Review of Chicken Run (2000) by Ben L — 24 Apr 2012

I'm going to catch heat from my friends for this rating, I just know it. The problem is I love the visuals. I see the remarkable amount of work that went into making this film. Unfortunately I feel like they spent so much time and effort on the look of the film, and didn't focus enough on the script. It almost feels like they pulled a classic script out of the vault, had someone offer some tweaks, and then roll into production.

I'm charmed by all the British voice talent, but I struggled to see why Mel Gibson was selected as the male lead. He added nothing to the film, and could easily have been replaced with another Brit. The movie does have some funny lines, but they seem few and far between. I chuckle at the little references to Star Trek, and other classic films, but they aren't laugh-out-loud funny.

It's strange but, at an hour and a half this movie almost seems too long. They just don't have a strong enough story to keep the audience interested throughout. Ironically the Wallace & Gromit shorts offer more laughs and overall entertainment than Chicken Run manages to provide, and they do it in one-third the time. It's sad because the visuals are extraordinary and I know there was years of work put into this film, but they might have been better spent making 3 short movies instead of this 1 long one.