''Chicken Run'' is a 2000 animated

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by Peter Lord and

Nick Park Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is an English filmmaker and animator who created '' Wallace & Gromit'', '' Creature Comforts'', '' Chicken Run'', '' Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy ...

and written by Karey Kirkpatrick from an original story by Lord and Park. Produced by Pathé and Aardman Features in partnership with

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios, Inc, Universal Stud ...

, it is Aardman's first feature-length film. The film stars the voices of Julia Sawalha,

Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Mel Gibson, multiple accolades, he is known for directing historical films as well for his act ...

, Tony Haygarth, Miranda Richardson, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, and Benjamin Whitrow. Set in the countryside of

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, the plot centres on a group of British anthropomorphic chickens who see an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes as their only hope to escape the farm when their owners want to turn them into chicken pies. ''Chicken Run'' was released in the United States on 23 June 2000 and in the United Kingdom on 30 June 2000. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $220 million and becoming the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film in history. At the time, this film was DreamWorks Animation's most successful release, but this was overtaken by ''

Shrek ''Shrek'' is a 2001 American animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, and written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S. H. Schulman, loosely based on the 1990 children's picture boo ...

'' the following year''.'' 23 years later, a sequel, titled '' Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget'', was released on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

on 15 December 2023. Its Netflix release followed its world premiere at the 67th BFI London Film Festival on 14 October 2023, which would also see preview screenings taking place at UK cinemas at the same time.

Plot

In the countryside of

, a flock of

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

s live on an egg farm structured like a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

. The farm is run by the cruel Mrs Tweedy and her submissive husband, Mr Tweedy, who kill and eat any chicken that is no longer able to lay eggs. Led by the rebellious Ginger, the chickens constantly devise new ways to try to escape but are always caught. Mr Tweedy suspects the chickens are organised and plotting resistance, but his wife dismisses his theories while being frustrated with making minuscule profits. One night, Ginger sees an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes glide over the farm's fences and crash-land; the chickens put his sprained wing in a cast and hide him from the Tweedys, who have been promised a handsome reward by Rocky's owner for his return. Inspired by Rocky's apparent flying abilities, Ginger begs him to help teach her and the other chickens to fly so they can escape, threatening to turn him in if he refuses. Rocky reluctantly gives them training lessons. One evening, a load of equipment is delivered to the farm, containing the parts for a

chicken pie Chicken and mushroom pie is a common British pie, ranked as one of the most popular types of savoury pie in Great Britain and often served in fish-and-chip restaurants. It is also very popular in South Africa. Ingredients The outside is usual ...

machine that Mrs Tweedy has ordered as part of a plan to convert the farm into a profitable pie-making factory. When the Tweedys increase the chickens' food rations and ignore the decline in egg production, Ginger deduces that the couple's new plan is to fatten the chickens for slaughter. After Ginger and Rocky get into an argument, Rocky holds a morale-boosting dance party during which it is revealed that his wing is healed. Ginger talks Rocky into agreeing to give a flying demonstration the next day. Mr Tweedy finishes assembling the machine and puts Ginger in it for a test run. Rocky saves her and sabotages the machine, buying them time to warn the chickens and plan an escape from the farm. The next day, Ginger finds Rocky has escaped overnight, leaving behind part of a poster that shows that he is in fact part of a "chicken cannonball" act with no ability to fly on his own, making them realize that their chance to learn how to fly has been crushed. In the midst of being devastated, Ginger is inspired by elderly rooster Fowler's stories of his time in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

to build an aircraft to flee the farm. The chickens assemble parts for the plane as Mr Tweedy fixes the pie-making machine. Meanwhile, Rocky comes across a billboard advertising Mrs Tweedy's chicken pies and returns to the farm out of guilt. Mrs Tweedy orders Mr Tweedy to gather all the chickens for the machine, but the chickens subdue him and finish the plane, which Ginger persuades Fowler to pilot. As the plane approaches the take-off ramp, Mr Tweedy manages to knock over the ramp before being knocked out; Ginger races to reset the ramp, but a now-alerted Mrs Tweedy attacks her. Before Mrs Tweedy can hurt Ginger, Rocky returns and subdues her, before helping Ginger re-raise the ramp, allowing the plane to take flight. Rocky and Ginger grab onto the runway lights, which have been snagged by the departing plane. An axe-wielding Mrs Tweedy follows them by climbing up the lights, but Ginger tricks Mrs Tweedy into cutting the line, sending her falling into the pie machine, blocking the safety valve and causing the machine to explode in a

mushroom cloud A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris, smoke, and usually condensed water vapour resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, but any sufficiently e ...

gravy Gravy is a sauce made from the juices of meats and vegetables that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with thickeners for added texture. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt (a mix of salt and caramel food ...

. The chickens celebrate their victory after defeating the Tweedys while Ginger and Rocky kiss, and they fly to an island bird sanctuary where they make their home. Sometime later, the chickens have settled into their new home, and Rocky and Ginger have continued their romantic relationship. Nick and Fetcher, two

rats Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...

that have been helping the chickens throughout the escape, decide to set up their own egg farm, but they fall into a circular debate over whether they must use a chicken or egg to start it.

Voice cast

* Julia Sawalha as Ginger, the de facto British leader of the chickens *

as Rocky, an American circus rooster and Ginger's love interest * Miranda Richardson as Mrs Tweedy, the owner of the farm * Tony Haygarth as Mr Tweedy, Mrs Tweedy's husband and the co-owner of the farm * Benjamin Whitrow as Fowler, an elderly rooster * Timothy Spall as Nick, a cynical rat * Phil Daniels as Fetcher, Nick's partner * Jane Horrocks as Babs, a chubby chicken who loves knitting * Imelda Staunton as Bunty, the champion egg-layer * Lynn Ferguson as Mac, Ginger's Scottish second in command

Production

Development

''Chicken Run'' was first conceived in 1995 by Aardman co-founder Peter Lord and ''

Wallace and Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British claymation comedy media franchise, franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving bachelor inventor, and Gromit, his ...

'' creator Nick Park. According to Park, the project started as a spoof on the 1963 film '' The Great Escape''. ''Chicken Run'' was Aardman Animations' first feature-length production, which would be executive produced by Jake Eberts.

and Peter Lord, who run Aardman, directed the film, while Karey Kirkpatrick scripted, with additional input from Mark Burton and John O'Farrell. When a chicken speaks, each sound corresponds to a different beak that was placed on the character. Pathé agreed to finance the film in 1996, putting their finances into script development and model design. DreamWorks officially came on board in 1997. They beat out studios including

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

(which had distributed many of Aardman's earlier projects, including the Wallace & Gromit shorts, in the U.S.), and Warner Bros. (which had also distributed some of Aardman's earlier projects in the U.S.) and largely won due to the perseverance of DreamWorks co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg; as a company they were eager to make their presence felt in the animation market in an attempt to compete with Disney's dominance of the field. Katzenberg explained that he had "been chasing these guys for five or six years, ever since I first saw '' Creature Comforts''." DreamWorks secured their first animated feature with the film, and they handled distribution in all territories except Europe, which Pathé handled. The two studios co-financed the film. DreamWorks also retains rights to worldwide merchandising.

Animation

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began on 29 January 1998. During production, 30 sets were used with 80 animators working along with 180 people working overall. The result was one minute of film completed for each week of filming, and production wrapped on 18 June 1999.

Music

John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams composed the music for the film, which was released on 20 June 2000 under the

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

label. It was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in London. Powell incorporated some kazoos and whistles to create an even funnier soundtrack.

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported approval rating and an average rating of , based on reviews. The website's critics consensus reads: "''Chicken Run'' has all the charm of Nick Park's '' Wallace & Gromit'', and something for everybody. The voice acting is fabulous, the slapstick is brilliant, and the action sequences are spectacular." At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' gave three and a half stars out of four, writing: "So it truly is a matter of life and death for the chickens to escape from the Tweedy Chicken Farm in ''Chicken Run'', a magical new animated film that looks and sounds like no other. Like the otherwise completely different '' Babe'', this is a movie that uses animals as surrogates for our hopes and fears, and as the chickens run through one failed escape attempt after another, the charm of the movie wins us over." ''Chicken Run'' and its sequel have been noted for their depiction of

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

veganism Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a vega ...

and

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

. According to Florentine StrzeIczyk, ''Chicken Run'' points to the way that

masculinity Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there i ...

and

femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...

are mediated in popular film genres. It also received attention for its female-led cast. Film School Rejects called the movie feminist, noting that "the stereotypical ' woman's work' of these female chickens (such as their sewing and

knitting Knitting is a method for production of textile Knitted fabric, fabrics by interlacing yarn loops with loops of the same or other yarns. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done Hand knitting, by hand or Knitting machi ...

) is crucial in constructing their mechanism for escape and vital towards the

itself." The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network argued it was a way to disguise

Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

and

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

Box office

On opening weekend, the film grossed $17,506,162 for a $7,027 average from 2,491 theatres. Overall, the film placed second behind '' Me, Myself & Irene''. In its second weekend, the film held well as it slipped only 25% to $13,192,897 for a $4,627 average from expanding to 2,851 theatres and finishing in fourth place. The film's widest release was 2,953 theatres, after grossing $106,834,564 in the United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom, it was the third highest-grossing film of the year with a gross of $43 million. With an additional $75 million from other markets, it grossed $224,834,564 worldwide. Produced on an estimated budget of $42–45 million, the film was a huge box office hit. To date, it is still the highest grossing stop motion animated movie.

Accolades

Home media

''Chicken Run'' was released on VHS and DVD in the United States on 21 November 2000 by DreamWorks Home Entertainment.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment LLC (UPHE) is the home video distribution division of Universal Pictures, an American film studio owned by NBCUniversal, the entertainment unit of Comcast. UPHE is the home video distributor for all of the ...

released ''Chicken Run'' on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

in North America on 22 January 2019.

Sequel

In January 2022, the title for the sequel was revealed as '' Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget'' and was announced for a 2023 release on

. Zachary Levi, Thandiwe Newton, Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays were revealed to be replacing Gibson, Sawalha, Spall and Daniels as the voices of Rocky, Ginger, Nick and Fetcher; David Bradley voiced Fowler due to Whitrow's death in 2017, while Horrocks, Staunton and Ferguson reprised their roles as Babs, Bunty and Mac.

Bella Ramsey Isabella May Ramsey (born September 2003) is an English actor. They are known for their breakthrough role as young noblewoman Lyanna Mormont in the HBO fantasy television series '' Game of Thrones'' (2016–2019) and Ellie in the HBO post-ap ...

was cast as Molly, while

Nick Mohammed Nicholas George Mohammed is a British actor, comedian and writer. He has portrayed the character Mr. Swallow across both stage and television for over a decade. He is the creator of the Sky One comedy series ''Intelligence (British TV series), ...

and Josie Sedgwick-Davies voiced two new characters, Dr Fry and Frizzle, respectively. Sam Fell directed with Steve Pegram and Leyla Hobart producing. Kirkpatrick and O'Farrell wrote the script with Rachel Tunnard. In June 2023, Gregson-Williams was revealed to be composing the sequel. Later that month, it was officially announced that the film would release on Netflix on 15 December 2023. Its Netflix release followed its world premiere at the 67th BFI London Film Festival on 14 October 2023, which would also see preview screenings taking place at UK cinemas at the same time.

Video game

''Chicken Run'' is a stealth-based 3-D platformer based on the movie. It was released in November 2000 on most consoles. The game is a loose parody of the film '' The Great Escape'', which is set during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

External links

* * * {{Portal bar, 2000s, United Kingdom, United States, France, Film, Animation, Cartoon, Comedy, Animals 2000 films 2000 American animated films 2000 children's films 2000 comedy films 2000 directorial debut films 2000s adventure comedy films 2000s British animated films 2000s children's adventure films 2000s children's animated films 2000s children's comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s French animated films 2000s stop-motion animated films Aardman Animations feature films Allied Filmmakers films American children's animated adventure films American children's animated comedy films American adventure comedy films American prison comedy films American aviation films Animal adventure films Animated films about aviation Animated films about chickens Animated films about rats Animated films about revenge Animated films about talking animals Animated films set in the 1950s Animated films set on farms Animated films set on islands Best Animated Feature Broadcast Film Critics Association Award winners British adventure comedy films British animated comedy films British aviation films British children's adventure films British children's animated films British children's comedy films British prison films Chicken Run (franchise) Claymation films DreamWorks Animation films DreamWorks Pictures films English-language adventure comedy films English-language French films Environmental films Films about animal rights Films about chickens Films about farmers Films directed by Nick Park Films directed by Peter Lord Films produced by Nick Park Films produced by Peter Lord Films scored by Harry Gregson-Williams Films scored by John Powell Films set in Yorkshire Films with screenplays by Karey Kirkpatrick French adventure comedy films French animated comedy films French aviation films French children's adventure films French children's comedy films French prison films Pathé films Satellite Award–winning films