# Chicken Run (2000)

### reviewed by
Bob Bloom

ChickenRun (2000) 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Featuring the vocal talents of Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, Benjamin Whitrow, Lynn Ferguson, Tony Haygarth, Timothy Spall and Phil Daniels. Screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick and Jack Rosenthal. Directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park. Rated G.

While a student at Ohio University in the late ‘60s (1960s, that is), the university had a program called the MIA, which stood for Movies in Auditorium.

Every Friday and Saturday night, students would troop to Mem Aud, as we called Memorial Auditorium, to see a not-so-old movie.

Two of the most popular - they were screened every quarter - were "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape." I saw the latter so many times that by my senior year, I'd be whistling along with "The Great Escape's" music track over the opening titles.

What brought this wave of nostalgia to mind was "Chicken Run," a wonderfully daft Claymation comedy from the team behind the popular Oscar-winning `Wallace and Gromit' shorts.

Trapped behind barbed wire, a group of prisoners plot their escape. Time after time, they try and fail to flee their barbaric surroundings.

Only these prisoners are chickens and their stalag is Tweedy's Chicken Farm where certain death awaits any chicken who doesn't meet her egg quota.

Led by Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawahla of "Absolutely Fabulous" fame), the hens devise plan after plan, including such classic ruses as tunneling under the compound and cutting through the barbed wire.

"Chicken Run" utilizes all the clichés from the classic p.o.w.-escape genre and, in doing so, brings off one of the most entertaining vehicles of the year.

For the movie takes all the stereotypical elements found in such adventures and endows those characteristics in chickens. There's the Scottish engineer who's always calculating the probability of success or failure and the veteran sergeant-major type who believes in maintaining discipline and tradition even under the most dire circumstances.

Then there''s the solitary Yank, the cocky American who assures the chickens he can lead them in a successful mass exodus.

Rocky (voiced by Mel Gibson) crash lands in the compound, creating the mistaken belief that he can fly. Rocky enjoys all the clucking and fussing. But he neglects to inform the others that the only way he can take to the air is to be shot out of a cannon. Rocky, it is learned, is an escapee from a nearby circus.

Cocky Rocky (he calls himself `the lone free-ranger') bamboozles the hens until the truth is uncovered. But the indomitable Ginger won't give up, leading to a soaring, splendid finale.

"Chicken Run" is witty and charming in that veddy, veddy understated British manner. As directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park, you soon forget the characters are merely clay figures moved frame-by-frame by hand.

There are no computer-generated images here. This movie was done the old-fashioned way, one shot at a time. And the care shows.

"Chicken Run" contains some wonderful moments. Continually thrown into `solitary' (actually a coal bin) for her many escape attempts, Ginger, at one point, begins bouncing a wall off the coal bin wall, a homage to Steve McQueen and "The Great Escape."

A wonderfully scary sequence concerns a Rube Goldberg-like contraption purchased by Mrs. Tweedy who has decided the farm would make more money selling chicken pies than chicken eggs.

Ginger, caught in the deadly machinery, is rescued in the nick of time by Rocky in an exciting sequence.

The movie's vocal talent is first rate. Gibson gives a sturdy comedic performance as the self-assured cock of the walk.

Sawalha is all determination and grit as the leader of the hens, while Miranda Richardson exudes menace as the evil Mrs. Tweedy, a character who could cause nightmares for the very young viewers.

"Chicken Run," at about 80 minutes, never falters. The uplifting finale will have you cheering. It is an original, entertaining feature the entire family can enjoy.

Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette,IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net Reviews by Bloom, an associate member of the Online Film Critics Society, can be found on the Internet Movie Database at: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom

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