Chicken
Little is ironically a bit of a “sky is falling” panic test for our
old friends at Disney. Having fallen upon rocky times with Pixar, Chicken Little
is Disney’s way of playing chicken with the geniuses behind The Incredibles
and the Toy Stories - to see if they can make successful computer animated films
all on their own. The verdict? They’re going to be fine. Does chicken little
possess the visual mastery and heart of the films mentioned above? No. Did they
get close enough to stop worrying about it? Absolutely.
After
all, these are films whose target audience are children (though adults tend to
love them as well) and kids don’t know from hand-drawn and computer-animated
- a cartoon’s a cartoon. And Chicken Little is a cartoon cluck-full of entertaining
characters and a lot of fun, goofy creations. It won’t take the Box Office
by storm and I imagine it will be attacked by some for being light on story and
thin of heart (which, to some extent, it is) but when you think that this entire
world and the charming-enough story that goes with it, were originally a tiny
little children’s book where the title character went around complaining
that the sky was falling I believe, because of an acorn? In any case with this
as it’s resource material they managed to create a loony world with likable
characters, plenty of good gags and a particularly gifted cast of vocal talent.
As
you may know, all this poultry paranoia gets started when Chicken Little (Zach
Braff), gets bonked on the head by some inexplicable bit of space debris, causing
him to go off on his world famous alarmist rant. Unable to provide evidence of
whatever it was that constituted the sky actually falling, CL is all at once the
laughing stock of this town full of stock barnyard characters inhabiting human
occupations. The most regrettable of which is his father, a once famous local
athlete who bears the embarrassment as well as he can, but is unable to stand
up for his son, and is profusely apologetic for the fright he’s caused everyone.
This
father son trust dynamic becomes the emotional crux of the film, and though it’s
not particularly meaty as emotional cruxes go, there are some nice moments. Thanks
in large part to the fantastic job that director Mark Dindal (Emperor’s New
Groove) does with his title character. Between the really stellar work that Braff
brings and the animation, I found the title character himself to be a singular
and fascinating piece of pixel-pocus. The whole time I was trying to put my finger
on who he reminded me of - in the end all I could come up with was Billy Crystal
(which is close). There were scenes when the comic timing between Braff and his
widowed father played by Garry Marshall was incredibly well orchestrated. They
manage to convey the awkwardness men encounter when trying to show affection toward
loved ones, with great skill.
Again,
it’s about all the film has to hang it’s hat on as far as an emotional
core is concerned - but to hell with it, this is a comedy about an ugly duckling's
(Joan Cusack) quest for love and a huge effeminate pig (Steve Zahn), destined
to become a “pag,” and plenty of other fish out of water. Patrick Stewart
plays a sheep who is a professor of not Latin but Mutton - where you learn to
say English words in Sheepish (all words translate into Baa). The chief bad guys
don’t amount to much - Amy Sedaris is Foxy Lady a rather ineffectual bully,
but then again the whole town is set up as a bully. The China Shop is owned by
a bull and the gym teacher divides the students in the class into popular and
unpopular for Dodgeball.
They
all live in the town of Oakey Oaks, with mayor Turkey Lurkey (Don Knotts) as wonderfully
spineless as ever. Chicken Little’s overwhelming desire to please his father
is finally realized when he joins the high school baseball team and manages a
freak base hit in a critical moment in the championship game. Which he parlays
into a hilarious inside-the-park home run. Alas all is well in Mudville - Father
and son have begun to bond and everything is just Ducky. That is until that pesky
little piece of the sky comes back to haunt, testing father and son once again
and bringing the planet to the brink of extinction.
I
shant spill anymore - there are shades of ET, as well as a funny nod to Signs
- with a great little cameo bit by Fred Willard and Catherine O’ Hara, that’s
straight out of Best in Show, or Waiting For Guffman. At a lean 77 minutes, the
film seemed a tad short, but as I’d taken the kids, I had the first little
twinges of a headache starting to happen so I was grateful for the short running
time. Bottom Line, Chicken Little is no Incredibles, but as far as Disney’s
concerned the sky will be staying put just like always.
