Chicken Little 2005 Buena Vista Home Entertainment Official Website Buy It Now

Everyone has heard the story of Chicken Little at least once in their life, maybe more if you happen to have a child that needs to hear the story over and over again. For year, the debate has been in regards to Chicken Little’s sanity. Was the sky really falling all those time like he stated, or was he simply delusional and paranoid? Well, maybe there hasn’t been any actual debate regarding that, but you’re going to see that Chicken Little wasn’t mad and his claims to the sky falling were in fact very legitimate. Disney’s Chicken Little is the studio’s first shot at creating a computer animated feature without the expertise of Pixar.

This version of Chicken Little isn’t quite like how you might remember it, but it’s a great retelling. Chicken Little has got the all the towns feathers and fur in an uproar because he believes the sky is falling, but his father thinks that it’s merely an acorn that hit his son on the head. A year later, the wounds still haven’t quite healed, and the poor little guy is still getting picked on. In hopes of putting the past behind him, Little decides to join the baseball team, something that he’s not quite built for, but win or lose, the past is about to come back to haunt him. Chicken Little is hit in the head once again by something from the sky and this time his close friends are the ones who see the exact same thing that he does: aliens! Now he has to get the town to believe him, but it looks like everything for a year ago are going to replay themselves . . . or are they?

When I heard that Disney was taking a shot at computer animation, I really didn’t have too much faith. They’d been working with Pixar for a decade, and there was buzz that Pixar was breaking off on their own. The two companies have made up since their brief falling out however, and now Disney owns Pixar, but their effort at a full CG movie actually isn’t too bad, though it certainly isn’t Toy Story.

Chicken Little is filled with humor that is going to appeal to both children and adults, and plenty of movie and pop culture references. You also have an unlikely hero and the same can be said for his sidekicks, or friends. Little hangs out with his friends Runt of the Little, an enormous and nervous pig with a love of karaoke. There’s Fish-Out-of-Water who manages to survive life outside of the pond thanks to a diving helmet filled with water. Then you have Abby Mallard, or ugly duckling as she’s called by the popular kids, the more sensible of the group. You’ll find other familiar names from nursery rhythms in the film however such as Foxy Loxy, Turkey Lurkey, and a few that are simply made up for the show.

This is more than just a story about one little chicken and his quest to prove that the sky is falling; there are some other themes that appear throughout the film as well. Little and his father, Buck, have been having some communication difficulties, especially after that whole acorn incident from a year ago. Father and son might get along well, but not as well as they could, and eventually the film brings about the idea of communication on either side; parents listening to their children and the other way around. Friendship of course plays an important role as does having an attitude that you can achieve anything (hence Chicken Little’s desire to play baseball.) Comedy though is really the key ingredient, though many of the laughs come in a visual style and not necessarily one-liners and such, though there are moments.

Although Chicken Little may not look quite as advanced as some computer animated movies, it really is very good for what it is. All of the characters in the film ooze personality to some degree and they quickly become memorable and likeable. There also are some well done visual effects and bits of animation, the aliens encased in steel body armor complete with flailing tentacles are one of the highlights and they aren’t meant to scare little ones. Instead, they are a bit funny, a bit like a more comedic version of the aliens seen in the original War of the Worlds (forget about the remake.) Most computer animation however doesn’t involve humans so much as other types of characters, animals, toys, or just about anything else, so the look and the animation of them isn’t necessarily important in making a successful movie. The characters here however not only have some great animation, but there are little nuances and traits that would be very much a part of their species that bring them to life even further.

Chicken Little also includes a number of special features. There are two alternate opening sequences as well as the original opening and a deleted scene, all which can be viewed with or without introductions. There are two music videos, one from the Barenaked Ladies and the other from the Cheetah Girls, and if you enjoy the songs, there are even karaoke and sing-a-long versions. There is a trivia game that not only has you answering questions about the movie; you’ll also need to find Fish. He’s got to be there . . . somewhere. Last on the list, there is a making of feature, and you can either view this as one feature, or you can view individual parts.

Chicken Little is bound to bring smiles to the faces of adults, maybe even a few chuckles, but this movie really is for the kids (though there are a few references that only their parents will pick up on.) This isn’t a bad solo effort on the part of Disney, and it certainly is better than some of their classic animation films I’ve seen in the past few years, but it’s a good chance that this may be the only Disney computer animated film we see without Pixar associated with it. The sky definitely is falling, and this time, it’s not such a bad thing.