Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40274 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-26
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Amazon.com
There were a lot of disappointments in the 2000 summer movie season, but Chicken Run wasn't one of them. Made by Aardman Animations, which produced the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit shorts, this is a dazzling stop-motion animation film that is both deftly funny and surprisingly touching. The concept is simple: The Great Escape--with chickens. But directors Peter Lord and Nick Park take it much further than that (and remember: there's a whole generation out there that has no idea who Steve McQueen is). Julia Sawalha voices Ginger, a plucky English hen who has been trying to escape from Tweedy's chicken farm, where the vicious Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) fries up any chicken who doesn't produce enough eggs. When egg profits slump, Mrs. Tweedy decides to turn her farm into a chicken-pie factory, giving new urgency to Ginger's plan. Enter Rocky the Flying Rooster (Mel Gibson), a brash American who has escaped from a circus and promises to teach the chickens to fly to safety. The film is filled with innumerable visual touches and the animation has a tactile quality that makes you want to reach out and touch these funny fowl. Above all, it's played with intelligence, wit, and heart--a rare combination in any film. While Chicken Run is being marketed to a youth audience, it truly is a family film that operates on both a child and an adult level. It would be a shame if grownups skipped it because they thought it was strictly for kids. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Chicken FUN!
"Chicken Run" (the latest from Aardman Studios, the makers of the 'Wallace and Gromit' films) is simply the most delightful, visually amazing, and FUN animated movie since Disney's "The Lion King." Other studios (notably Warner Brothers) have tried to take a bite out of Disney's pie-share of the kid-movie market, but Aardman and Dreamworks have done it best in this charming, hilarious, and edge-of-your-seat thrilling animated fantasy about a group of hens trying to break out of a chicken farm. Running the farm with an evil eye and an iron ax are the villainous Mrs. Tweedie and her henpecked (literally) husband, who's sure those chickens are plotting escape. The voices are perfect, from Julia Sawalha and Joan Horrocks from "Absolutely Fabulous" as chickens to Mel Gibson as the "flying" rooster Rocky. I want to recommend that every parent take their kids to see this one: unlike many other recent cartoons, this one is completely suitable for all but the very youngest children (there's some tense moments in a chase at the end, and a little threatening to the chickens with an ax), but even better, this will delight and amuse the adults with its clever animation, perfect voice-casting, witty visual allusions to famous movies like "The Great Escape," "The Bridge over the River Kwai," and "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and Indiana Jones-type thrills that range from a chase inside an automatic chicken pie-making machine to a dramatic and climatic escape that is reminiscent of, but even improves on, the high-energy chase sequences of Aardman's "Wallace and Gromit" films. The moral lessons (you can succeed better with teamwork; stand by your friends) are pointed but gentle, without hitting kids over the head. I can't recommend this one highly enough, folks, whatever age you are. And if you head out of the theater and go eat a chicken pot pie, you have a much, much, harder heart than mine!

An EGG-cellent EGG-scape Animation
Well, what an absolute joy and surprise this movie turned out to be. I was dumb-founded from start to finish as to how the animators actually created this magical stop-motion picture. In the past three days I have watched this disc over and over again, not tiring of it at all. The story (ala "Stalag 17" and "The Great Escape") is simple yet effective. A group of English hens constantly plot and scheme to escape from their chicken farm, run by the tyrannical Mrs Tweedy (the voice of Miranda Richardson), before they are turned into chicken pies. Their only hope comes in the shape of a cocky, plucky American rooster named Rocky Roads (Mel Gibson in his best performance to date). "Chicken Run" is filled with great adult one-liners and jokes and is packed with every war/escape movie cliche know to this genre. It will also appeal to the little ones. The disc is great value. The DTS soundtrack is pretty awesome and really kicks into power when the chicken pie oven blasts into action....WOW! The video transfer is crystal clear, which adds an extra dimension to the clay models. The extras are fun also. The "Chicken Panic" button is very cute, "The Making Of" docos (there are two) are VERY interesting and informative, and there is great information about the movie hidden throughout the menus....you have to find them! The highlight of the disc is the voice of Jane Horrocks ("Little Voice" and Bubble from "Ab Fab") who steals the show as Babs the dumb hen! She's hysterical. Make sure you buy this disc for your DVD library. You won't be disappointed! If this movie doesn't win an Oscar at next year's Academy Awards....I'll give up poultry for life!

Hogan's Heroes Meets The Great Escape !!
Poultry in motion ! What a great movie, there's more entertainment in the opening credits than most movies have in total.

I was totally impressed by the entire movie. The characters are fanastic, the plot is really funny and the stop film animation is superb.

Ginger keeps plotting to escape the Tweedy's egg farm. Mishap after mishap mirror Hogan's Heroes. There's even the coal box outside the Tweedy's where Ginger spends her time in the "cooler" after each failed escape attempt.

Rocky the 'flying' Rooster arrives to "save the day". That's as much as I'll say about the plot. EGGselent family entertainment!

The extras are pretty cool too! Truly an EGGsquisite dvd.