Day 46: Chicken Little

Chicken Little (2005)

Starring: Zack Braff, Joan Cusack, Dan Molina, Steve Zahn, Amy Sedaris, Mark Walton, Garry Marshall, Don Knotts, Sean Elmore,Matthew Michael Joston, Evan Dunn, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, Mark Dindal, Patrick Stewart, Wallace Shawn, Patrick Warburton, Adam West, Harry Shearer

Songs: A score by John Debney plus a pop soundtrack

Chicken Little is the forty-sixth Disney animated film, loosely based on the fable of the same name.  It tells of a young chicken who must save his town from an alien invasion.  

This movie began development in 2001.  The original story was to be about a girl who wanted to become more brave, but during production it was reworked to being about the story we see in the finished version.  This is the first fully CGI film made solely by Disney.  At the time the studio was in negotiations with Pixar to determine each company's individual role in the production and release of future CGI animated films.  After this film, the two companies went forward together, and in 2006 Disney purchased Pixar outright, making Pixar's John Lasseter the chief creative officer of animation.  This movie was fairly successful in the box office though largely a critical failure.

Interesting to note is the fact that Disney had told this story before in a short from 1943.  That short, however, is much heavier and definitely a product on World War II.

So, this movie.  I have to admit this movie was a slog to get through.  Every attempt at humor falls flat, and I found myself groaning more than smiling or laughing.  It felt like it was aimed at a very young audience, and like I said about Home on the Range, these movies should not be aimed at young children.  They should be aimed at a family audience.  What I mean when I say that is that a Disney movie should be appropriate to show to a child or a sensitive adult, but it should have appeal for people of all ages.  This, for me, missed that.  This is probably one of the worst, if not the very worst, film in this canon.

What I Liked: Hm... well... the Adam West cameo was nice.

What I Disliked: Pretty much all the characters are annoying, and the humor is... lacking.  Gross-out and toilet humor, fat jokes, and jokes at the expense of the awkward "ugly duckling" Abby are eye roll worthy at best.

Should You Watch This Movie: Skip it.