Chicken Run Review

Hey, this is Steve Blume, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Beyond good, beyond

evil, beyond your wildest imagination. Ever wonder

what chickens do when you're not looking? I know

our last escape attempt was a bit of a fiasco.

These chickens are planning a little getaway.

The plan is we go over the wire. That might work.

Now, they may have found their only hope. Thank

you, ladies and gentlemen. You've been a wonderful

audience. The name's Rocky. And what brings you

to England? Why, all the beautiful English chicks,

of course. Pushy Americans. Hi, how are you?

Overpaid, over sex, and over here. Which funk

is mine? What is it? It's a pie machine. Chickens

go in, pies come out. Ooh, what kind of pies?

We're all going to fly over that fence and Mr.

Rhodes is going to show us how. Did you say fly?

This summer. I don't want to be a pie. I don't

like gravy. Rocky! I'm coming! From the Academy

Award -winning creators of Wallace and Glomit.

Dare to dream a better place out there and get

ready to fly Quite likely event of an emergency

put your head between your knees and kiss your

bum goodbye chicken run Well, welcome to episode

39 of Tooncast Beyond, brought to you by the

Geekcast Radio Network at Audible .com. I am

your host, Toon, Jim, and Mike, and joining me

is one half of the animation aficionados, I almost

said alcoholic, which is TV's Mr. Neal. Hi to

you. That's it? That's it. I didn't come up with

anything for this. Oh my god. Sorry. You are

so... You're so living down your reputation of

great comebacks after your introduction. It's

hard to come up with something every week. Right.

Yeah, without repeating yourself. And today we're

going to be going on a chicken run. Oh god, save

me now. Alright, so to set the stage for everybody

Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop -motion animation

film made by the Aardman Animations Studios directed

by Peter Lord and Nick Park. The film centers

around a band of chickens who seek smooth -talking

Rhode Island Red named Rocky as their only hope

to escape from their certain death when owners

of their farm decide to move from selling eggs

to selling chicken pies. Ow, my brain hurts.

Your brain hurts from that? Yes. Well this movie

was based on The Great Escape. I mean there are

scenes in this movie that are taken right out

of that. There was a scene early on where the

main character is like throwing a tennis ball

against the wall while she's in solitary confinement.

That's like right out of The Great Escape. Yeah.

Let's talk about the voice cast that I only know

one person from. I thought I knew two. I looked

up Miranda Richardson who voices Mrs. Tweedy

in this and it turns out she's a character in

the Harry Plopper movies. and a bunch of other

stuff. She's got a bunch of television and film

credits. She's got a bunch of theatrical credits,

but looking at this voice cast, what little voice

cast there is, the only person I recognize is

Riggs. I mean, where's... God, I can't believe

I'm about to say this, but where's the black

chicken? Where's Murata? Oh my God. I'm sorry,

listeners. I did not mean... Every time I see

Mel somewhere, especially around this time because

it was before, I think 2000 was before his whole

mental breakdown and all that other crap. I always

associate him with Lethal Weapon, with What Women

Want and all the other movies that he's done.

Bird on a Wire. Yeah, Bird on a Wire. And it's

like, he's the only person that I recognize out

of this voice cast. I don't know any of these

other people. And maybe it was because it was

a British movie that I find it really weird that

the British movie has to bring in the Australian

actor. That's a little strange. That is weird.

Yeah. Even weirder is that that was done to appeal

to the American audience. Sadly does not surprise

me at all. Oh Boy Where to start with this movie?

I did not see this when it first when it first

was released and into Believe this was the it

was that this was this not a theatrical released

in it. I don't know it was oh, yeah I so did

not see this in theaters. I Looked at this the

stop -motion animation stuff, and I was like

what the hell is this? Don't remember if I did

I know I was interested in it because it was

our time Yeah You're gonna have to give a history

lesson on them because I don't know and I mean

I know they did like Wallace and Gromit movies

and all that stuff, but When I saw the when I

eventually did get around to seeing the movie.

I originally I just didn't feel like I felt like

I wanted my money back, honestly. People sending

you hate mail right now? Well, they can send

hate mail to tfg1mike at gmail .com. I don't

care. I don't hate the movie. I just don't care

for it. It's not like me going off on, oh god,

what's a movie I'll be going off on? in later

episodes like Preview for episode 41. I'm probably

not gonna like shark tail That's just probably

gonna be a given but it's like but like this

I Just I don't like the animation style of it.

The stop -motion is too. It's just it's too weird

for me and it reminds me of and it might be because

and I don't know I have to look this up. It might

be because of Might be the same people that make

it but when I watch this back it reminded me

of Shawn the sheep Shawn the sheep. Yeah. Oh,

I think I know you're talking. Yeah, that's the

Third there's these shorts. I saw him on Disney

Channel. I forget who doesn't let me look it

up, but It's just one of those things where I

I'm like, okay British chickens want to flee

the nest right then That's a little strange I

just I mean I get why cuz well if we're gonna

start making chicken pies Then why wouldn't you

want to get the hell out of there? But still

it's like it's just yeah Yeah, Sean the sheep

British stop -motion children's television series

produce. Yeah, it's it's it's Arben animations

They produce it they produce a number of commercials,

of course, they didn't all listen grommet, which

they're both. Yeah uh... i do like from what

i've i've never actually seen the wallace and

gromit movies but what i've seen of like shorts

and stuff in advertisements i do like the wallace

and gromit stuff uh... i don't know what it is

about this movie that i just don't care for is

i don't know if it's just the start the way the

stop motion is with the chickens versus anything

else that arden does uh... when the show on the

sheep stuff came on on disney channel i was like

what the heck is this and I started watching

some of it and I found it pretty funny, pretty

decent, but this movie is just too strange. It

just goes to prove that British people are weird.

Again, hate mail, tfg1migateemail .com. The animation

style on this is just... The Ardman stuff that...

As I mentioned a second ago, the Armin stuff,

like with Shaun the Sheep and with the Wallace

and Gromit stuff, I don't mind it. Maybe it was

just the... the way the stop -motion played with

the chickens. I don't know. It just... This movie

just did not capture my attention of like, oh

my god, this is an animation masterpiece. You

know what I mean? It just... I think I understand.

Yeah, for a theatrical film, it does seem kind

of crudely animated just because it is stop -motion.

Stop -motion, by virtue of being stop -motion,

it doesn't really have any fluidity to it. It's

very perky jerky. And if anything moves really

fast, there's no motion blur. That's when it

becomes really obvious that you're watching stop

-motion. Although they did find clever ways around

that. What was she holding? It was like a...

some sort of bladed device she kinda spins the

blade and they actually got it to look like it

was like moving in real time while she's you

see her reflection in in the metal and that was

like really cool that was a really cool effect

and that's one of the few times in the movie

that you actually see something like that yeah

I mean stop motion in general not just with animation.

I mean, I mainly know stop -motion stuff with

people that have done stop -motion for toy reviews

and stuff like that. Stop -motion in general

can work. And, you know, the Wallace and Gromit

stuff is really popular, as far as I know, and

so is Shaun the Sheep. I know a lot of people's...

I know a lot of people that have kids that show

them Shaun the Sheep and they love it. So stop

-motion can be good. But in this case, for me,

I just... The overall plot here, just to get

this out of the way. The Tweety's are a middle

-aged couple who run their chicken farm somewhere

in Yorkshire, England. Mrs. Tweety, voiced by

Miranda Richardson, serves as the genius and

temper, while Mr. Tweety, voiced by Tony Highgarth,

is rather slow and insane, but handles his manual

work. and handles his manual work. The coop is

run in the style of World War II POW camp. With

the chickens accountable for the number of eggs

they lay daily, one chicken, Ginger, voiced by

Julia Swahala, has attempted numerous plans to

flee the coop, aided by contraband smuggled into

the coop by two rats, Nick and Fetcher, voiced

by Timothy Spall and Phil Daniels. respectively.

However, she is routinely captured by Mr. Tweedy

and his dogs and is thrown into the coal bin

for solitary confinement numerous times. And

then, as you said earlier, this is essentially

the great escape. This is a take off on on. Oh,

my God, we got to get out of here. Yeah, the

the Nazi military camp, which inaccurately portrays

the Americans as the one who escaped, whereas

they were actually they were actually moved to

another facility and it was the British, why

am I blanking on this word, the captives who

actually escaped. And of course it ends differently

because in The Great Escape I think they're all

captured at the end, recaptured, but in this

one they actually do get away. Yeah People are

gonna be writing me now. No the ending was much

different. I haven't seen the great escape in

a long time Yeah, yeah Let's see just to end

the plot here having enough mr. Tweedy pushes

the door on top of her before she can lash out

at him the film ends but the chickens find their

Idealic setting in a bird sanctuary where they

can live in comfort and raise their new chicks

rocky and ginger having fallen in love with each

other become a couple meanwhile nick and fetcher

discuss their plans of starting their own chicken

farm so they can have all the eggs they could

eat however nick and fetcher ends up arguing

with each other over whether the chicken or the

egg came first yeah i will never watch this movie

ever again I really liked mr. Tweety. Yeah, I

I think I think audiences love a slow thinker

and he was definitely slow thinker of the movie

He had some pretty Some pretty good good lines

in the movie were just highlighted how stupid

he was Just the I love the dull wit character

Mean I can love a dull witted character, but

there are only so many times you can fall down

a There are only so many times you can fall off

a cliff without learning your lesson Tanto say

don't go to town Roadrunner say stop chasing

me you never catch Yeah, I don't want to get

on a Roadrunner tangent that'll be oh my god

um so getting into the uh yeah the overall plot

was just okay it's a great escape and then the

ending of arguing over which god no just do not

like this plot at all As far as some production

first feature length production, which would

be executive produced by Jake Ebertz, Nick Park,

and Peter Lord, who run Aardman, co -directed

the film. While Margaret French and Jack Rosenthal

scripted the film, in December 1997 it was noted

that David Sproxton was to also produce. Dreamworks

secured their first animated feature with the

film, and they handled distribution in all territories

except Europe, which Pathé handled. The two studios

both co -financed the film. Dreamworks also retains

rights to international merchandising. Path and

Ardman had both been developing the film since

1996, whilst Dreamworks officially came aboard

in 99. DreamWorks beat out stories like Universal

Studios and Warner Brothers, largely one due

to the perseverance of DreamWorks co -chairman

Jeffrey Katzenberg, who is a company, were eager

to make their presence felt in the animation

market in an attempt to compete with Disney's

dominance of the field. Well, no shit, because

Katz, he got fired. Did he get fired or did he

quit? I forget. Oh, I don't remember. I forget.

He left Disney. And he, when he went to DreamWorks

and started it up with Spielberg and Geffen,

I think it's Geffen for the SKG. Yeah, I think

it is, yeah. When they started this, Katzenberg,

of course Katzenberg wanted to, you know... You

know bring down Disney's dominance in animation

because he was probably had sour grapes from

either getting fired or whatever else I don't

remember what the hell happened to him Putting

up with Michael what's his name? The head of

Disney at the time remember his name, but he

used to be like Okay, okay, here we go. I had

to look this up because I knew we were gonna

get comments I'm just gonna read last part of

this when Eisner's second -in -command Frank

Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994 Eisner

refused to promote Katzenberg to the vacated

position of president This led to the falling

out between the two executives and Katzenberg

left the company in September 94 He launched

a lawsuit against Disney to recover money He

felt he was owed and settled out of court for

an estimated 250 million dollars So yes, he left

Disney. He did not get fired. He didn't get promoted

is what happened. Oh boy. Bitter much? Okay.

Harry Gregson Williams and John Powell, composers

in the artist pool of Media Ventures, were in

talks to compose the film since January 99 and

January 2000. The release was revealed to be

for the 23rd of June 2000. Reel .com, as far

as release and marketing, Reel .com received

an exclusive right hosting the official site

for the film and designing for which Canned Entertainment

were chosen. As far as the reception, here's

a couple of critical responses. Here we go. The

film has received critical acclaim, how, from

critics upon its release and currently garners

a 96 % certified fresh rating. I swear to God,

Rotten Tomatoes is so weird. Based on 140 reviews

with an average rating of 8 out of 10 Chicken

on is all the charm of Nick Park's Wallace and

Gromit something for everybody the voice acting

is fabulous the slapstick is brilliant and the

action sequences are Spectacular the film also

holds a score of a based on 34 reviews on Medicare

credit indicating universal acclaim. How is this

mo - oh my god, how is this movie universally

acclaimed? Hey, that's fine. Like I've said,

I like the Wallace and Gromit stuff, I like the

Shawn the Sheep stuff, I'm sorry. Stop motion

and chickens do not mix. For the box office the

opening weekend the film grossed 17 million five

hundred and six thousand dollars and change Worldwide

total of two hundred and twenty four million

eight hundred and thirty four thousand and change

So I guess that people like Mel Gibson as a chicken

I guess that's the I guess that's the draw here

You know I I thought he was like the least important

He does have a little bit of marquee value, but

he I Don't know. I didn't really care that he

was in the movie He's kind of there because I'm

used to him in action roles and I'm used to him

being like the macho guy and you know screaming

that is that his son is dead or give me back

my son or whatever that movie was and In this

movie, he's just not that. Oh, Rantz. I love

Rantz. In this movie, he's just not that. And

if he's not that, then his voice isn't special

enough to me that him being in this movie really

matters. This movie, to me, with Miranda Richardson

aside, outside of her and Mel, I don't recognize

any of these voice cast. That's not necessarily

a bad thing, though. Well, no, but I'm not saying

it's a bad thing, but for me, if one of those

chickens was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson

or Tara Strong or somebody I would recognize,

I would be able to talk more about how I liked

the voice performances. I mean, they all sounded

like British chickens, and that's what they were.

But it's like every female British or whatever.

It just all sounded the same to me outside of

Mal. But Mal really is... He is a live -action

actor. That's what he is. I'm not saying the

man can't branch out and do other things, but...

I don't know if his voice lends itself to animated

characters. Mean unless they're gonna start doing

a animated lethal weapon cartoon. That would

be kind of cool. Oh my god, that would be insane

I absolutely love that Lord Alright, so IGN replacement

crew one to four one is don't watch this even

if it's free to worth a watch if it's free on

TV I don't know or think if it's on Netflix.

I'm not sure Or it's a must add to your DVD collection.

I'm gonna give it a two I'm going to be generous

because two is worth a watch if it's free on

TV. If you catch this on TV, check it out. The

plot is severely lacking in my opinion, but overall

it's something you can probably sit down and

watch with your kids if you have kids. What about

you? What do you give it? I'll give it a three.

I like the movie with today's DVD market being

what it is. I don't know if you'd want to get

it on DVD. Unless you just want to check out

the extras, but it's something you could look

up on Netflix. You could, you know, check it

out on Hulu. It's there, you know. It's worth

watching, I think. It was nominated and won a

ton of awards. It won Best Animated Feature,

Broadcast, Film Critics. I can't believe your

other half is not here for this. Get one best

animated feature at the Dallas Fort Worth Film

Critics. What's an old saying about Texas? Something

about steers and queers or something? I don't

know. Oh, wow. That's Mike at, uh, what's your

email address again? All right. Yeah, I'm not

going to give that out anymore. It won all these

awards at these different film critics cities

like Florida It was nominated for a Golden Globe

best motion picture musical or comedy And then

the rest of all the rest of all the wins is like

Kansas City film critics Las Vegas film critics

Los Angeles film critics National Board of Review

New York film critics Weird So apparently there

are There is a video game based on this which

there's a video game based on every film at this

point. Yeah It's a stealth based 3d platformer

based on the movie the game is loose parody of

the film The Great Escape which you had mentioned

earlier Apparently the game is set in World War

two or Maybe not maybe okay. They're saying that

The Great Escape was set in World War two Okay,

I was gonna say if the game is set in World War

two that would be you know Stop motion chickens

in World War two. That would be kind of cool

bang Grand Theft Auto means chicken run. Oh my

god Yeah, what was it like a PlayStation release

a station one It should it around that time.

That's what it probably was. Yes. It was a PlayStation

one release, which means skip it Yeah Yeah, movie

license games on the PlayStation, Super Nintendo,

Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color. If you ever

see a movie license game on any of those consoles,

don't buy it. Don't even rent it. Alright, we

are gonna go to a quick break and we'll come

back to close the show after this. Movie Week

in Review is the Geekcast Radio Network's weekly

movie podcast. Steve and Mike take a look back

on their favorite films and give you their thoughts.

They also bring co -hosts at times. If you are

a movie buff, listen to M -Wire only on geekcastradio

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comm slash key cast radio Final thoughts on the

chicken run. I Thought it was a cute movie. It's

it's not wall -scrawled. It's certainly not the

wrong trousers, which is I think my favorite

cartoon by them, but It's it's okay You know

kids these days. It's hard to really gauge what

they like You might want to just you might end

up if you're an adult you you might actually

end up liking this movie more than your kids

do because kids are strange Yeah, and for me

it's probably not something I'm gonna go back

to but at the same time I don't outright hate

the film. I just I Just found when I was watching

it back. I'm like why am I watching this? That's

that's really my reaction like like nothing in

this film made me Just turn it off and say fuck

it. I'm never what I'm never finishing this ever

again You know and as Neil said it's at this

point. It's probably it's probably got more humor

in it for adults than it does kids So I guarantee

it Chicken boob run there you go. There's the

porn remake ladies and gentlemen What's what's

going on over at animation aficionados calm well,

we just recorded a DVD commentary of an American

tale read and And we've recorded with Kitty Hawk

who promptly said an American tale What? We didn't

even know this existed. And as we were setting

up, we discovered that there's a part four. It's

not as bad as the land before time movies, but

it's kind of dumb, stupid. We have a ton of shows

recorded. Again, I'm drawing a blank on what

we did. Just because it's been about a month.

I can only remember the most recent thing we

did that show that we I just talked about that's

probably gonna be up in like three or four weeks

So come check it out. We got a lot of good shows.

We just put up like a massive Two and a half

hour show where it starts with a convention that

Ben was at and we have outtakes from Ben Hackendorn

Thomas for for Kitty Hawk and You're even in

there Mike 5 minutes of Fez cannot make up for

2 hours of everybody else. Just skip to about

the 35 minute mark and you'll be okay. Oh good

lord. all right they were joining us and then

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five or two five two six five eight two one we

hope you enjoyed this episode to guess beyond

wish you'll join us next time we'll be jumping

into the line for the first time here in season

two will be heading back to nineteen eighty six

in the u .s. but really nineteen eighty two in

japan and france with uh... Mysterious cities

of gold. I love that cartoon. Best cartoon theme

song ever. Best cartoon theme song ever. That

is probably the only thing you and Optimus Solo

will ever agree on. For now, I am TF2 and Mike

with... TV's Mr. Neil. Thank you for listening,

until next time.