This was from the "Making Chicken Run" special that was on US TV a week or two ago.

I liked the little references to The Great Escape and Stalag 17. No reference to cheese though. I really thought those rats would come through for me in that department. The characters were all very colorful, and the attention to detail as Phil mentioned is really quite extraordinary. All the chickens standing around for roll call and each of them doing something different must take a tremendous amount of patience and notetaking. Sure, the animation's a little choppy but I think these guys more than make up for it in their ability to claymate with rain in certain sequences. I don't remember though if it rained more than once. But it still boggles my mind some of the things they can pull off.

I'd kind of like to know why Mel lends his vocal talents to animated projects at about the same time he makes epic pictures. Is it planned or just coincidence? Anyway, he did a very good job as Rocky the Rooster. Those other voices sounded familiar too. Especially Ginger's, but I can't put a face or name to the voice. Oh, and I really liked the music too. Definitely gonna have to get the score for this one. All in all a good time.

------------------
The man with the magic hands.

 |  IP: Logged

At my theater, this movie has done consistently well, and is now outperforming The Patriot.

The lesson to Mel:

Quite an impressive display of clay animation. The impressiveness is that once one is used to the characters one does not think about the technical merits of the claymation - one just follows the plot.

I think the choice of chickens as the basis for the plot was a risk - a Wallace and Gromit movie probably would have been easier to make and assured of success but the animators have made the clay characters and and plot work by creating very strong and distinct characters and adding a good dose of humor.

Not a film I would readily see a second time but still very funny and entertaining.

I do have one small criticism though. I watched this film at the Dromana Drive-in Theatre and found the film very 'dark' ie it was sometimes difficult to distinguish objects - everything looked much darker than it needed to be. Maybe this is a feature of clay animation however maybe the lighting question will need to be revisited in the sequels.

Verdict: (out of 5 stars) ****

cheers

Peter

Thats another one The Great Leslie can try on for size...!