| |
chicken run
Chicken Run is a very amusing and funny movie. The film is
set at a Yorkshire chicken farm in 1950s England, and the
story follows the turbulent courage of a group of chickens
many attempts to escape from Mrs. Tweedy's (Richardson) chicken
farm. Ginger (Sawalha) is sort of the leader of the chickens
that yearns for freedom the most. After many failed attempts
of leading an escape, Ginger's prayers are answered when Rocky
the Rooster (Gibson) arrives. Rocky is a cocky American rooster
that has escaped from the circus. Rocky falls into the situation
of helping the chickens escape by teaching them how to fly.
Ginger doubts his leadership, but begins to unrevealingly
like his character. As far as for the rest of the chickens,
they are all wooed by his charm and manliness. Now, the chickens
have to trust and rely on one another in order to escape the
wrath of Mrs. Tweedy's moneymaking plan of making them chicken
pies.
Chicken Run is really hysterical;
I laughed a tremendous amount. It is like watching A Bug's
Life or Toy Story blended with the TV series "Macgyver." The chickens really cracked me up.
Chicken Run is a claymation film
from Peter Lord and Nick Park, who are the directors of the
award winning shorts of Wallace and Gromit. Claymation is
a rare art that is created by minute-to-minute changes of
clay to give each shot life and movement. To create a claymation
feature takes a lot of time, detail and most of all patience.
The California Raisins and Gumby are probably the two most
recognizable claymation characters in history. However, the
chickens in this film eclipse them. Lord and Park touch on
every detail from the expressions on the characters faces,
to their walk, to even the evil symbolism of Mrs. Tweedy (Example--Lightning
almost always strikes behind her in the close shots of her
face). Real chickens don't have teeth, but the ones in Chicken
Run do. It complements more expression in their voices and
faces. I tip my hat with a lot of admiration towards the two
outstanding directors of Chicken Run.
Karey Kirkpatrick inked the script
for Chicken Run. Kirkpatrick definitely made Chicken Run a
social satire. It has a clash of cultures between Rocky, the
American rooster, and the British chickens. The script is
filled with laughter and heart. Most of the characters are
memorable and very original. An example is Fowler, who is
the old, grumpy rooster of the chicken farm. Fowler's dialogue
is hilarious; he is always replying to being in the British
Air Force and flying this mission and that mission. He is
a real good character. Some scenes in the film are corny,
but you will still laugh. An example is when Mrs. Tweedy becomes
Rambo (I don't want to tell you too much, but trust me you
will know the scene). Like I said before it is like watching "Macgyver" because the chickens crank out invention
after invention for their many close escape attempts. I learned
that Kirkpatrick is working on another animated script, anxious
to see it get made.
Chicken Run is a really enjoyable
movie for everybody. The satire works, Fowler is awesome,
and the claymation is state of the art.
|
|
ENTERTAINMENT
