Trivia / Chicken Run

• Actor-Shared Background: The late Benjamin Whitrow (Fowler) served in the 1st King's Dragoon Guards from 1956 to 1958 before he became an actor.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: When Peter Lord and Nick Park first pitched "The Great Escape with chickens" to Steven Spielberg and Jeff Katzenberg, Spielberg immediately agreed to the project because Great Escape was his favorite movie and he owned a small chicken farm!
• Creator Cameo: Nick Park voices the chicken clucking for the tea kettle disguised as a chicken.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting: Mel Gibson was the only one in the cast to record his lines as Rocky in a US studio while the rest of the cast recorded in England.
• Deleted Scene: One scene that was cut was how Rocky stole a tricycle from a child. In the theatrical release, this causes some "huh?" as to how Rocky was riding a tricycle in the first place. This was a Shout-Out to The Great Escape, where Virgil Hilts steals a motorcycle from a Nazi soldier.
• DVD Commentary: By directors Peter Lord and Nick Park.
• Executive Meddling:
  • DreamWorks Animation and composer Hans Zimmer (who heads Dream Works Music) forced director Nick Park to drop an already-recorded musical score by Wallace & Gromit composer Julian Nott because Zimmer decided to have John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams write the music together. It was meddling like this which resulted in Aardman and DreamWorks eventually breaking off their five-picture deal after only three films.
  • Jeff Katzenberg also made the filmmakers add a shot of Mr. Tweedy playing with a torch after Mrs. Tweedy tells him to get one from the house because he assumed most Americans wouldn't know that what they called "flashlights" are called "torches" in England (and would be wondering why Mr. Tweedy wasn't carrying a large, flaming stick).
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Miranda Richardson, Julia Sawalha, and Jane Horrocks all worked on Absolutely Fabulous.
• Kids' Meal Toy: It got Burger King playsets involving cannons, airplanes, and a high-wire act. Infamously, it was marketed with chicken nugget-esque products, despite the theme of the movie and the Burger King marketing itself being against eating chicken.
• Late Export for You: The film wasn't released in Japan until 2001, nearly one year after its initial North American release.
• Playing Against Type: While he does have moments of genuine heroism, Rocky is an immature, cowardly show-off who isn't nearly as competent as he tries to present himself, a far cry from Mel Gibson's usual serious, action hero roles.
• The Merch: Playmates Toys had a Chicken Run toyline when the movie came out; the Pie Machine was a re-deco of an earlier Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy.
• The Other Darrin: Due to the first film dating back to 2000 and some of the cast being too old or having died long ago, quite a few roles were inevitably recast for Dawn of the Nugget:
  • Thandiwe Newton voices Ginger instead of Julia Sawalha.
  • Zachary Levi voices Rocky instead of Mel Gibson.
  • David Bradley voices Fowler instead of Benjamin Whitrow, who died in 2017.
  • Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays respectively voice Nick and Fletcher instead of Timothy Spall and Phil Daniels.
• Sequel Gap: Production alone on the sequel is currently confirmed to start in 2021, over 20 years after the original, meaning the release will be even longer after. And that's assuming the COVID-19 Pandemic doesn't complicate things.
• Studio Hop: The first movie was distributed by DreamWorks Animation. The sequel will be handled by Netflix.
• Uncredited Role: Cosgrove Hall made an oversized model of Mr. Tweedy for scenes where she kicks or grabs Ginger.
• What Could Have Been: Now has its own page.
• The Wiki Rule: Here
• Write What You Know: Nick Park had pet chickens in his youth, several of whom frequently tried to escape their pen. Two of them were even named Ginger and Rocky.