Chicken Little: DVD Review, Blu-ray Movie Review

8/19/2007 Posted by Admin

(Originally published Nov. 4, 2005)

Disney’s computer-animated “Chicken Little” obviously is the source of the bird flu. No one will want to admit it, but there is every indication that it was conceived under some sort of malaise.

Directed by Mark Dindal from a script by Steve Bencich, Ron J. Friedman and Ron Anderson, the film is a lazy, pilfering affair whose energy and depth are driven almost entirely by its soundtrack.

Throughout are tips the amateur filmmaker might wish to avoid.

For instance, when Dindal needs a good jolt to bolster his thin story, he doesn’t do the right thing and tweak the script with more effective scenes and better writing. Instead, he resorts to relying on the energy of such hokey ditties as “One Little Slip” and “Shake a Tail Feather” to give the illusion that his movie is humming along.

That trend stretches throughout the film, with Dindal leaning hard on Diana Ross’ “Ain’t no Mountain High Enough” to fill our hearts as she bares her soul and Five for Fighting’s “All I Know” to bring down the room as poor Chicken Little falls into a slump. The movie goes further south when it staples those songs to scenes inspired by other movies, particularly “War of the Worlds,” whose writers deserve a credit here, as well as “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “The Lion King,” “Finding Nemo” and “Alien.”

Pardon me, but what do aliens have to do with the tale on which so much of us grew up? Did an acorn the size of Maine fall on someone’s head in Hollywood? Apparently. And, really, why depart so radically from a long-lasting favorite to make it something it never was and shouldn’t be? Surely sci-fi doesn’t have to enter this universe.

But it does.

The movie begins just as you expect--Chicken Little (voice of Zach Braff) makes a public gaff when he believes a piece of the sky has fallen on his head. Humiliated by a mean herd of classmates, including the vicious Foxy Loxy (Amy Sedaris), he must bear the brunt of their scorn and his father’s long-faced disappointment over the course of a year before he at last gets his big break at a baseball game. Problem is, just when Chicken Little is most happy, another chunk of sky falls, this time into his bedroom. From the gadgetry hooked to the back of it, it’s clear to this chick that he’s dealing with something of an alien nature.

Within the chaos that ensues are a few saving graces--the characters are undeniably cute, particularly Little, whose eyes are black wells of despair and hope; the enormous Runt of the Litter (Steve Zhan), who has the best, funniest asides; and the ugly duckling, Abby Mallard (Joan Cusack), who is as outspoken as we all wish Scooter Libby was.

Still, with so much of the movie derivative, it lacks personality and seems stale. This is Disney’s first foray into the computer-animated world without Pixar at their side and they might just regret that. If “Chicken Little” is any indication, without Pixar, Disney might have cooked its own goose.

Grade: C-