The film has a nice visual look, particularly the retro spaceship designs. Of the similar 'Lilo & Stitch.' Veering away from Disney, things take an 'E.T.'-like turn when the alien spaceship accidentally leaves its own children behind, who Chicken Little must befriend before their angry parents return for retribution.īut while 'Chicken Little' is a bit of a mish-mash that never fully gels, it does offer a few pleasures thanks to its animation, performances and some other cute little touches. Chicken Little's dynamic with his father Buck recalls the the touching father-son bonding of 'Bambi,' while his sense of displacement in his own community is more than little reminiscent Granted, most animated flicks are rather kooky and require some serious suspension of disbelief,īut 'Chicken Little' didn't seem to have an identifiable "hook." Was this a tale designed to warn young kids against the dangers of telling big fibs? Some coded, conservative ode to xenophobia? Or just an excuse to animate chickens and aliens and make a really cool toy line?Įventually, multiple themes emerge, and some are very Disney-esque. It took me a while to get into 'Chicken Little.' For much of the film, I just couldn't quite place where the film was going, or what tone it was trying to achieve. So, calling upon his three most loyal friends, Abby Mallard (Joan Cusack), Runt of the Litter (Steve Zahn) and Fish Out of Water (Dan Molina), Chicken Little attempts to prevent this war of the worlds, and finally make his dad proud. But who will believe him? Certainly not his disapproving father Buck (Garry Marshall). Then, the inconceivable happens - a real piece of sky lands on his head, as an alien invasion is apparently afoot. Poor Chicken Little has since worked tirelessly to help restore his reputation, to little avail. A year ago, he caused an uproar by pulling the alarm after he mistook a earthbound acorn for the sky falling. As the film begins, Chicken Little (Zach Braff) is the Fowl Who Cried Wolf of Oakey Oaks, a peaceful farmyard where animals live an idyllic life. The story itself is rather bizarre, even for an animated movie starring talking animals. In the end, it was just another one of those cutesy animated family flicks that kind of comes and goes, earning quite respectable grosses but quickly fading from memory. While 'Chicken Little' failed to launch Disney's homegrown CGI division to Pixar-level heights, it also didn't launch the gigantic, computer-generated egg that some had predicated. Would Disney - in their first all-CGI effort outside of the Pixar fold - be able to pull off such a crazy mash-up of an idea, or would this be another high-concept disaster on the order of such animated boondoggles as 'Treasure Planet' or 'Titan A.E.?'Īs it turned out, the result landed somewhere in-between. So when I first heard about 'Chicken Little,' I had my doubts. Aliens and chickens aren't two words I ever thought I'd see in the sentence, let alone serve as the basis for a big Hollywood animated movie.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |