WesternAnimation This movie is funny
My title pretty much sums about the entirety of this review. I don’t care about all the pop culture references, I don’t even dislike those in DreamWorks Animation movies. And I don’t think they ruin the comedy in Chicken Little. When CL and Abby respond with shock to what Fish is saying and Runt reacts to it by commenting “Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father” I found it funny.
I also find quite a bit of the comedic sociopathy directed at the titular loser protagonist funny. And was entertained by pretty much everything the mayor did.
I know that Buck Cluck is easily forgiven for being a bad father to CL but his initial reaction to CL thinking the sky was falling was legitimate and he later is genuinely regretful of his actions.
I like the Aesop about The Power of Friendship.
Ultimately, this movie’s sole actual goal was to be a comedy and honestly I find the comedy to be its strongest feature. Because for all its, well-documented, faults this movie is funny.
WesternAnimation Kinda bad and kinda actually quite good
You know this moment in cartoons when the hero wants to show something or prove something and it goes horribly and he ends up humiliated? I HATE those scenes, something inside of me just gets really uncomfortable. And this is that scene stretched into the whole movie. Plus really terrible father that you just want to strangle.
But if you can survive that... it's a surprisingly funny movie. With a gang of colorful and likable characters. And genuinely moving moments. And due it's obscurity I knew next to nothing about its plot.
So while it's not on my top 10 Disney movie or even 20... I kinda really enjoyed it? And no one is more surprised than me.
WesternAnimation Nowhere Near as Bad as Everyone Says It Is
I'm not shocked by the massive negative reaction this movie has, but after watching it recently, I do think the hate is a bit over exaggerated.
Chicken Little is often considered one of - if not - the worst films ever made by Disney. It's a bad introduction to their new CGI collection and a very weak movie in general. But, weak doesn't necessarily mean terrible. The movie does have a lot of flaws, like a lot of eye-roller moments and lines and the unlikeability of everyone in the movie, apart from our four heroes themselves. But if your someone like me, I was able to let some of those problems slide for some of the better moments in the film.
While consisting of mainly pop songs, the movie does have a decent soundtrack. Special mention going to the theme, composed by the Barenaked Ladies. Additionally, a lot of the designs, especially for the aliens, are rather unique. The animation has admittedly dated, but I do give credit for the movie adapting a more unique artstyle, compared to most modern Disney CGI films which, while not bad, do have their "same-y" moments from rare time to time. And if anything, the dated CGI just makes for some great "bad cgi" faces. This face from Fish in particular always cracks me up.◊ The film also does have some funny lines. Or at least, funny deliveries from the actors, a good example being Cluck's reaction to Little's crazy plan. "..........Yeah!"
But, I would still put Hen Small in the category of So Okay, It's Average as it doesn't really stick out other then that, and compared to Wreck It Ralph, Big Hero 6 and Moana, it definitely cements itself as one of Disney's lesser movies. Not their worst, like many are saying, but their least solid. Maybe it's just because of nostalgia or because of how nuts some people are for it, but it's hard for me to fully hate this movie. If you can forgive some of it's bigger flaws like I can, you might like it, but other then that, I'd just say pop in Wreck It-Ralph again.
WesternAnimation Shockingly Bad Even By Disney's Standards
I remember seeing trailers for a movie with a chicken and a octagon shaped block falling on him. I liked what I saw and I wanted to see the movie. I was 10 years old at the time back in 2005 so that should give you an impression on how less critical I was compared to now.
Anyway, I saw the movie on my birthday and at the time, I thought it was alright. Nothing great but it did the job of entertaining me. I got the see the film twice during it's release in cinemas and each time, I liked it.
However, looking at it from an adult perspective, I think it's easily one of Disney's worst animated films from their internal animation studio. Everything from the unlikable/flat characters to the horrible first attempt at CGI animation (they've improved a lot since then) to the jarring pop culture references that got dated fast to the horrible story where the main character is hated on for really stupid reasons to the even worse ending which makes even the so-called "hero" unlikable.
The plot-point about a guy who finds something important but nobody believes them is an insulting plot that gets used in this movie and a lot of media. It makes the non-believers unlikable and I (usually) end up feeling sorry for the guy getting dumped on for it.
This movie has only gotten worse with time and even back in 2005 and beyond, there were/are plenty of animated films that are better than this. Please just stay away and go watch something else.
WesternAnimation I Like it
No, really i did. I actually don't get why it's so hated by everyone. to put it simply, i found the idea clever, and i didn't feel it was 100 percent ripping off Fractured Fairy tales, as it did brings someething other than pop references. i think the heart is where this movie succeeds , with Chicken little and his dad. i really liked his character devvelpment, and i felt that was well done
is it greaT? nah, it can get stupid. the worst in the disney canon? Hell no I give a B+
WesternAnimation Makes Home on the Range look like a masterpiece.
There's one thing to be said about an unfunny comedy, and another about a film as deeply unpleasant and mean-spirited as Chicken Little. The film substitutes any attempt to create genuine investment in its "story" (and I use that word very loosely) with just trying to inspire pity in its main character, who spends a majority of the film getting bullied by the most shallow, unlikeable antagonists imaginable. The thing is, even when this kind of thing is followed by a (very contrived) happy ending, you still end up with a movie that's 70% just pointless, mean-spirited abuse, and there's no kind of interesting plot or characters to make you want to Earn Your Happy Ending here. Chicken Little spends much of the movie trying to appease to the bullies through material means, and temporarily succeeds, but the only reason the bullying stops for good is because the thing that started it is irrefutably invalidated, meaning there's no real redemption to be had for anyone. This kind of thing might have worked in some kind of dark social commentary for adults, but Chicken Little is anything but that. It approaches its set-up in the most sleazy, dead-eyed "we're too hip to give a crap" way possible, making it feel like the film's very narrative is a participant in the bullying, and ends on the most unearned happy ending in the whole canon.
What pushes the film into being outright offensive is how much it is a giant middle finger to the very spirit of Disney films. It's a blatant attempt to jump on board with the hip attitudes of then-current animated films (that sadly still exist today, though Disney itself has thankfully and wisely mostly abandoned them), but even in that regard it feels faint-hearted because it still wants us to recognise it as a "Disney classic" in its very unearned attempts at "warm and fuzzy moments". I'm all for the idea of Disney making different kinds of animated films, but I do take issue with it attempting to steer their line of movies into a genre that was pretty much created solely to insult their previous movies.
Oh, and while it is incredibly unpleasant, it is also a very, very unfunny comedy. So there's that.
WesternAnimation My opinion for this film has changed as I got older
I was 15 when this film came out but I was 15 or 16 when I first saw this film and at the time. I liked it and was blown away. But years later when I got older or at least ten or more years after the film was made. My opinion for this film changed.
As a kid, you'll love the film for the fact it's for kids. But as an adult, this film is the most mean-spirited film Disney has ever made. An innocent little boy gets relentlessly bullied, abused, mistreated and they treat him like the red-haired stepchild. Foxy Loxy is a bully to him like the rest of the town, Chicken Little's dad is the worst father ever, and when Chicken Little and his friends see the aliens up close and personal, the town didn't see the proof because they got distracted by a penny on the ground when they could've heard the spaceship nearby.
Then when the alien invasion happens. Suddenly the entire town and Chicken Little's dad finally see Chicken Little was right all along and everyone else sees they were all jerks to him all along and once Chicken Little was seen as the hero who saved them all, they automatically worship him to feed the town's narcissism. Even when Buck reconciled with his son, still, I don't think anyone should forgive him. But even though they made sure the film had a happy ending and Chicken Little and his dad reconciled, Chicken Little is a celebrity and everyone is changed for the better.
This film was once going to be done by the source material where the original idea was Chicken Little was a girl and they're all about "if you do this to a girl, oh no, this can't happen. But if it's a boy, then it's funny to be so horrible to him" a bit sexist and double standard in reverse. They originally made the town be invaded by wolves in disguise instead of aliens which would've been a better way to go about in the film but for whatever reason why Disney made Chicken Little the way they did instead of how it was originally thought of. This film is the perfect example of Disney's cautionary tale of how not to make a family film.
I mean I don't mind the main character being a boy but they shouldn't have made this film so mean-spirited to the protagonist. They could've kept the original story and we would mind if the main protagonist was male or female but the idea they chose that made it into theaters. This film is a mean-spirited film that they should've kept the original story and the main character being a boy or girl wouldn't have mattered. But them thinking you can be abusive to a female but you're allowed to be horrible to a male is making things both sexist and double standard in reverse. So this film may be for kids but from an adult's view. They should've never made this film so mean-spirited and they shouldn't have made everyone so mean to Chicken Little.