Chicken Little

Chicken Little

Zach Braff
Director: Mark Dindal Cast: Zach Braff
Zach Braff
, Steve Zahn
Steve Zahn
, Joan Cusack
Joan Cusack
Mark Dindal

Overview

An old fable gets a high-tech update in this computer-animated comedy from Walt Disney Pictures. Chicken Little (voice of Zach Braff) is an earnest young fowl living in the town of Oakley Oaks who one day starts a panic when a falling acorn drops on his head, and he warns everyone that the sky has started to collapse. Chicken Little was wrong, of course, much to the embarrassment of his father, Buck Cluck (voice of Garry Marshall), and now the young chicken is struggling to live down the incident. While his best friends Abby Mallard (voice of Joan Cusack), Runt of the Litter (voice of Steve Zahn), and Fish out of Water stand by him, the school's star athlete Foxy Loxy (voice of Amy Sedaris) never passes up an opportunity to make fun of the diminutive chicken. As a result, Chicken Little tends to keep his more recent discoveries to himself, but what's a bird to do when he uncovers pseudo-scientific evidence that suggests the sky really is starting to fall, in large hexagonal chunks? Chicken Little was directed by Mark Dindal, who previously helmed The Emperor's New Groove for Disney.

Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - Donald Liebenson

Crazy, they call him: Ever since Chicken Little (endearingly voiced by Zach Braff of Scrubs) caused Katrina-like mayhem in Oakey Oaks by proclaiming that the sky was falling, he has been an outcast, a laughingstock to his classmates, and a disappointment to his father (Garry Marshall), a former baseball hero. But just as he is redeemed by some miraculous heroics of his own on the diamond, hysteria repeats itself when another piece of celestial debris crashes into his room. Chicken Little, Disney's first computer-animated feature, does not exactly lay an egg. It was an Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Film, and technically and artistically, it dazzles as only a Disney product can. But the story is a scrambled mélange of character types, themes, and comic conceits lifted from other films. Jimmy Neutron fans may recognize Carl Wheezer in Runt of the Litter, the pathetic porcine character voiced by Steve Zahn. And the climactic Hollywoodization of Chicken Little's adventure echoes the drive-in finale of Pee-wee's Big Adventure. With the baseball subplot, a seeking-closure-with dad subplot, and even a War of the Worlds alien invasion, Chicken Little is anything but. This disc hatches the usual Disney goodies, including three interesting discarded alternate openings. One is a remnant of the time when the title character was conceived as a girl. Another, narrated by the late Don Knotts (as Mayor Turkey Lurkey), is a charming, traditional 2-D animated recap of the classic Chicken Little fable.

All Movie Guide

In addition to being the infamous delusional cry of the title character, "The sky is falling" was also what some critics thought was happening at Disney, which would explain Chicken Little. But their grumpiness is unwarranted and a little puzzling. There's nothing in this film to suggest an apocalyptic end to the successful formula Disney has used for decades -- in fact, other than a crisp switch to digital animation, Chicken Little is Disney at its most Disney-like. The film fits right in to Disney's tradition of selecting fairy tales and children's stories that are just ripe for revitalization, yet Chicken Little has a space-age feel as well -- literally, as the plummeting heavens are actually the byproduct of an alien invasion. Not only is this a clever idea, but it opens some terrific visual possibilities for robot gizmos, which the animators eagerly bring to the screen. But Disney is still low-tech in its agenda, as the crux of the conflict involves the poultry pipsqueak trying to prove himself to his widowed father. Zach Braff and Garry Marshall make both halves of this relationship work with labor-of-love performances. The world they inhabit is colorful and speckled with different species, and it really has the feel of coming from a storybook -- like if you got to city limits, the drawing might just end. One welcome change is that Disney -- usually so safe on the sidekick front -- deviates from the familiar with two risky choices: a truly ugly duckling named Abby Mallard (voiced by Joan Cusack), and a not-so-runty Runt of the Litter (voiced by Steve Zahn), each of whom takes a little warming up to. That might be the most legitimate complaint leveled at Chicken Little: the whole thing takes a little warming up to. But once it starts to take off, it's pretty darn agreeable.

Product Details

Release Date: 02/08/2011
UPC: 0786936810851
Original Release: 2005
Rating: G
Source: Walt Disney Video
Region Code: 1AB
Presentation: [Wide Screen]
Sound: [Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound]
Time: 1:21:00
Sales rank: 16,218

Customer Reviews