Chicken Run is a stop-action animated film. Described as The Great Escape — withchickens.A ginger chicken named "Ginger" is the ringleader in the attempts of the chickens to escape from Mr and Mrs Tweedy's Chicken Farm, a prison where they must lay eggs at least once a week or face being beheaded and end up on the dinner plate. Ginger is at her wit's end having found she is now unable to convince the others into anymore escape attempts (which end with them in failure and her being locked in solitary confinement in a coal bunker). Then a rooster named Rocky, who can apparently fly, falls from the sky and agrees to teach the chickens how to fly like him, in return for Ginger keeping mum on his presence.However Mrs. Tweedy, tiring of the low profits selling eggs brings her, decides to convert her business into chicken pot pies. Needless to say, things get drastic in a hurry and Ginger must get the whole coop into the air before they all become mincemeat.
Tropes featured:
Actor Allusion: Rocky yells "FREEDOOOOOOOOM!" when he first flies into the farm. Also, one of the chickens says "I'm not even certain he was American.", a reference to the fact that many people, even in the UK, think Mel Gibson is Australian (he was born in the US, but moved to Australia at age 12). Another Braveheart allusion occurs when asked where he's from:
Rocky: Oh, just a little place I call the land of the free and the home of the brave...
Mac: Scotland!
Rocky: No! America!
To top it off, there's also a Running Gag with Rocky finding Mac's Scottish accent incomprehensible.
The Video Game adaptation borrows its mechanics from Metal Gear.
The Alleged Plane: Subverted. While the crate is made of whatever the chickens could find, it appears to run quite well.
Almost Kiss: ...How do you animate chickens kissing, anyway?
Already Undone For You: When falling towards a load of spinning blades in the pie machine, Rocky grabs a bar at the side which falls down and stops his fall. There is no sign of how Ginger survived moments before, however...
Fowler: Pushy Americans. Always showing up late for every war. Overpaid, over-sexed and over here!
This was an actual complaint that British soldiers had of American soldiers in WWII, due to the US Army paying better, and their willingness to use that extra money to get girls. The Americans usually countered that complaint by saying that the problem with the British troops was that they were underpaid, under-sexed, and under Eisenhower.
Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The look on Ginger's face when Babs reminds her of Rocky by calling her "Doll Face," including looking at his poster in a sad manner (why didn't she remove that poster anyway..?), and Rocky's reaction when he thinks Ginger's been killed.
Ax Crazy: Mrs. Tweedy in the climax. Double points for actually wielding an ax.
Becoming the Boast: Rocky and Fowler are an interesting contrast. Both of them make big boasts that they they can't live up to (Rocky's claim that he can fly, and Fowler's exploits in the Royal Air Force). Rocky runs away rather than face the shame of exposure; Fowler comes clean about the fact that he was a mascot, not a pilot, and at Ginger's urging he takes the pilot seat in the chickens' homemade aircraft.
To be clear, Fowler never claimed to be a pilot and seemed surprised Ginger assumed he was. He was just openly proud to have served.
Big Damn Heroes: Rocky's return in the climax; while Mrs. Tweedy has Ginger pinned to the ground and is threatening to kill her, Rocky comes flying over the fence on a tricycle, screaming Ginger's name as he does so.
British Accents: Everyone except Rocky, of course, who makes a point of not understanding a word the Scottish-accented Mac says.
Captain Obvious: This little exchange near the end. It's meant to be a big plot twist, but it's just so obvious that you can't help but laugh.
Ginger: But you're supposed to be up there! You're the pilot! Fowler: Don't be ridiculous. I can't fly this bloody contraption. Ginger: "Back in your day"? The Royal Air Force? Fowler: 644 Squadron, Poultry Division - we were the mascots. Ginger: You mean you never actually flew the plane? Fowler: Good heavens, no! I'm a chicken! The Royal Air Force doesn't let chickens behind the controls of complex aircraft!
Cassandra Truth: Mr. Tweedy's belief that the chickens are "organized."
Chekhov's Gun: Why on earth did they make such a big deal of showing the lights getting caught on the plane's wheel? Oh, now they're using it to climb! But I'm sure they don't serve any other... IS THAT MRS. TWEEDY?!?
Another example is the turnip catapult from the escape meeting scene, which shows up again in the climax when it's used to launch eggs at the attacking Mrs. Tweedy. But it doesn't stop her.
Chekhov's Gunman: Fowler. He spends most of the film rambling about the RAF, then in the third act his stories inspire Ginger to build the crate and he ultimately becomes its pilot.
Comically Missing the Point: Babs thought Rocky left to go to the store. This got on Bunty's nerves, and this escalated into a huge brawl until Ginger stops it.
Composite Character: Bunty was originally two separate characters, the pushy one and the overly productive egg-layer (who, ironically, was going to be Edwina).
Evil Overlooker: The main posters and DVD cover have Mrs. Tweedy's face projected onto a cloud in the background.
Executive Meddling: DreamWorks and composer Hans Zimmer (who heads the Dreamworks music department) forced director Nick Park to drop an already-recorded musical score by Wallace & Gromit composer Julian Nott because Zimmer decided his people should do the score (Zimmer has a history of doing this). This was one of many reasons why Aardman would leave DreamWorks in 2006 to go to Sony.
Expospeak Gag: After Rocky wakes up with an injured wing, there is this bit of dialogue:
Rocky: Ouch! What happened to my wing?
Ginger: You took a rather nasty fall.
Mac: And sprained the anterior tendon connecting your radius to your humerus. I gave her a wee bit of a tweak, Jimmy, and wrapped her up.
Rocky: Was that English?
Ginger: She said you hurt your wing. She fixed it.
Fake Ultimate Hero: Rocky, who let the "flying chicken" myth go to his head. Once he had to give an actual demonstration, he chickened out.
To a lesser degree, Fowler. While he never outright said he was a wartime hero, his ramblings gave off that impression. When he finally admits he was just the mascot, he insists that should have been obvious, since no one used chickens as pilots.
"So... which bunk is mine?" And the enthusiastic response from nearly all the hens in the place.
"Overpaid, oversexed, and over here!"
That's more an example of The Radar Does Not Exist.
During the Training Montage, there's a precious moment where Ginger is leaning over and stretching and Rocky is checking out her bum. And then she catches him. And he coughs and continues instructing the class. Wow.
Mr. Tweedy pretty clearly jumps after Mrs. Tweedy apparently grabs his rear off-screen.
Mrs Tweedy: (To her husband after he voices his suspicions of the chickens) They're chickens. They don't plot, they don't scheme and they are not organized!
(Cut to Ginger banging a gavel at one of their escape meeting)
Gut Punch / Mood Whiplash: When Edwina gets beheaded, albeit offscreen, and later her bones are seen on the kitchen table. As Roger Ebert stated in his review, Mrs. Tweedy is not fooling around. This is not a film that pulls punches, and there's a very real threat to the chickens.
Heroic BSOD: Ginger after Rocky's deceit is revealed along with his departure.
Heroic Sacrifice: Ginger almost did this by apparently letting Mrs. Tweedy behead her along with cutting the line that was attached to the crate with the escaping chickens. Turns out she just ducked away, but still, a pretty gutsy move.
Hurricane of Puns: Nick and Fetcher, when the chickens are trying various methods of getting off the ground.
Karma Houdini: Rocky lies to the chickens about being able to fly, abandons them in their time of need, and the only punishment we ever see him get is a slap across the face from Ginger.
Well he did come back and help save them, that counts for something.
Loud Gulp: The chickens gulp in unison (swallowing the heaps of chicken feed they all had in their mouths) after Ginger tells them that the food they've been eating was to fatten them up for slaughter.
Never Say "Die": Played straight with the humans ("You are going to be a pie!") but averted with most of the chickens.
Never Trust a Trailer: The advertising for the movie focused on the action sequences and screwball slapstick elements while glossing over the parallels to World War II, the references to prison escape films, the love story and the constant threat of death.
Nice Hat: Ginger's. She's the only chicken that has one.
Non Sequitur Thud: Replace "thud" with "gets hit on the head with a feeding trough."
Rocky: Thank you ladies and gentlemen, you've been a wonderful audience.
Punishment Box: Ginger is put in the coal bunker everytime she's caught trying to escape.
The Rat: Bonus points for the farm's resident scroungers being actual rats.
Recycled Soundtrack: Building the Crate and The Chickens Are Revolting end up in Miss Congeniality 2 as the background music for a show called Treasure Island.
Red Herring: When Ginger orders the crate prepared for flight after Mr. Tweedy is subdued, Mac tells her that it's not yet ready for use. We're expecting this to be Foreshadowing for some kind of catastrophe during the escape (and originally it was going to be), but in the final film nothing ever comes of it and the crate flies without a hitch.
Ring Around The Collar: The chicken character models were made of a combination of plasticine for their heads and silicone rubber for their bodies. To hide the join, all the chickens wear scarves, necklaces, or any other kind of neckgear.
During the escape montage at the beginning, one of the escape attempts is exactly like the tunnel from The Great Escape. Also, the hut number '17' is a shoutout to the escape film Stalag 17.
And there are some references to Hogan's Heroes, with the rolling-up maps, the movable bunks, the slapstick escape ideas (which are more in line with Hogan's usual routines than with The Great Escape)
Oh, and the Indiana Jones references, as they're escaping the chicken-pie-making machine.
Shown Their Work: The way Mac lands square on her head and falls forward after attempting to fly? That would earn a perfect score in caber tossing.
Slap-Slap-Kiss: There is a Running Gag that every time Ginger and Rocky would be about to kiss, they would be interrupted; one of these instances was near the end, when Ginger slaps Rocky across the face as they're about to kiss.
This was because the filmmakers were nervous about showing Rocky and Ginger kissing onscreen, fearing that the sight of two birds touching beaks would look too awkward. When the kiss finally comes, it is staged so that the actual contact of "lips" is hidden.
Stealth Pun: Stealthier in the US than in the UK, but as mentioned, the coal bin that Ginger is repeatedly thrown into is called a bunker.
Likewise, Nick, whose name is also slang for "steal" in British English.
Take That: Edwina, the chicken that gets beheaded, was named after former politician Edwina Currie who is (in)famous for starting a nationwide salmonella scare in 1988 (confirmed by Word Of God).
Trailers Always Spoil: The theatrical trailers completely spoil The Reveal of the pie machine, while a TV commercial and the Burger King toys were all based around the plane. Then there's one DVD trailer which is comprised almost entirely of clips from the last 15 or so minutes of the film and the final scene in particular.
When Fowler shouts "Chocks away!" it shows the chickens removing "Tasty-Choc" chocolate bars from the wheels that are very similar to the widely known Toblerone bar.
0 reviews 