Chicken Little (2005) Reviews

• Average in every way

  Ronald_Mexico2006-02-16

  This was a film with a somewhat interesting premise, a somewhat interesting main character, and a somewhat interesting conclusion. This was not a Pixar film: it wasn't designed to appeal to adults. Rather, the writers focus on giving the kiddies a few laughs without leaving the parents comatose with boredom. And when everything is taken into consideration, the writers succeed. Somewhat. It's just not a very memorable film. Whreas most kids can watch films like "Shrek" repeatedly because of the sight gags, talented voice-over performances, and hidden jokes that they might not catch the first time around, "Chicken Little" is likely to be forgotten the moment the credits roll. That's not to say that Disney doesn't provide it's standard politically correct message. Of course the best player on the baseball team is a girl (Foxy Loxy). Of course a girl (Goosey Loosey) beats up and humiliates the boy (Chicken Little). Of course the character with the most redeeming social value is physically unattractive (Abby Mallard). And on, and on, and on. Disney also manages to continue its bizarre tradition of creating single father families ("Little Mermaid", "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", "The Goofy Movie"): Chicken Little's mother has, of course, departed for the great unknown. The relationship between Chicken Little and his father comes across as more annoying than heartwarming. The premise: A father realizes that it's probably not such a great idea to be embarrassed by his son; by the end of the movie, what his own child thinks of him actually takes precedent over the opinions of neighbors and perfect strangers! This message would undoubtedly come across as highly inspirational...if not for the fact that it's so blatantly obvious, hackneyed, and overplayed. The voice-over's for the film were largely uninspiring, save for amusing performances by Don Knotts and Adam West. "Fish out of Water" was easily the most likable of the bunch (yes, I was suckered by the standard Disney cutesy animated character in their never ending attempt to sell more toys), and he didn't even have a speaking roll. No, "Chicken Little" is not the worst animated film I've ever seen...but memorable, it is not.

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• I actually cried

  konrad-296-1526162013-01-14

  This is without a split second of hesitation the worst movie I have ever seen. I actually cried through large parts of it due to the agony of watching it. Moral of the first 60 minutes of the story: if you are not good at sports then you are a bad person that nobody likes, not even your own parents, and that is just what you deserve. And if you are being bullied for not being good at sports then do not expect any help from adults, because you deserve that as well. After 60 minutes the movie turns info a cartoon version of War of the Worlds with aliens in giant octopus vessels terrorizing the town. The only thing I am grateful for is that I watched this on TV and not on cinema—that way I only wasted time and not money.

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• The Sky fell all right, but The Story was already a shattered mess

  guerillagorilla2005-10-29

  There have been many, many movies that Disney has put out that I've had a high desire to see "succeed". All in all, most Disney animated movies that have made it to the big screen in the more modern cinema history of, say, from "Beauty and the Beast" all the way up to "Lilo & Stitch" and "Brother Bear", have done that. Perhaps some are only a financial success, like "Treasure Planet", but certainly they were popular enough with one group of moviegoers or another to have a good box office take. Unfortunately, "Chicken Little" is not a success. In pooling my thoughts to review this movie, I am so highly disappointed that good animation is its only high mark. In this pivotal point in the history of The Walt Disney Company, where its relationship with Pixar is still on the rocks while a new president is stepping up, I wanted this movie to be a smashing success. I wanted this to be the movie that starts another Golden Age revolution, where it is possible that Disney takes the top spot in producing awesome animated movies. I fear that there aren't many good storytellers left at Disney Feature Animation, and there didn't seem to by any present for the making of "Chicken Little". The story itself, chronicling the tales of the title character proving to his community that he is not a failure, was a good enough premise. Though it wasn't executed well at all. Instead of solid, premise-building scenes where it's main characters interact well with others (and get the audience laughing along the way), we get a sappy, melodramatic mini-soap with voice actors who don't have a good script...followed immediately by, more times than I'd care to recall, potty humor gags. Judging by the audience of my screening, made up of at least 40% little kids, only they found that funny. With so many 3D animated movies coming out recently, like "Madagascar", "Robots" and "Valiant", all released this year, many companies are trying to prove their movie-making chops to us movie-goers. They can make a very beautiful looking movie, with wonderfully rendered characters that can move so fluidly and realistic...but the very vital element of sharing a good story is missing in action. It's my belief that a great story without great animation will be a much better movie than one that looks great, but has a weak story. Though, both elements are what made Pixar's "The Incredibles" an Oscar-contending, $265 million hit. Computer animation is, indeed, not the shoe-in, cure-all solution to a great movie. To boot, "Chicken Little" has a weak soundtrack, composed mainly of songs that were popular at one time or another...to the pre-teen-aged crowd. Instead of beautiful, original, fully-composed songs like "A Whole New World" in "Aladdin" (or anything close to it), we are treated to Spice Girls' "If You Wanna Be My Lover" (complete, by the way, with karaoke subtitles). Unoriginal and highly annoying. Having sufficiently railed on the movie, it is my belief that the corporate suits in charge of financing Feature Animation have more blame for the steady decline in their movies than anybody working under them. It seems they think they know what makes a successful movie, over-riding many decisions of the animators and storytellers--those who are still at Feature Animation--who have proved they can make great movies. I believe said pencil pushers are what made last year's "Home on the Range" fail, critically and financially. All in all, I believe "Chicken Little" is a failure that I define as hot having a good story to match its sweet computer animation. In Disney's quest to prove that they are still the Best of the Best, movies like this will prove to the world that they are merely the best of the rest. And we all know that it's not the Disney we grew up on and cherished. "Chicken Little" gets 4 of 10 stars

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• Almost too slight, but a vast improvement on "Dinosaur."

  Victor Field2005-11-29

  Reviewing "Robots," "The New York Times" opined that when it comes to animation there's Pixar, there's Japan, and there's everyone else (it should be noted that not all Japanese cartoons are good - "Shin Chan," anyone? - but you see A.O. Scott's point). "Chicken Little" definitely falls into the "anywhere else" camp, but while it won't siphon away fans from John Lasseter or Nick Park - especially since Disney's delayed its UK release for a few months, the way they did with "Sky High" (but not "Herbie: Fully Loaded," I notice. Idiots) - it's not DreamWorks-mediocre either. The House of Mouse's first attempt at computer animated movies without Pixar was the skilfully made but hollow "Dinosaur"; this one is under the auspices of the team behind the wonderful "The Emperor's New Groove," and while it doesn't have that cartoon's spirit it still has some virtues of its own. More deliberately cartoonish in its look and feel than many recent features, it's also probably a little too sentimental for some tastes - an awful lot of the movie involves our feathered hero wanting not only to redeem himself for the whole "the sky is falling" farrago but also to open up two-way communication with his single dad, with all the Family Issues that implies. Fortunately it never really swamps the movie, with the family message never overriding the main intent, i.e. to entertain. Unlike the inexplicably hugely successful "Madagascar," it doesn't drag and the voice cast (Zach Braff, Garry Marshall, Joan Cusack, et al) doesn't get in the way of the movie's effect; it relies a little too much on popular culture references and songs for its effect (particularly in the opening - that works in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in live action - and in the case of Runt of the Litter, the show-tune-loving pig voiced by Steve Zahn), but it's a colourful, charming little movie that thankfully ends well before it has a chance to wear out its welcome, and it's nice to have a movie with a message that doesn't try to ram it down your throat. There are worse Disney movies that could have been dedicated to veteran animator Joe Grant. And if nothing else, I defy anyone to find another movie that has the voices of Don Knotts and Patrick Stewart joining in on "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" over the credits...

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• Falls short and doesn't live up to its interesting and entertaining marketing campaign

  MovieManMenzel2005-11-06

  Chicken Little (Zach Braff) claims that the sky is falling but it turns out later that it's not. Chicken Little is then mocked for the next year because he worried the town for no reason. A year passes by and this time the sky really is falling! So it's now up to Chicken Little to alert the town and prove to them that the aliens are really here! I was really looking forward to "Chicken Little" after seeing all the trailers but this movie doesn't live up to the hype and falls short. The characters are likable so it's not the characters that make this movie not live up to expectation but rather its story and running time. The movie clocks in at a measly 77 minutes, which as many know is not nearly long enough for a movie. These days a movie should run no less than 90 mins and this film runs 13 minutes less than that. The whole problem is the story here, it starts off promising but then when the sky really does start to fall, the film feels rushed. The story definitely needed some brushing up on and I fear now for Disney that without Pixar they may really be in trouble. The problem was "Chicken Little" had so much potential and a great marketing campaign but the writers didn't pay any detail to the story to help the film live up to it's expectations. Disney thinks that hand drawn animation is done for but the problem isn't hand drawn animation, it's the fact that the better stories are going to computer animated films. That is "Chicken Little's" problem. The film is computer animation but it still doesn't have a great story and therefore critics panned it. If someone hand drew "Finding Nemo" with the great and unique story it had, it probably would have done just as good as it did being computer animated. Disney really needs to concentrate more on its stories rather then its animation. Now it sounds like I am beating up on "Chicken Little" but I don't mean too that much. I actually enjoyed the film but I expected more from it. I wanted a longer film; I wanted a more polished story. I just wanted more from this film in general and like I said the film fell short because the movie just relied too much on its animation and not enough on it's story. Another problem was that the jokes aren't very fresh and there aren't enough jokes in the script that adults can enjoy as well as their kids. The characters are the best part of the movie especially Runt of the litter voiced by Steve Zahn, Abby Mallard voiced by Joan Cusack and of course Chicken Little himself. The voice talent was great, they just needed a better story to help move the film along better. In the end, "Chicken Little" is disappointing. It's a decent film that could have been great only if Disney concentrated more on its story rather than on its marketing. The movie on the whole isn't bad, it just isn't great. The characters, voice talent and some of the jokes save the movie from really sinking. This movie is sure to amuse the little ones but once you get past the age of 13, you may not find the film overly amusing. The shame is that movies like "Corpse Bride" and "Wallace and Gromit" which were released into theaters a few weeks ago are far more enjoyable then "Chicken Little" and contain things that both adults and children alike can enjoy like their stories. "Chicken Little" is worth a matinée ticket at the multiplex but not worth full price. If you have kids, take them they will love it even though you may not enjoy it as much as its clever marketing makes you believe. MovieManMenzel's final rating for Chicken Little is a 6/10. It's decent but had the potential to be so much more!

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