Chicken Little Review
The story of Chicken Little is one that we are all told from childhood. The moral of the story is one of two things. Either to not be so scared and instead to be brave and not be afraid of the sky falling, and the other is to not believe everything that you are told as the characters in the story are as Chicken Little told them that the sky was falling and they believed him at face value. How this got moved into a full length film I’ll never know. It really has nothing to do with the original story short of the names of some of the characters. You have characters like turkey lurkey, foxy loxy, morkubine porcupine, and buck cluck that use the rhyming scheme that is used in the original story. But the premise is completely changed from the original, and there isn’t too much to get excited about with this film. It has good voice acting, and looks pretty, but as for story and laughs, it leaves a lot to be desired. I give Chicken Little a 4 out of 10.
I went to the 3D version of this movie that certain theaters are able to put into effect as Disney is trying to bring something new to the table in the vein of cinema, and enjoyed it really. It looked good and if you let yourself be amazed by it, then you will be able to have a good time enjoying the show. But that is really the highlight point of this film. I would say to just wait for video on this one unless you plan on going to the 3D version that they are showing at places like Turkey Creek. Most theaters will be showing the standard animation that I am sure looks good, but it just isn’t enough to make you sit through the entire movie after paying for it.
The voice acting in this film is actually very good. Even though i have bashed the movie thus far, the voice actors do a really good job of conveying emotion and excitement that the movie needs to stand on its own. Unfortunately, it isn’t enough to save the film. There are jokes at every turn, but most of these jokes are lame ducks that nobody really laughs at. I went when there were quite a few kids in the theater and I actually only heard a kid laugh once, and that was during the previews. Then I heard a few adults laughing because of a few other movie references during the film. There were references to the Lion King, Signs, Indiana Jones, King Kong, and Star Wars that the kids more than likely won’t understand under the age of 10. It was really disappointing.
This was DIsney’s first foray into the computer animation market. "But Aaron, what about Finding Nemo and films like that?", well those aren’t actually all Disney, instead they are Pixar films that have the DIsney name on them. Pixar only within recent years broke off from Disney and now are looking to get back with them. Let’s hope that for the computer animated field that that happens. Because with the terrible movie that was Madagascar from Pixar and Chicken Little from Disney, it seems that they need each other.
Okay, off my high horse and back to the film. You will notice a lot of voices in this, so let me give you a heads up on who is who. Zach Braff from Scrubs is Chicken Little, Abby Mallard is Joan Cusack, Runt of the Litter is Steve Zahn, Turkey Lurkey is Don Knotts, Mr. Woolensworth is Patrick Stewart, and Ace is Adam West. And those are only the names that I think you might know. There are also more people whose voices you will recognize, but by saying their name, you probably won’t realize who they are. As I said before, the voice cast did a great job. They were a lot of fun. Their characters are actually pretty good too.
The friends of Chicken Little are Fish out of Water, Runt of the Litter (Zahn), and Abby Mallard or Ugly Duckling (Cusack). Whenever Fish out of Water and Runt of the Litter are not on the screen, you really don’t enjoy the movie. All of the other characters make jokes that just fall flat. And the jokes that are made by Fish and Runt are most of the time enjoyable. One moment that I really enjoyed was Fish doing his take on King Kong. That was probably the best part of the whole film.
The soundtrack for the film was excellent. There are multiple times during the movie that I would hear the first few bars of a song and smile just because the songs were that good. And with Runt’s affinity for music, it made his character that much more enjoyable. Songs like Stayin Alive Wannabe by The Spice Girls, and I will Survive have you singing along in your head even if they don’t fit in with the movie, but only as a distraction from what is going on in the movie.
Yes there are high points. There always are, but I just can’t in good conscience give you a recommendation to see this film. It had some fun stuff in it, and was a good experience with the 3D film and the soundtrack, but is it worth paying 10 bucks to go see it? Not a chance. I would say just to wait at home for it to come out on video unless you are really interested in seeing a flop or seeing some cool 3D effects. So I give Chicken Little a 4 out of 10.