Movie Review - Chicken Little

The sky did not fall! I'll be honest. I am not a member of this films target audience, I'm not a child. Neither am I a parent so I'm not even a member of it's 2nd target audience. I do like cartoons & animation and I like CGI films a lot so I guess they have me there. I was curious to see how they could turn what was really a very short children's story into a movie that would last longer than an hour and have it not be boring.

I assume the line of children being pulled out of the pram were rabbits? They just weren't clear enough to make out but the joke would make sense if they were. I LOVED the Raiders joke, very funny but almost certainly right over the heads of the kids this film is aimed at (but their parents will most certainly get it). The acorn incident is over and done with in seconds (and out of the way within the 1st 5 minutes of the film), but this was the entire point of Chicken Little's story (it's basically a misunderstanding on his part) so exactly what are they going to do with the remaining 1 hour and 19 minutes?

Some of the jokes in the background (a bird flying into a window, a bull running a china shop) are going to go unnoticed (it seems you'll have to buy this one on DVD and watch it several times, most likely the commentary will point that kind of thing out). Voice talent includes Patrick Stewart (X-Men, Star Trek TNG) playing Mr Woolsworth the Sheep, Joan Cusack as Abby Mallard. Without a doubt the best character in the film and a major unsung hero is Fish Out Of Water (I think his paper Empire State Building & King Kong impression were brilliant!).

The baseball game win seemed too good to be true (I half expected the scene back at the house after wards to be him waking from a dream) but was there to set Chicken Little back to not a loser any more only to screw up in people's minds again, when another stop sign shaped object falls from the sky and hits him in the head. This getting hit in the head all the time can't be good for his brain, can it? When the "invisible thing" kidnaps Fish & leads them to the baseball ground (someone's seen "Close Encounters" and Cruise's "War Of The Worlds" then?) it proves to be aliens invading.

Runt almost choking himself on his hyperventilation bag is hysterically funny (I'm bound to be the only person who thinks that!) and the ship interior looks amazing (like the Skarj Mothership at the end of Unreal). When they hid in the cornfield you just knew the aliens were going to cut it down. I did wonder what the cuts were going to be but crop circles was a rubbish and predictable answer.

Obviously after alerting the town the ship cloaks and no-one believes Chicken Little (despite the fact the fish, the pig and the duck all saw the exact same thing too) & he's in disgrace again. But they left someone behind (yes, it's turned into E.T. now!). The alien finds Chicken Little & friends (nice goof, his handkerchief vanishes from the lawn after Little wipes it from his hand) and just wants to go home (I told you it'd turned into E.T.!).

The townspeople think it's an invasion but it's exactly what Chicken Little said it was, a rescue mission (although it slightly smacks of overkill sending the entire Battle Armarda and ground troops just for 1 kid, are these aliens American?). Whoever is voicing Chicken Little (Zack Braff from Scrubs I later discovered) it may as well be James Woods as it totally sounds like him. Or a really bad Woody Allen impression.

The one place where the CGI animation truly stands out as incredible is when Chicken Little and the young alien are on top of City Hall (the wind ruffling his feathers and the aliens hair just looks absolutely stunning!). The film ends with the alien kid being rescued, the aliens repairing the town and Hollywood making a movie which you see the end of. You also find out Chicken Little's 1st encounter was also the spaceship dropping a faulty panel on his head. Even if you didn't like this movie (and how could you not like it?) it's worth sticking with it just to watch the musical number over the end credits which is really cool. The break dancing porcupine especially so.