorite saying – My name, is GINGER.

Mac – Lynn Ferguson

Mac is Ginger’s right hand man, or chicken if you will, and constantly helps with the escape plans.
She is the one to make and assemble whatever contraption Ginger dreams up in order to aide the escape. Mac is the Professor of the coup and has a strong Scottish accent, which causes Rocky all sorts of problems.

Colour – White – Dress code – Tartan scarf and headband and also wears thick glasses – Favorite saying – What’s the next plan?

Fowler – Benjamin Whitrow

Fowler is the chicken coup’s official rooster and his job is to keep the gang in check.
He likes to think of himself as an ex RAF pilot and has the strong, finely tuned Sergeant Major accent. He is the oldest member of the chicken coup and dislikes Rocky from the very start, simply because he is an American and more popular than he is.
This does wave as the film goes on though and Fowler soon warms to Rockys arrogance and likable nature.

Colour – Grey – Dress code – White scarf and blue tail feathers, also has thick gray eyebrows – Favorite saying – It’s absolutely outrageous, what what.

Rocky – Mel Gibson

Rocky is the American rooster who crashes into the chicken yard and brings with him a renewed hope of escape.
He is disliked by Fowler but loved by the rest of the chickens and he struggles throughout the film to understand Mac’s strong Scottish accent. Rocky is arrogant and cocky but extremely likeable with it.
His romantic links with Ginger are evident right from the start.

Colour – Dark red – Dress code – Light blue poncho with white spots and green tail feathers – Favorite saying – See ya around doll face.

Babs – Jane Horrocks

Babs is the fattest chicken in the coup because all she does all day long is sit around and knit wooly clothing for the other chickens.
Once the strange machine arrives at the farm, it is only when Mrs Tweedy decides to double the hens rations because she wants them all to be as fat as Babs, that Ginger realizes that this new machine will spell certain doom unless they escape.

Babs is also extremely thick and doesn’t seem to understand anything that goes on around her. When one of the chickens is taken away to be killed for Mr Tweedys dinner, she simply thinks that the chicken has gone on holiday.
In fact, when anyone goes missing from the coup, Babs thinks they have gone on holiday.
She was definitely the last in the queue when the brains were being dished out, still, she is a great character and provides some great comic moments.

Colour – Light brown – Dress code – strange blue fringe and a pink pearl necklace – Favorite saying – Are we going on holiday?

Bunty – Imelda Staunton

Bunty is the skeptic of the group but plays along with the escape attempts anyway in case one actually comes off.
She is the largest chicken in the ground and so sometimes comes unstuck during an escape due to her large size.

She carries a great deal of the other chickens worry on her shoulders and always looks for the more probable outcome of a certain situation.
She doesn’t have much need for hope as she is the only one who thinks escape is impossible.

Colour – Dark red – wears a thick blue band around her neck – Favorite saying – What a load of tripe.

Nick and Fetcher – Timothy Spall and Phil Daniels

These two dodgy rats have only one mission in life, to steal from the Tweedys and sell to the chickens.
They will happily steal Mr Tweedys tools, Mrs Tweedys clothes and anything else they can get their filthy little hands on to sell to Ginger and her crew in exchange for some eggs.

They are a funny little pair to say the least, Nick (the one in charge) is smart and full of little light fingered schemes, while Fetcher is near enough his shadow and happens to be as daft as a brush.

Favorite saying – Pleasure doing business with ya.

Mr Tweedy – Tony Haygarth

Mr Tweedy is your typical Yorkshire farmer, not too bright but extremely protective about his lot. He is in constant trouble with his wife (whom he is terrified of) because he spends most of his time guarding the chicken coup in utter paranoia.
He is always catching the chickens doing strange things but is made to feel daft as they always manage to cover up their dodgy dealings before he has a chance to gain a second look.

He seems to catch Ginger almost every time she tries to escape with the help of his two vicious dogs and he is certain that his hens are more intelligent than his wife will give them credit for.

Favorite saying – Them chickens are up ta sommat.

Mrs Tweedy – Miranda Richardson

Mrs Tweedy is the most miserable woman you could ever wish to meet. She spends most of her time thinking of new ways to earn more money (what woman doesn’t?) and is a constant bully to poor Mr Tweedy.
The entire cast of the film is terrified of her, even the vicious farm dogs yelp when she as much as opens a door.
It is her little scheme of how to turn the chicken farm into a money-spinner that this film evolves around.
She is the most villainous woman to grace the animated screen since Cruella De Ville.

Favorite saying – They’re just chickens you great lump.

SPECIAL EFFECTS AND PRODUCTION:

Chicken Run is a very unique film, made entirely out of plastic and plastercine, the characters and scenery look amazingly good.
For those of you who have seen the Wallace and Gromit short films, ‘A Grand Day out (1989) The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1996)’, or indeed the ‘Creature Comforts’ adverts back in 1989-91, you will know the kind of talent for model making directors, Nick Park and Peter Lord possess.

Chicken Run is the first feature length film of it’s kind to be made using the ‘Wallace and Gromit’ techniques and was the largest production, worldwide of its kind.
It took nearly a whole year to plan and just over three years to make.
180 people working full days, on 30 different sets managed to create 1 minute of footage every week using an incredible 24 frames for every second of the film.

Between them, they built 387 model chickens, all hand painted and over 1000 pairs of eyes to make the film.
The Previous longest film like this was ‘A Close Shave’ which lasted for 30 minutes, this one however, is 80 minutes, so you can imagine the amount of work that has been put into this.
The amount of care and skill that has gone into making this film is breathtaking.

This was originally going to be a simple project made for TV but Nick Park managed to attract two of Hollywood’s biggest production studios, Pathe and Steven Spielberg’s’ DreamWorks studios to fund and distribute it.
The result was a worldwide blockbuster that thrilled the cinema going audience from London to Miami.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS:

This film is, in my eyes an absolute masterpiece, as I have already said, the animation is nothing short of fantastic and the amount of effort put into this shines through like the brightest torch you can imagine.
The script is basically a re working of ‘The Great Escape’ but with chickens instead of English P.O.W’s.
I loved every single minute of this, right down to the brilliant sound effects, which really add to the films quality.

The voice cast are perfect in every sense, and bring the charaters to live with the maximum amount of believability.

The music was not too dissimilar from ‘The Great Escape’ either and the composers (John Powell and Harry Gregson Williams) have come up with the perfect music for the different scenes.
This is one of those films I could honestly watch over and over again, as the humor is fitting for both adults and children alike.

I would recommend Chicken Run to everybody with an inner child, as it is quite simply great entertainment.

Chicken Run is available on VHS Video and DVD, certificate U, from most high street retailers.
Or you can visit ‘www.amazon.co.uk’ who are currently offering the VHS at £12.99 (New), £5.99 (Used) and the DVD at £18.99 (New), £7.99 (Used)

Thanks for the read.

DEANO!