Chicken Little

[Radical Raven]

Disney's first ever CGI-film. I just recently re-wacthed it (yeah, I do that a lot) and I have formed a very low opinion of it- lower than I did the first watch-through, though I do respect them for managing to pull a story abou aliens and baseball out of what is essentially a nursery rhyme. What's you guy'ses opinions on it?

[Racattack!Force]

The problem with turning a nursery rhyme or even a fairy tale into a feature-length film, is that you are usually left with having to come up with a huge amount of the story for what would normally be an 11-minute short film at the most. So when I watched a rerun of the movie on Disney Channel last year, I saw that they really tried to do something with it.

[The Wolverine]

I personally liked it and think it's quite funny.

Sure it has its flaws, but what movie doesn't?

[judyindisguise]

I liked Chicken Little the very first time I saw it - at the movie theater. It wasn't exactly Pixar-level, but it was way above Hookwinked-level, and had moments of fun. And I liked Chicken Little himself, and Gabby, and Fish. The pig was okay but was waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy too fat. I think Disney could do worse than turn this into a series. The movie has done well in the ratings every time Disney Channel runs it. So why not?

[Dr.Pepper]

I only saw this movie once at a friend's house and that was one time too many IMO. The plot just seemed too forced and it seemed more like it was aiming to younger kids.

[blazecat]

I once watched some of this movie On Demand. After 15-20 minutes, I stopped watching it. Nothing really stands out about this movie! It's just so....mediocre!

[Michael24]

I saw it in the theater (having enjoyed the trailers and clips I was seeing on TV), but I didn't care much for it. I thought it started off okay and I liked Chicken Little himself, but I ultimately just found it boring and with little to get excited over. :sad:

[Silverstar]

I though Chicken Little was OK. Not great, but OK. Sure, the plot about the aliens was tacked on and drawn out, but without that, there wouldn't have been enough story for a feature-length film.

Honestly, my only real complaint about CL was their employing of the seriously overdone Dead Mother Syndrome cliche. Aside from that, it was cute and tolerable. I preferred Meet the Robinsons, but I didn't feel like I wasted 2 hours of my life by sitting through Chicken Little.

[Light Lucario]

I've seen the movie a couple of times now, though I always seem to miss some bits of the middle. Anyway, it isn't that bad, but I didn't think that it was that good either. I liked Chicken Little and his friends and I did find it interesting how they turned the classic story and made it to something else like this. Still, I don't care too much for it. It might have to do with the pacing of the storyline for me. Still, it was overall a decent movie and not really horrible by any means to me.

[blazecat]

Honestly, my only real complaint about CL was their employing of the seriously overdone Dead Mother Syndrome cliche. Aside from that, it was cute and tolerable. I preferred Meet the Robinsons, but I didn't feel like I wasted 2 hours of my life by sitting through Chicken Little.

I agree with you about the overdone Dead Mother Syndrome cliche. A lot of movies have been using that lately. As much as I enjoyed Finding Nemo, I didn't like how they had to use the dead mother syndrome.

[Hiya Animation]

I just saw Chicken Little and Home on the Range recently and I think they both, while they are not GREAT films by any means, are not the abominations that people make them out to be. Heck I liked them BOTH better then Pocahontas and Tarzan... films that people generally make out to be "great" but which I've never cared for much.

Both films are extremely well animated and have their own charm but they both suffer from one thing... trying too hard to be funny. Some of the jokes in both films just fall flat.

[judyindisguise]

I though Chicken Little was OK. Not great, but OK. Sure, the plot about the aliens was tacked on and drawn out, but without that, there wouldn't have been enough story for a feature-length film.

Honestly, my only real complaint about CL was their employing of the seriously overdone Dead Mother Syndrome cliche. Aside from that, it was cute and tolerable. I preferred Meet the Robinsons, but I didn't feel like I wasted 2 hours of my life by sitting through Chicken Little.

Well, at least the dead mother issue in Chicken Little was actually addressed. It's made clear that she's not there because she...well, died. The father refers to her several times, and it's clear she's deeply missed. It's also made clear that her absence has led to some of the problems occuring between father and son. Most of the time (and not in just Disney productions) when a parent is missing, nothing is said about the matter. Where's Max's mother and Goofy's wife? Why do Huey, Dewey and Louie live with their uncle Donald instead of their parents? When I was a kid, I actually thought about these things and wondered why it didn't seem to matter to the characters that vital people in their lives weren't there. The way CL handled that issue was refreshing at least, and added a note of poignancy that helped make the film more memorable, in my view.

[Super Leviathan]

I couldn't get into either the story or the characters, and the baseball plot at the beginning is so unimportant to the overall film that it ought to be considered a big-lipped alligator moment.

Really, it's weaker than the weakest Dreamworks film.

EDIT: Even though I seldom agree with Mike Barrier, I find his take on Chicken Little (http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Commentary/Chicken_Little/Chicken_Little.htm) to be fairly close to mine.

[Baltofan]

One of my favorite Disney movies.

[blazecat]

Well, at least the dead mother issue in Chicken Little was actually addressed. It's made clear that she's not there because she...well, died. The father refers to her several times, and it's clear she's deeply missed. It's also made clear that her absence has led to some of the problems occuring between father and son. Most of the time (and not in just Disney productions) when a parent is missing, nothing is said about the matter. Where's Max's mother and Goofy's wife? Why do Huey, Dewey and Louie live with their uncle Donald instead of their parents? When I was a kid, I actually thought about these things and wondered why it didn't seem to matter to the characters that vital people in their lives weren't there. The way CL handled that issue was refreshing at least, and added a note of poignancy that helped make the film more memorable, in my view.

You're right about the fact that almost nothing is said about the matter where a parent is missing. For example: In Finding Nemo, aside from the beginning of the movie (where Coral's death is show off screen), her death is never mentioned at all. Noone brings it up in the movie. Nemo never asked his dad what happened to his mom, and Nemo's dad never brought up the matter that his wife (Nemo's mother) was killed by a barracuda.

[DarthGonzo]

You're right about the fact that almost nothing is said about the matter where a parent is missing. For example: In Finding Nemo, aside from the beginning of the movie (where Coral's death is show off screen), her death is never mentioned at all. Noone brings it up in the movie. Nemo never asked his dad what happened to his mom, and Nemo's dad never brought up the matter that his wife (Nemo's mother) was killed by a barracuda.

Well time obviously did pass between the death of Nemo's mom and the start of the plot. And we can see the lasting effects on Marlon the way he's overprotective of Nemo at the beginning of the movie. It's obvious that Coral's passing is what shaped Marlon as a character and it has a big impact on how he acts and what his character is, which in turn has an impact on how Nemo acts.

To me that works better than Marlon constantly talking about Nemo's dead mother. I don't need that fact pounded into my head when we're already shown it at the beginning of the movie.

[blazecat]

Well time obviously did pass between the death of Nemo's mom and the start of the plot. And we can see the lasting effects on Marlon the way he's overprotective of Nemo at the beginning of the movie. It's obvious that Coral's passing is what shaped Marlon as a character and it has a big impact on how he acts and what his character is, which in turn has an impact on how Nemo acts.

To me that works better than Marlon constantly talking about Nemo's dead mother. I don't need that fact pounded into my head when we're already shown it at the beginning of the movie.

Wow, you make a very good point!

[Radical Raven]

Well, I will say this: The film does not stand up to repeated viewings. I wasn't crazy about it the first time, but I was interested in the plot (ALIENS!!!). The shows toilet humour/Pop Culture References/Fat Jokes annoy me considerably; especially the second thing. I could stand some of the songs; "It's the End of the World as We Know it" was well timed, for example"; but some of them just came across as pointless (random Spice Girls reference?)

[Itchy]

Is it just me or does this character remind an awful lot of the kid from the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons?

[Blackstar]

Is it just me or does this character remind an awful lot of the kid from the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons?

You mean Egghead Jr., and yeah, they do look similar, but they don't act anything alike. For example, Egghead Jr. never spoke.

Fun Fact: Disney's Chicken Little was originally conceived as a female character, but the studio changed him to a male because it was felt that there was nothing special about a girl being small.

[DisneyFan]

I kinda liked this movie. I thought it was pretty good. It's good for what it was Disney's first CGI. But, it doesn't even closely compare to Disney's last CGI Bolt!

[DCU Bat]

I kinda like this Movie but the problem with this movie is that it just isn't a Disney movie!

It doesn't even feel like a Pixar movie and instead felt like Disney was trying to create their own version of Shrek which it probably why they hyped it up as much as they can.

I liked the theme though. No, not the alien plot, the "Closure" plot (how come nobody mentioned this yet?).

It kinda neat when the main character looses his reputation because he was wrong, regains his reputation and is then in risk of loosing it again because he was right in the first place.

Unfortunately, it suffers from bad character designs as well as Dialogue and jokes that try so hard to be so 'Hip' but just comes off as being stupid, like that the one about the "Frozen Pee".

All in All, It would've been a much better movie if Disney designed better characters, wrote better dialogue and stopped trying to act like friggin' Nickelodeon all the time!!