…………………………………………………

Chicken Little Movie Review

Chicken Little is a 2005 animated science fiction comedy film which is the 46th Disney animated feature and easily their worst one.

………………………………………………….

“Hold your horses, here! And horses, hold your breath“

………………………………………………….

………………………………………………….

Yes, I have to say that it is easily their worst film ever made. ‘Home on the Range’ is the only one that comes close. These two came at the same time and were the lowest point that Disney hit. It isn’t a horrible movie as it has its strengths (more on that later), but there is no denying the sheer unoriginality of its plot and many terrible choices in its production.

Let’s start with the story. Chicken Little never has any identity and it struggles because it never decides what movie it wants to be. At first it is a faithful adaptation of its source, then it veers to tired baseball drama and afterwards it goes to full extraterrestrial science fiction. There are a couple of movies you have here and neither of them are good.

I myself disliked the baseball one the most as I am not a fan of sports and especially of this stupid sport so those scenes bored me. They weren’t terrible, but were just too typical in execution and, not to mention, implausible. As for its science fiction elements, I wasn’t a fan of them either. The film is basically a rehash of ‘The War of the Worlds’ and maybe even the 2005 version as they were released in the same year. The aliens, the ship, everything reminded me of that with a touch of ‘Signs’ added. DreamWorks’ ‘Home’ is similar in plot and especially in ending, but frankly a better, more enjoyable film.

………………………………………………….

………………………………………………….

As I said above, the film isn’t devoid of good things and certainly the family drama is quite solid and it provides a couple of moving moments with their last conversation and embrace being quite touching. This is the heart of the entire film and the only aspect that provides any sort of emotion or storytelling.

Certainly the relationship between Chicken Little and Ace is quite strong and the movie should have focused on them even more. Ace is a very likable character, but unfortunately Chicken Little is not. He is obnoxious at times and just not a lovable protagonist as the story needed. That mostly stems from Zach Braff’s annoying performance and voice. The voice casting in this film is truly horrible and of the worst kind.

The film has some good characters such as Ace and Little’s team is pretty solid with a fine dynamic between them. Runt of the Litter is your typical nervous sidekick, Abby as this ugly duckling and love interest is okay, but forgettable and all of the other kids and “villains” are typical and not at all memorable. Fish Out of Water is the most lovable character here as his design is interesting and he has some good moments here.

………………………………………………….

………………………………………………….

Chicken Little’s animation is very mediocre and one of Disney’s first. So basically Disney struggled at the box office and before they acquired Pixar and before John Lasseter came to the studio, they decided to finally go to computer animation as their last resort and the results are beyond lackluster.

This is obviously a first attempt as the character designs are all over the place and not the greatest and the animation is unpolished, choppy and at times frankly very dated. It just feels incredibly dated and weak when compared to other films of its time such as ‘The Incredibles’. But it is better than ‘Madagascar’s animation, that’s for sure. I just wish that Pixar lent them a hand at this production as they were clearly not ready. And it truly is a shame that we got only two hand-drawn Disney flicks after this one. It breaks my heart.

The soundtrack is, well, horrible. I have to say that the soundtrack is the worst aspect of this movie and the one that entirely ruins it to no possible redemption. That is because it isn’t original and it is filled with an incredible amount of forced, frustrating pop culture references and pop music at just the worst times when the movie needed to be slower and calmer. I just hated the use of the songs here, really despised them.

………………………………………………….

………………………………………………….

Chicken Little is thus very weakly paced and the structure is just bad. The score, other than those reused songs, has its moments and is okay, but I wished for original songs or no songs at all. It has a very short running time and thus the use of those songs is entirely redundant. The dialogue is not great and the film’s humor is also pretty subpar. It truly is Disney’s worst film, but having in mind that Disney never made horrible and truly bad movies, surely this one isn’t bad as well and is just very mediocre.

Disney never made a truly bad, horrible movie and surely Chicken Little has its moments, some good characters and the family drama is moving, but it is still a very mediocre affair that is filled with annoying pop music, just terrible voice casting, quite subpar CGI animation as it is their first computer animated effort and an unoriginal plot that lacks identity and feels like two different movies put together. It truly is Disney’s worst film ever.

My Rating – 2.5

………………………………………………….