Well, I retyped my review that I wrote yesterday and guess what: I was kicked off the internet and it was deleted
again! I got so mad! But, I typed it again, and I finally get to post it. Third time's a charm!
This is my first attempt at an actual movie review. I’m going to try very hard to make it sound professional (key word being “try”). If any of you don’t want to know anything about the plot before seeing this movie, skip this post.
A summary of the movie from Yahoo.com (because I'm way too lazy to write one myself).
Yahoo.com wrote:The movie picks up where the classic fable ends, namely after our pint-sized hero has caused big-time havoc when he mistakes a falling acorn for a piece of the sky. In the wake of the "unfortunate acorn incident" Chicken Little's name is mud in his hometown of Oakey Oaks. Down but not out, he struggles mightily to restore his reputation and make his Dad, Buck Cluck, proud. Chicken Little joins the local baseball team and, despite the fact that he is barely bigger than a baseball himself, he manages to smack a championship-winning homerun. With one crack of the bat, the town laughingstock becomes the toast of Oakey Oaks. But no sooner has Chicken Little redeemed himself then he is conked on the head one more time. And this time the sky really is falling! Fearful of once again being labeled crazy, Chicken Little tells no one but his best friends, Runt of the Litter, Abby Mallard A.K.A Ugly Duckling and Fish Out of Water, about the threat that hangs over Oakey Oaks. Together this misfit crew tries to save the day. Chicken Little eventually discovers that he needs to risk his newfound popularity and alert his father and the town. When Buck realizes Chicken Little actually has it right this time, he unites with his son and his friends as they set out to save the world.
As most of you probably know, Chicken Little is the latest animated classic from Walt Disney Feature Animation; it’s also the company’s first fully animated CGI film. As most of you also know, it had a very profitable opening weekend of over $40 million, yet received (for the most part) bad critics reviews. I’m pleased to announce that Chicken Little isn’t as bad as many of these critics are making it out to be. In fact, it’s a very enjoyable movie and a fun way to spend 81 minutes.
There’s a lot to appreciate about Chicken Little if you just give it a chance. The plot is entertaining, the visuals are detailed and beautiful, and the characters are just so darn cute. Chicken Little received much of its’ criticism because people were saying it had “terrible characters”. While some of the characters are bland and unexciting, I found some of them, especially Chicken Little, to be very appealing and relatable. Chicken Little’s main goal throughout the movie is to gain the acceptance of his classmates, fellow townspeople, and most importantly, his father. Everybody wants to be liked, and that’s why I was able to connect with Chicken Little’s character and it made me want to see him succeed even more.
As is expected with Disney movies, the animation is top-notch. This is Disney’s first (fully) animated CGI film, and the animation was even better than I thought it would be. I can’t really say anymore than that. Shading, character movements, facial expressions, it’s all so realistic and it really helps make the environment look so much more convincing (well, duh, but I have to think of something to write, right?). Speaking of the environment, it’s so detailed and well-designed. The filmmakers really worked hard to make the world these characters live in look good, and it shows. Chicken Little’s town is entirely populated by animals, and the filmmakers do a good job of making the environment completely “animal-ized” (chameleons as traffic lights, etc.).
The jokes and gags, as was expected, are very funny. While many of the jokes will appeal mostly to children, some of them are clever enough to make adults laugh too. I mean, there are some jokes that are just hilarious; I can remember one time when I was laughing for 20+ seconds, which is longer than it sounds. I may have been laughing so much because I was with some of my friends when I saw it, and movies are always funnier when you watch them with some very close buddies. Even if you go see it alone though, you will be entertained.
Chicken Little is a funny, well-animated adventure, but it has some MAJOR drawbacks that really bring the movie down, and sometimes even distract you from the movie itself. For starters, the emotional scenes just feel forced. For example, there is one scene at the beginning where Chicken Little is looking up at the stars from his roof and praying for a chance to impress his father. Once he has said all he needs to say, and once the audience feels bad for Chicken Little, and the scene feels like it should end, for some reason, it doesn’t. It goes on for about 1 ½ more minutes and you really start to feel that the movie is trying too hard to get the emotion across. It got to the point where I just wanted to say “Okay, we get it. He’s sad. Can we move on with the story now?!”.
Another flaw is the inclusion of useless scenes. Early in the movie, Chicken Little joins the baseball team in an attempt to please his father. From there, we see a 10-15 minute movie-inside-a-movie about Chicken Little’s struggle to become a good baseball player. It’s an entertaining scene, but the problem is that the movie just stops. Nothing happens to move the story forward. It’s just 15 minutes of pointless filler, which is never good for a movie. Sure, Chicken Little does partly gain the town's respect in this scene, so it does serve some purpose, but the scene just lasts way longer than it should.
The biggest drawback is the inclusion of many, many, many pop-culture references throughout the film. Seriously, there’s way too many of these and they even distract you from the film itself. The amount of pop-culture references in this movie rival the number of them in the Shrek films. The sad thing is, many of the movie’s jokes rely on these pop-culture references to get some cheap laughs. That means that in 5-6 years, half of the movie’s comedic arsenal will be dated and unfunny. This normally wouldn’t bother me, since I usually laughed at the pop-culture references, but then the movie went too far. If you’ve seen any trailer for Chicken Little, you know that there are alien invasions involved. Well, in the scene where the town is being invaded, the audience is supposed to have a feeling of destruction, panic, and doom. However, Disney sacrifices good threatening music and replaces it with the song “It’s the End of the World” (you know, the one from the trailers), which takes away any feeling of despair in the entire scene. I usually don’t mind pop-culture references, but when you sacrifice things like a good soundtrack to include them, that’s when I draw the line.
But, the orchestrial score is excellent and exciting, the actors give great performances, and the characters are well-casted.
All things considered, Chicken Little is definitely worth at least one viewing. I found it to be a very enjoyable film and I will be proud to add it to my DVD collection when it comes out.
Oh, and Disney has my eternal gratitude for not putting a fart joke in this movie at all. Seriously, in the entire movie, there is not one fart joke. Thank you Disney!
And no Isidour, I didn't see a Bambi 2 trailer at the beginning. Sorry!
