Chicken Little was a 2005
computer-animated film produced by The
Disney Company (not by
Pixar). It is the 46th film in the
Disney Animated Canon, and is also Disney's first movie to be completely made via computer animation. It is based on the fairy tale of the same name, but set in modern times and given a
Science Fiction spin.
In the original tale, a little chicken is hit by an acorn on the head and believes that the sky was starting to fall down in pieces; she sets out to warn the king and is joined by other animal characters, eventually running into the evil Foxy Loxy, who wants to eat them.
In the movie, Chicken Little is male, a nerdy boy who gets bullied in school despite his cleverness because of the numerous false alarms he has created that have caused waves of panic throughout the town. He also has a troubled relationship with his widowed father, Buck Cluck, who cares more about the approval of his peers than caring for his son. He tends to hang out with other
unpopular kids — such as Abby Mallard (a homely duck girl who has a crush on Little, but he doesn't seem to realize it); Runt of the Litter, a cowardly, morbidly obese pig who can't stop eating; and Fish out of Water, who is an actual fish who wears a diving helmet (filled with water) to be able to breathe. They often get teased by Foxy Loxy, a female bully. But as the film progresses, Chicken Little and his friends uncover the presence of extraterrestrials in their town and attempt to warn the now-extremely skeptical townsfolk before all havoc breaks loose.
The movie came about for two reasons - the first, chaos at Disney over Pixar's seemingly imminent departure, as around the time of the film's production, Pixar and Disney were on unfavorable terms and it appeared that Pixar was ready to jump ship and find a new partnership for its films. This movie was intended by Disney to "prove" that they didn't need Pixar and their numerous lucrative franchises. The second was an attempt to compete with
Dream Works' and their pop-culture heavy films, starting with
Shrek. Therefore, Chicken Little is often described as pure marketing from beginning to end - the character was aggressively pushed into the world's faces. He appeared for two years in the Macy's Parade. Advertisements parodying other popular films and trends were hard to miss. Disney even forced a cameo in
Kingdom Hearts II for the pint-sized star in hopes of ensuring the loyalty of Japanese filmgoers.
However, when the film opened, it was at best a mild success at the box office. The film performed much better than their recent animated flops and was ultimately profitable, but nothing close to the numbers a Pixar blockbuster could. Furthermore, its shameless attempt to copy the pop-culture parody of
Shrek did not go over well with critics, many of whom lamented that Disney, once a leader of animation, was now diminished to having to copy their competitors for sales. While nobody knows how Disney and Pixar viewed the film's modest success, it wasn't long after the film's release that the two companies determined that Disney
did need Pixar. Disney bought Pixar on rather favorable terms for the latter, placing Pixar's John Lasseter in charge of all future animated productions at the company.
The movie had two game adaptations, one of them based in the movie-within-the-movie.
Note: Disney had already adapted the Chicken Little story once, as an animated short parodying, of all things, Nazi propaganda.
Tropes in the movie:
- Audible Gleam - Made by a penny that distracts the Mayor.
- Broken Aesop - The movie inverts the original tale's. Also, Foxy Loxy gets turned nice, docile, and perfectly feminine against her will, but everyone's happy with that, especially the guy that adopts her to be his girlfriend.
- Any parent would do anything to protect their child - such as blow up an innocent planet that has nothing to do with their child's disappearance. There's some good strong family values!
- Cassandra Truth - Naturally, nobody believes Chicken Little about the UFO.
- Disaster Dominoes - Chicken Little has a habit of creating more than a few of these, some intentionally, some not.
- Disney Animated Canon
- Executive Meddling - The movie originally stuck to the fable by using a female Chicken Little. Michael Eisner had her changed to a boy to appeal better to little boys.
- Foot Popping - Done by Abby when kissed.
- Furry Confusion - Chicken Little has a broken egg for a rug. Yolk and all.
- Hand Or Object Underwear - Little loses his pants in one scene, and covers himself with his schoolwork.
- Half Dressed Cartoon Animal - A rather surprising subversion considering the company this came from - every wears a full set of clothes. Not wearing pants is treated as nudity.
- Hey Its That Voice - Patrick Stewart voiced Chicken Little's teacher and Adam West voiced the movie version of Chicken Little.
- Don Knotts voiced the Mayor in one of his last roles ever.
- The alien officer near the end is Kronk.
- Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara, who have worked together frequently in other films, are revealed to voice the two alien parents by the end of the film.
- Marth Debuted In Smash Bros - Kingdom Hearts II came out before the actual movie, so this was Chicken Little's official introduction to Japan.
- Memetic Mutation: Think "Numa Numa" and imagine Chicken Little dancing in your head.
- Merchandise Driven - A claim constantly lobbed at the film, as it existed more to be lucrative like Shrek while milking products in a way that Pixar wouldn't.
- Missing Mom - Chicken Little's mom died at some unspecified point before the start of the film and Buck Cluck still hasn't learned how to be an effective single parent to his son.
- Mood Motif
- Murder Is The Best Solution - The aliens were actually peaceful acorn gatherers, but when their son disappeared, they immediately decided the best solution to the problem would be to blow up the entire planet.
- My Name Is Not Durwood - Abby's nickname of "Ugly Duckling", as given to her by Foxey.
- Movie Within A Movie - At the end of the film, a movie is made of Chicken Little's exploits in saving the town and the world from the aliens. Instead of telling it faithfully, the movie is a cross between Star Trek and Star Wars and stars Adam West.
- Nightmare Fuel - The alien "invasion".
- Nightmare Fail - The truth about the "invasion" being revealed; see Voiceof Legion below.
- Padding - The whole business with baseball could have been dropped without having to substantially rewrite the rest of the film.
- PapaWolf - Threatening to wipe out a whole planet to find your missing son? Yeah
- Similar To The Show - One of the trailers resembled one made for The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy movie (Disney made both films). The movie posters and the box art for the DVD borrow from the then-current Men In Black II.
- Theme Naming - The characters names either rhyme with the species of animal they are, or form an animal-related idiom.
- Too Dumb To Live - Okay...so Chicken Little really wants his Dad to believe him. In fact, it's the major desire he's given. So, what does he do when he finds proof that he was right, proof that will finally show his dad he's NOT a kooky nut? He hides it. Why? Um....
- Toothy Bird - Abby with her ever-present buck teeth.
- Trailer Spoof - See above.
- Voice Of The Legion - The alien leader's. It was just a trick.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome - Lampshaded; at the end, Hollywood gets ahold of the story and butchers it right into a stereotypical Sci Fi action film.
- You Have To Believe Me - Chicken Little says this a lot.
