Chicken Run

Chicken Run is a 2000 stop-motion animation film made by the Aardman Animations studios (which produced the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films).

Background

Chicken Run tells the humorous story of a band of chickens who seek escape from their coop before their owners, the unambitious yet inconveniently oafish and suspicious egg farmer Mr. Tweedy and his greedy, overbearing wife, make them all into chicken pies. The film is an homage to the World War II prison films of the 1950s and 1960s (particularly The Great Escape, Stalag 17, and The Birdmen), but it alludes to numerous other films, including Braveheart, the Indiana Jones films, and Star Trek. (Stalag 17 and the latter 3 films or film series were all released by Paramount Pictures, currently sister studio to DreamWorks after Viacom bought the latter in 2005.)

The star roles in the movie are those of Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha), a hen who has absolute faith that the chickens can fly out of the coop if only they train hard enough, and Rocky Rhodes (voiced by Mel Gibson), a rooster whom Ginger believes can fly, but who keeps the secret of his flightlessness from her for much of the film. Mrs. Tweedy (voiced by Miranda Richardson) is the nefarious, grasping farm wife whose exasperation at low profits from egg sales leads her to reinvent her farm as a chicken pie factory, while her husband does all he can to prevent the chickens from (as he rightly believes they are) escaping.

The film proved a success with both children and adults, and showed that Peter Lord and Nick Park had the ability to handle the technical and writing challenges posed by a feature film, and thereby serving as a test bed for the 2005 movie outing for Wallace and Gromit, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Summary

The movie opens in a POW camp-like chicken farm in England. The farmer, Mr. Tweedy, is on his watch with his dogs checking the locks, while a small group of chickens stealthily attempt to escape from the enclosure. Unfortunately, Tweedy catches on and a lone chicken, Ginger - the ringleader - is captured and thrown in a coal bin, Tweedy snarling that "No chicken escapes from Tweedy's farm!"

The farm is run by Malica Tweedy and her suspicious hen-pecked husband. Day and night pass by and the farmer takes the eggs while his nefarious wife checks progress. All the while, Ginger makes new plans to escape which all end in failure (The opening credits are made of subsequent failed escape attempts). A new day begins and all the chickens stand for roll call while Fowler, an elderly rooster, babbles on about "his old RAF days". The wife, Mrs. Tweedy, checks all the chickens, marking down the eggs they have laid. One chicken, Edwina, hasn't laid any in a week and is taken inside a shed. Ginger sneaks to see what happens, as Mrs. Tweedy swings up an axe and decapitates Edwina -- but the viewers see this only as shadows.

Ginger prepares a new plan to go over the fence, calling in two rats, Nick and Fetcher, to sneak in new stuff. Inside the house, the humans have eaten Edwina and Mrs. Tweedy angrily looks over the amount of eggs and wants a new way to make money. An ad catches her eye about a giant pie machine, with a small cartoon character shouting "I'M RICH!". Mr. Tweedy is keeping watch outside and suspects the chickens' plot, but Mrs. Tweedy tells him that all of this ridiculous notion of escaping chickens is all in his head. The idea about going over the fence doesn't go well with the other chickens, but Ginger reminds them about Edwina.

Outside, a huge blast is heard, a rooster flies over the fence, and crash lands inside the camp. The chickens eagerly hide him and he introduces himself as Rocky Rhodes, a "lone free ranger" from America. (This is a double pun on The Lone Ranger and free range, a method of farming husbandry.) Then Ginger asks him if he can teach them how to fly, but Rocky isn't so thrilled at the idea. Eventually, he reconciles when he sees the circus has come back to take him.

The next day, training begins very bizarrely as Rocky seems to have no idea what he's doing. Eventually the day ends without a single chicken making it off the ground. A huge "Poultry Products" truck appears and unloads vast amounts of equipment. Mrs. Tweedy explains the idea to her husband and the farm will now officially become a full automated factory.

Meanwhile, Mac (a Scottish chicken, who is a bit of an egghead genius) looks over her notes and concludes that chickens simply weren't built for flying. Ginger confronts Rocky about their poor progress and Mac deduces that they require thrust. Ginger warns Rocky that if they do not see progress, the deal is off and they will reveal his presence to the farmers.

The next morning, Rocky gets a cable wire and prepares to sling-shot the chickens over the fence, but that doesn't work out. Roll call begins and Babs (a knitting-obsessed chicken) hasn't laid any eggs, focusing more on the flying. The other chickens realize they haven't either. Instead of chopping Babs, Mrs. Tweedy measures her waistline and orders Mr. Tweedy to double their food rations. Ginger stops them from eating and tells them that the farmers are deliberately fattening them up to kill them all in one stroke. To help out for once, Rocky manages to bring them a radio to cheer them up, which leaves the entire coop dancing to the song "Flip, Flop and Fly". Rocky's bandages fall off, revealing that his injured wing has healed, and Ginger eagerly announces that he can finally show them how to fly tomorrow. But before he can tell her he can't really fly, the power goes out. Outside, the pie machine has completed construction and Mr. Tweedy brings Ginger in as the first victim. Rocky breaks into the barn and rescues her, surviving the innards of the machine and sabotaging it. Fowler gives him an RAF medal and apologizes for doubting him. Both Ginger and Rocky share a tender moment on the roof, overlooking the fields.

The following morning, all the chickens eagerly await the flying demonstration. Ginger goes to wake Rocky, but he's gone, leaving his RAF medal. She finds a torn piece of Rocky's promotional poster and slowly adds it, revealing her horror to everyone. Completed, the poster shows Rocky being shot out of a cannon; Rocky could never fly at all.

Their plans shot and their hopes shattered, Ginger gives up and denies any chance of escaping. The whole farm starts fighting. Ginger finally asks Fowler what the RAF is. Fowler tells them it is the "Royal Air Force" and shows them pictures of the airplane he flew in. Filled with hope again, the chickens still plan to fly, but now by building the huge plane. Even the rats help out as they pull apart their own huts to build the plane, racing against Mr. Tweedy who is rapidly fixing the machine. Rocky is once again on the open road, but stops when he sees a promotional advertisement for "Mrs. Tweedy's Homemade Chicken Pies" (She believes "Mrs." is a woman's touch and makes the public feel comfortable). He thinks about the chickens, and realizes the error of his ways.

In the end, the chickens finish the plane just as Mr. Tweedy finishes fixing the machine. They attack and tie him under one of the houses and finish construction. Fowler, as pilot, starts up the plane as all the chickens pedal to start the string engines. Mrs. Tweedy attacks Ginger and Rocky returns at the last moment to help out. The plane takes off and all the chickens cheer. Mrs. Tweedy manages to grab on, and slowly begins climbing up the rope of Christmas lights, holding an axe in her mouth. Ginger tries to cut the rope with Babs' tiny pair of scissors, while Rocky, Nick and Fetcher throw eggs at Mrs. Tweedy. Mrs. Tweedy, covered in egg, strikes at Ginger with her axe, and for one moment appears to have decapitated her. Ginger then slowly raises her head to reveal the truth: the blow just missed, and has instead severed the rope. Then, waving an ironic goodbye, Ginger lets go of the other half and Mrs. Tweedy falls right into the pie machine, which explodes, covering Mrs. Tweedy in gooey gravy and destroying the barn. As Mr. Tweedy looks upon the wreckage, he reminds her "I told you they was organized," as the Barnhouse door falls down on her.

At long last, the chickens have reached peace in their own small haven. Mac gives some baby chickens some lessons while Fowler tells them some stories. There are several chicks and the rats are still trying to make an egg business.

Production Notes

• Chicken Run was the first feature film in Europe to use the Digital Intermediate process, Digitally storing and manipulating every frame of the film before recording back to film.
• In early versions of the movie, Ginger had a little brother named Nobby, but the idea was dropped in order to make the film less cute.
• The reason all the chickens are wearing scarves is to hide the join between the head and the body. The scarves hide the 'seam' which is present because the bodies of the chickens are articulated steel frames coated in silicon rubber while the heads are plasticine.

One of the projects was coming by Lyon Virgo.

References to Popular Culture

• Edwina, the chicken who is killed by the Tweedies at the beginning of the film, is a reference to politician Edwina Currie. Currie was a Junior Health Minister under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher when, in 1988, she issued a warning about salmonella in eggs. This caused a collapse in the British egg market and Currie was forced to resign (or "get the chop" as commentators sometimes refer to ministers who have resigned or been sacked from office).
• The sequence in which Rocky and Ginger are trapped inside Mrs. Tweedy's pie-making machine and encounter various mechanical dangers is a parody of the three Indiana Jones films' various cliffhanger dangers and subsequent escapes.
• The promo title featured on posters for the film, "C:R-1", was spoof of the promo title "M:I-2" for the film Mission: Impossible II.
• At the end, the rats discuss about the chicken or the egg.
• During the plane sequence, the scottish chicken Mac shouts a few quotes from Scotty of Star Trek: The Original Series (who was also Scottish), such as "I cannot work miracles cap'n; I'm giving her all she's got!" and "A 'cling-on' (Klingon) cap'n, and the engines can't take it!"

Historical References

• Fowler repeatedly refers to his years as a member of the No. 644 Squadron RAF. This was a real squadron; it was formed on February 23, 1944, several months before D-Day. 644 squadron was based at RAF Tarrant Rushton airfield in Dorset^[1], and exclusively flew Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers. The 644's primary missions were "special operations" over occupied Europe, such as making supply drops to various resistance movements, and towing troop transport gliders.^[2]
• The propeller of the escape plane is made of road signs sharing names with famous RAF bombers of WWII - Stirling Lane, Lancaster Avenue and Blenheim Place. Further, the model aeroplane is of a moderately successful RAF bomber of the early war period, the Whitley.

See also

• Nick Park
• Aardman Animations
• Wallace and Gromit
• List of animated feature-length films
• List of stop-motion films
• The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers, a direct-to-video animated film with a parody title of the song Flip, Flop, and Fly

References

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