Review of Chicken Little (2005) by Jason V — 25 Nov 2011

Chicken Little tries entirely too hard to emulate what makes both Pixar and DreamWorks animated pictures successful: pop culture references tying into the overall story. There are a plethora of pop songs-both new and old-on display, though most are terribly obvious (such as "It's the End of the World as We Know It" when an alien invasion begins).

The characters are similarly obvious, stereotypes all. The misunderstood youngster. The adults who don't listen. The bullies. The over confident ones. And so on. The animation is just fine, as it usually is, even if the flashy pyrotechnics are unable to make the tired story go down easier.

Despite all that, I will give the film a point or two for trying to do something with the chicken little story to bring it into the modern age. I'm not wild about the War of the Worlds homage at the end or the other million cliches packed into the sub-90 minute film, however.