Dom Robinson reviews
Chicken Run This ain't no chick flick!
Distributed by
Cert: Cat.no: P 8990 DVD
Running time: 81 minutes
Year: 2000
Pressing: 2000
Region(s): 2, PAL
Chapters: 24 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English (for the hard of hearing)
Widescreen: 1.85:1
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £19.99
Extras: Theatrical Trailer, Teaser Trailer, "Chicken Impossible" Trailer,
Chicken Run game trailer, Aardman archive, Featurette: "Chickens go in
pies come out", Fowl Play: The Making of Chicken Run, DVD-ROM material,
Directors' Commentary, Audio Description, Animated Menus
Producers:
David Sproxton, Peter Lord and Nick Park
Screenplay:
(from a story by Peter Lord and Nick Park )
Music:
Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell
Cast:
Rocky Rhodes the Rhode Island Red Rooster: Mel Gibson
In a homage, or is that 'rip off', to The Great Escape Chicken Run is the first full-length feature film from Aardman Animations
and sees a whole coop of chickens attempting to escape their confined quarters
with disastrous results.
There's a strict regime down on the chicken farm and if you're not up to
scratch in the egg-producing department, you're, literally, for the chop,
meaning this is probably the only U-certificate film to feature a beheading,
even if it is just off-camera.
Led by Ginger (Julia Sawalha ), they are helped when Rocky Rhodes the Rhode Island
Red Rooster (Mel Gibson ) drops in and agrees to assist once they save him from being
collected by the circus. Time is of the essence as farm owner Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda
Richardson ) has bought a Chicken Pie machine, which instantly does the necessary
and will boost the farm's profits considerably.
The celeb cast also features Julia's AbFab co-star Jane Horrocks as the
dim-witted Babs, plus Phil Daniels and Timothy Spall as two wheeler-dealer
rats, Fetcher and Nick, respectively.
The film contains many cliches, film references - such as Indiana Jones snatching back
his hat in Raiders of the Lost Ark - and quips, such as when Ginger has had enough
of being caught out when trying to escape, she says, "I was in solitary confinement!" "Well, it's nice to get a bit of time to yourself."
I have no complaints with the picture. Presented in an anamorphic 1.85:1 ratio, artifacts
are non-existent and the bold, muddy colours of the chicken far are rendered perfectly.
The average bitrate is a brilliant 7.8Mb/s, regularly peaking over 9Mb/s.
There's a few choice split-surround moments including some escape attempts and the time
when Rocky and Ginger find themselves inside an oven. Aside from those, the soundtrack is
well-used, but not as often as I expected. The sound is available in both Dolby Digital 5.1
and DTS 5.1. The Americans beat us here with Dolby Digital 6.1 EX sound and DTS 6.1 ES
for the Region 1 DVD.
Extras : "Chicken Impossible" trailer and you can guess what that apes,
plus one for the computer game. The Aardman archive contains clips from many of
Aardman Animations' features including the Wallace and Gromit trilogy.
The featurette, "Chickens go in, pies come out" , runs for 15 minutes and concentrates
of the pie machine, while Fowl Play: The Making of Chicken Run , takes a look at
every aspect of the movie, mixing film clips with cast and crew interviews. The
DVD-ROM material included has scores more background information about the film and
even gives you a chance to play director by moving clips around on your PC to suit yourself.
Finally, we are graced with a feature-length Directors' Commentary and an
Audio Descriptive track that also runs for the entire length and is narrated by
Only Fools and Horses ' Gwyneth Strong .
There are 24 chapters over the 81 minute film which is excellent and the subtitles are
in English for the hard of hearing. All the menus have animation and music within.
The animation is first rate, although the whole is a bit less than the sum of its parts
due to moments where the film slows down the pace. It's still enjoyable fun for the whole
family and Pathe have done a superb job with all the extras.
FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
Visit the official
Chicken Run
The following is a list of all the Aardman Animation DVDs reviewed online to date :
2000 Aardman Classics Chicken Run
[Up to the top of this page]
Amazon.co.uk Widgets
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
