Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop-motion animated adventure comedy-drama film produced by Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation and Pathe. As the studio's first feature-length film, it was directed by Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit, and Peter Lord.
Summary[]
The plot centers on a group of British chickens who see a smooth-talking Rhode Island Red named Rocky as their only hope to escape from certain death when the owners of their farm decide to move from selling eggs to chicken pies.
Plot[]
Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy run a failing British chicken farm in Yorkshire; the chickens are caged in the style of a World War II prison camp with a high fence and barbed wire, and two dogs patrol the grounds. Chickens that fail to produce enough eggs are slaughtered for food. Frustrated at the generated by the farm, Mrs. Tweedy comes up with the idea of converting their farm into the automated production of chicken pies. One chicken, Ginger, has had long visions of escaping with the help of her hen friends Babs, Bunty, and Mac, and two black-marketer rats, Nick and Fetcher, who help to acquire from the Tweedys to aid Ginger's plans. However, she is always caught and put into solitary confinement. While thinking of a new plan, Ginger witnesses a Rhode Island Red cockerel fly over the fence and crash into one of the coops, spraining his wing. Ginger and the other chickens help to hide him from the Tweedys and care for his wing, learning that his name is Rocky. Ginger is particularly interested in Rocky's ability to fly and begs him to help train her and the other chickens to do the same. Rocky is coy, but proceeds to try to help train the chickens, unable to fully demonstrate due to his broken wing. Meanwhile, Mr. Tweedy begins assembling their pie-making production line, and the chicken's food ration is doubled to fatten them. After Ginger and Rocky get into an argument, Rocky holds a morale-boosting dance party during which it is revealed that his wing is healed. Shortly after, Mr Tweedy finishes assembling the machine, and puts Ginger in it for a test run. Rocky infiltrates the machine to save her, the two eventually escape and sabotage the machine, buying the chickens more time to escape the farm. The next day, Ginger, much to her devastation, discovers that Rocky has left, leaving behind part of a poster that reveals he is in fact part of a "chicken cannonball" act with no ability to fly on his own. Just when all hope is lost, Ginger is then inspired by elderly rooster Fowler’s stories of his time in the Royal Air Force (RAF) to assemble an aircraft to flee the farm. All the chickens, with help from the rats, secretly assemble the required parts for the plane from their coops while racing against Mr. Tweedy's repairs. While travelling the countryside, Rocky sees a billboard for Mrs. Tweedy's Chicken Pies and is inspired to go back to help. With the machine now fixed, Mrs. Tweedy insists that Mr. Tweedy gathers all the chickens, but the chickens are ready to escape. They knock Mr. Tweedy out and tie him up long enough to complete the assembly of their plane. As the plane approaches the take-off ramp, Mr Tweedy is able to knock over the ramp before being knocked out; Ginger races to reset the ramp, but a now-alerted Mrs Tweedy attacks her. Mrs Tweedy is subdued by Rocky, who leaves with Ginger by holding onto the runway lights, which have been snagged by the departing plane. Whilst taking off, Mrs. Tweedy chases them down and catches onto a Christmas light strand snagged in the wheels. Mrs. Tweedy climbs the strand, intent on chopping Ginger's head off, while Ginger races to sever the strand. Ginger manages to trick Mrs. Tweedy into cutting the strand with her hatchet, sending her straight into the safety valve of the pie machine and plugging it, causing the machine to build pressure in its gravy line and explode, destroying the machine and the barn. Mr Tweedy reminds her of his warnings that the chickens were organized and, now fed up with his wife's aggressive and abusive behaviour towards him, pushes the barn door down on top of her. The chickens celebrate their victory after defeating the Tweedys while Ginger and Rocky kiss each other. Later, as the film concludes, the chickens have found a quiet island, which they call Chikin Sanctuary, where they can enjoy their freedom and raise their chicks, while Ginger and Rocky have developed a romantic relationship. Nick and Fetcher decide to start their own chicken farm for eggs but disagree on whether the chicken or the egg came first.
Cast and Characters[]
- Julia Sawalha as Ginger
- Mel Gibson as Rocky
- Miranda Richardson as Mrs. Tweedy
- Tony Haygarth as Mr. Tweedy
- Benjamin Whitrow as Fowler
- Timothy Spall as Nick
- Phil Daniels as Fetcher
- Jane Horrocks as Babs
- Imelda Staunton as Bunty
- Lynn Ferguson as Mac
- John Sharian as The Circus Man
- Debi Derryberry as Edwina
- Frank Welker as Dogs
- Jo Allen, Bob Bergen, Lisa Kay, Laura Strachan and Frank Welker as Chickens
Other Characters[]
Production[]
Chicken Run was Aardman Animations' first feature-length production, which would be executively produced by Jake Eberts.
Nick Park and Peter Lord, who run Aardman, directed the film, while Karey Kirkpatrick scripted the film with additional input from Mark Burton and John O'Farrell.
Chicken Run was first conceived in 1995 by Aardman's co-founder Peter Lord and Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park. the idea for the film was a parody of the 1963 epic war film The Great Escape, which Park pitched to Steven Spielberg after going to a chicken restaurant. Spielberg found the idea funny, as he loved The Great Escape, and used to have 300 chickens.
Pathé agreed to finance Chicken Run in 1996 putting their finances into Script Development and Model Design.
DreamWorks Pictures officially came on board in 1997.
DreamWorks beat out studios like Disney, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. (each of whom had offered a film deal to Aardman prior to the film's production, Aardman refused their offers as they wanted to buy the company, which Aardman was not comfortable with) and largely won due to the perseverance of DreamWorks' co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg; as a company they were eager to make their presence felt in the animation market in an attempt to compete with Disney's dominance of the field. Katzenberg explained that he had
DreamWorks secured their first animated feature with the film, and they distributed the film outside Europe to countries such as the United States and Australia, while Pathé distributed the film within Europe to countries such as the United Kingdom. The two studios also co-financed the film.
DreamWorks also retains rights to worldwide merchandising.
During the production of the film, thirty sets were used with eighty animators working along with one-hundred and eighty people working overall.
Despite this, one minute of film was completed with each week of filming
Sequel[]
A sequel to Chicken Run was announced on April 26, 2018, Aardman Animations will reunite with Pathé and StudioCanal for the sequel though unlike the first film, DreamWorks Animation will have no involvement as they had ended their partnership with Aardman after the release of Flushed Away in 2006. Sam Fell is attached to direct, with Paul Kewley producing. The original Chicken Run writers Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell will return for the sequel, though no story information has been revealed. Aardman co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton will be the executive producers.
Trivia[]
- Chicken Run received positive reviews from critics, and grossed over $224 million, becoming the highest-grossing stop motion animated film ever.
- This was a reference to the common misconception that Mel Gibson (Rocky's voice actor) was Australian when in fact he was American with Australian permanent residence.
- In an early script of Chicken Run:
- There was to be a scene inside the pie machine where Rocky saw a skeleton of a dead chicken and quipped "They bought a used machine! How cheap is that?".
- Initially, when it was revealed that Rocky never could fly because he was fired out of a cannon, there was to be a flashback that showed Rocky being stuffed into a cannon at the circus. However, the producers decided to cut this out of the movie so that they could shorten it and came up with the idea of Rocky's poster being torn in half and then pieced back together later on.
- Ginger was going to have a little brother named Nobby. He was removed in an attempt to make the film "less cute", but later would serve as inspiration for Molly in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.
- This is the fourth feature film to be released by DreamWorks.