A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Chicken Run

Date Viewed: 6/17/00

Details:

Voice talents:

Julia Sawalha (Ginger)

Mel Gibson (Rocky)

Miranda Richardson (Mrs Tweedy)

Directed & produced: Peter Lord & Nick Parks

Score: +

The Review:Hoorah for wacky characters and great claymation effects! It's been a (much too) long wait for the next episode from Nick Parks, following on his highly successful Wallace & Gromit series -- A Grand Day Out, 1990; The Wrong Trousers, 1993; and A Close Shave, 1995. Chicken Run is classic Parks -- it has the same bizarre English country-folk (this time trying to run a chicken farm), the same approach to critters (chickens, instead of dogs, penguins or sheep) that are generally smarter than the people, and is peppered with tons of throw-away "in jokes" (I like the number on the side of Ginger's hut!). Think of this as a restaging of Stalag 17, with the great escape from the confines of a barbed- wire enclosed and closely-guarded chicken ranch. As with Wallace & Gromit, the gadgets and machinery are particularly fascinating!

One possible problem accompanying the enlargement from a short subject (30 minutes for the Wallace & Gromit films) to a full-length feature (almost 1-1/2 hours for Chicken Run), is the possible loss of focus or tightness in the plot. I noticed I became a little sleepy in the middle (the dancing scene in particular), indicating either that the movie could have been more tightly edited, or that I shouldn't have eaten that sweet roll just before sitting down. You choose.

If you liked Wallace & Gromit, you should like this. It is clearly targeted at multiple age groups, and both the kids and the adults in the audience clearly enjoyed this romp. You should too.

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