Chicken Run

2000 Comedy

Aardman Animations, the British clay-animation studio that created a cult sensation (and won three Academy awards) with its short subjects featuring Wallace and Gromit, presents its first feature film, a mixture of comedy and adventure. Mrs. Tweedy (voice of Miranda Richardson) operates a chicken farm, where most of the birds have resigned themselves to a short and uneventful life of producing eggs and ending up as the main course of someone's Sunday dinner. But when Rocky (voice of Mel Gibson), a rooster from America, arrives on the farm, things begin to change. Rocky soon finds romance with a hen named Ginger (voice of Julia Sawalha) who longs for a better life and has been trying to find a way out of the farm for some time; together they devise a plan to escape to freedom. However, Rocky and Ginger soon find themselves racing against the clock when Mrs. Tweedy decides it's time to turn the entire flock into chicken pies. Nick Park, director of the Wallace and Gromit shorts, co-directed Chicken Run with Peter Lord, who produced several Aardman projects and created animation for the TV series Pee-Wee's Playhouse. The voice cast also includes Jane Horrocks, Phil Daniels, and Timothy Spall. more..

Director: Nick Park

Starring: Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks, Lynn Ferguson

Reviews

  • It will be the most talked-about comedy of summer.

    Peter Stack - The San Francisco Chronicle

    19 January 2013

  • The visual comedy is brilliant.

    Desson Thomson - The Washington Post

    19 January 2013

  • A delightful, perceptive, funny, detail-perfect fable.

    Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly

    19 January 2013

  • Doesn't try to cram messages of uplift down its audience's gullet. It's a great eggscape from banality.

    A.O. Scott - The New York Times

    19 January 2013

  • Never loses its priceless stamp of individuality. Reduced to its essence, this is a joke told by a person, not a corporation--and that makes all the difference.

    Kenneth Turan - Los Angeles Times

    19 January 2013

Awards

  • Top Box Office Films

    ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards (2001)

  • Best Fantasy Film

    Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (2001)

     
  • Best Foreign Feature Film (Årets utenlandske spillefilm)

    Amanda Awards, Norway (2001)

     
  • Feature Film

    Angel Awards (2001)

     
  • Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature

    Annie Awards (2000)