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Chicken Run

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Chicken Run
Official Logo
Directed by
Screenplay byKarey Kirkpatrick
Story by
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
  • Dave Alex Riddett
  • Tristan Oliver
  • Frank Passingham
Edited byMark Solomon
Music by
Production
company
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 23 June 2000 (2000-06-23) (United States)
  • 30 June 2000 (2000-06-30) (United Kingdom)
Running time
84 minutes[5]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget$42–45 million[5]
Box office$228 million[5]

Chicken Run is a 2000 stop motion animated adventure comedy movie[8] directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park and written by Karey Kirkpatrick from an original story by Lord and Park, partly inspired by the 1963 film The Great Escape.[9][10] Produced by Aardman Features in partnership with Pathé and DreamWorks Animation,[1][11] it is Aardman's first feature-length film. The film stars the voices of Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Tony Haygarth, Miranda Richardson, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, and Benjamin Whitrow. Set in the countryside of Yorkshire, the film centres on a group of British anthropomorphic chickens in an egg farm who see an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes as their only hope to escape the farm when their owners want to turn them into chicken pies.

Chicken Run was released in the United States on 23 June 2000 and in the United Kingdom on 30 June 2000. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $228 million and becoming the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film in history. At the time, this film was DreamWorks Animation's most successful release, but this was overtaken by Shrek the following year.[12]

A sequel, titled Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, was released on Netflix on 15 December 2023.[13][14]

Plot

[change | change source]

The film tells the story of a rebellious chicken named Ginger who stubbornly tries to break out of a prison camp-like chicken farm with all the chickens. However, this is repeatedly prevented by the owners of the farm, Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy.

One day, the American rooster Rocky ends up in the chicken farm, and Ginger draws new hope that he can finally escape. Due to a misunderstanding, she thinks Rocky can fly and teach the other chickens to do so. Rocky does not clear up the misunderstanding, but enjoys his life with the hens. But the undertaking becomes all the more urgent when Mrs. Tweedy orders a "chicken pie machine" and it is no longer just about the chickens' daily egg quota, but about the chickens themselves. Ginger is supposed to "test" the machine as a guinea pig, but luckily she is saved by Rocky.

The next day, Ginger finds out that Rocky has left. A poster shows that Rocky was actually just a "stunt rooster" who was fired from a cannon and does not have the ability to fly. As a result, Ginger and the chickens fall into a depression. The older rooster Fowler tells the chickens about his time as a mascot for the Royal Air Force, which gives Ginger the idea of building a bird-like, pedal-powered aeroplane.

Mrs. Tweedy demands that her husband collect all the chickens in order to put them in the machine he has repaired. When Mr. Tweedy discovers the chickens, he is left by surprise and tied up. The chickens then finish the plane and try to fly over a fence with it. Meanwhile, after looking at a billboard advertising Mrs. Tweedy's chicken pies, Rocky feels remorseful and rejoins the chickens that manage to escape from the farm. But Mrs. Tweedy holds on to a Christmas light chain attached to the plane. She wants to kill Ginger for good. However, she is able to avoid the axe, so Mrs. Tweedy cuts the string of lights instead. It then falls down and gets stuck in the safety valve of the chicken pie machine. Due to the pressure that builds up, the machine explodes, destroying a large part of the farm. Mr. Tweedy, who has freed himself in the meantime, criticises his wife for not listening to him. When Mrs. Tweedy wants to yell at him, he drops a door on her.

The chickens continued their flight until they reached an island. This is where a life in freedom begins for them. Ginger and Rocky have grown closer and enter into a relationship with each other.

References

[change | change source]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Chicken Run (2000)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Archived from the original on 17 August 2018. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  2. ↑ Chicken Run. The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  3. ↑ Cheney, Alexandra (July 29, 2014). "DreamWorks Animation Q2 Earnings Fall Short of Estimates, SEC Investigation Revealed". Variety. Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  4. 1 2 Cox, Dan (3 December 1997). "D'Works' feat of clay". Variety. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Chicken Run". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on 27 February 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  6. ↑ Goodridge, Mike (29 March 2000). "Canal Plus joins Paramount on Travolta comedy". Screen International. Retrieved 4 December 2023. Through C+P, its joint acquisition venture with Pathe, it also has a deal with Mandalay Entertainment for rights in France and the UK to 12 films kicking off with Sleepy Hollow as well as European rights to animated movie Chicken Run, which was co-financed with DreamWorks SKG.
  7. 1 2 "Chicken Run (2000)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 10 March 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  8. ↑ Corliss, Richard (4 December 2000). "Run, Chicken Run!". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  9. ↑ McCarthy, Todd (12 June 2000). "Review: 'Chicken Run'". Variety. Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  10. ↑ "Chat with Nick Park and Peter Lord". BBC. 28 October 2014. Archived from the original on 16 December 2019.
  11. ↑ "'Chicken' Recipe Simply Divine / Action comedy blends great story, animation". 21 June 2000. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  12. ↑ "The Longer View: British animation". BBC Timelines. BBC. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  13. ↑ Blair, Elizabeth (13 December 2023). "It took 23 years, but a 'Chicken Run' sequel has finally hatched". NPR.
  14. ↑ "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget to receive world premiere at 67th BFI London Film Festival". BFI. 23 August 2023. Retrieved 26 August 2023.


  1. ↑ In July 2014, the film's distribution rights were purchased by DreamWorks Animation from Paramount Pictures (owners of the pre-2005 DreamWorks Pictures catalog)[3] and transferred to 20th Century Fox before reverting to Universal Pictures in 2018.
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