Image © Disney
“Chicken Little” (2005), Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 46th animated motion picture. After the unfortunate “the sky is falling” incident, Chicken Little tries to make amends and restore his reputation. He starts to make progress until he finds out that maybe the sky really did fall after all… (I won’t spoil it for you in case you haven’t seen the movie.) While the film has a few shortcomings, I find this wacky comedy to be quite clever and funny. I love the “squash and stretch” of the characters, a 2D animation staple that the animators were able to achieve using 3D computer animation tools and techniques. The vocal cast is great, too. Zach Braff is Chicken Little, Joan Cusack is the Ugly Duckling (aka Abby Mallard), Don Knotts is Turkey Lurkey, Amy Sedaris is Foxy Loxy and Steve Zahn is Runt of the Litter (my favorite).
The film was Disney’s first full-length animated feature done entirely using 3D computer animation and was the start of a new slate of 3D computer animated films from the Disney Studios. “Chicken Little” also represents a tumultuous time at the Walt Disney Company which is really hard to separate from the film (a summary written in 2005 is here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/michael-eisner-says-disneys-sky-isnt-falling?pagenumber=1). Thankfully, as mentioned in my last blog entry, those days are over and, as Chicken Little says, “Today is a new day.”
Stanford Clark 