Chicken Run | |
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Directed by | |
Screenplay by | Karey Kirkpatrick |
Story by |
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Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography |
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Edited by | Mark Solomon |
Music by | |
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Running time | 84 minutes [5] |
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Language | English |
Budget | $42–45 million [7] [5] |
Box office | $227.8 million [8] |
Chicken Run is a 2000 animated adventure comedy film [9] produced by Pathé and Aardman Features in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. [10] [11] Aardman's first feature-length film, it was directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park with a screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick from an original story by Lord and Park. [12] The film stars the voices of Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Tony Haygarth, Miranda Richardson, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, and Benjamin Whitrow. Set in the countryside of Yorkshire, the plot centres on a group of British anthropomorphic chickens who see an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes as their only hope to escape the farm when their owners want to turn them into chicken pies.
Chicken Run was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $220 million and becoming the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film in history. At the time, this film was DreamWorks Animation's most successful release, but this was overtaken by Shrek the following year. [13]
23 years later, a sequel, titled Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget , was released on Netflix on 15 December 2023. [14] Its Netflix release followed its world premiere at the 67th BFI London Film Festival on 14 October 2023, which would also see preview screenings taking place at UK cinemas at the same time. [15]
In the countryside of Yorkshire, [16] a flock of chickens live on an egg farm structured like a prisoner-of-war camp. The farm is run by the cruel Mrs Tweedy and her submissive husband, Mr Tweedy, who kill and eat any chicken that is no longer able to lay eggs. Led by the rebellious Ginger, the chickens constantly devise new ways to try to escape but are always caught. Mr Tweedy suspects the chickens are organised and plotting resistance, but his wife dismisses his theories while being frustrated with making minuscule profits.
One night, Ginger witnesses an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes glide over the coop's fences and crash-land; the chickens put his sprained wing in a cast and hide him from the Tweedys, who have been promised a handsome reward by Rocky's owner for his return. Inspired by Rocky's apparent flying abilities, Ginger begs him to help teach her and the other chickens to fly so they can escape, threatening to alert the humans if he refuses. Rocky reluctantly gives them training lessons. One evening, a load of equipment is delivered to the farm, containing the parts for a chicken pie machine that Mrs Tweedy has ordered as part of a plan to convert the farm into a profitable pie-making factory. When the Tweedys increase the chickens' food rations and ignore the decline in egg production, Ginger deduces that the couple's new plan is to fatten the chickens for slaughter. After Ginger and Rocky get into an argument, Rocky holds a morale-boosting dance party during which it is revealed that his wing is healed. Ginger insists that he demonstrate flying the next day, but Mr Tweedy finishes assembling the machine and puts Ginger in it for a test run. Rocky saves her and sabotages the machine, buying them time to warn the chickens and plan an escape from the farm.
The next day, Ginger finds Rocky has left, leaving behind part of a poster that shows that he is in fact part of a "chicken cannonball" act with no ability to fly on his own, making them realize that their chance to learn how to fly has been crushed. In the midst of being devastated, Ginger is inspired by elderly rooster Fowler's stories of his time in the Royal Air Force to build an aircraft to flee the farm. The chickens assemble parts for the plane as Mr Tweedy fixes the pie-making machine. Meanwhile, Rocky comes across a billboard advertising Mrs Tweedy's chicken pies and returns to the farm out of guilt.
Mrs Tweedy orders Mr Tweedy to gather all the chickens for the machine, but the chickens subdue him and finish the plane, which Ginger persuades Fowler to pilot. As the plane approaches the take-off ramp, Mr Tweedy is able to knock over the ramp before being knocked out; Ginger races to reset the ramp, but a now-alerted Mrs Tweedy attacks her. Before Mrs Tweedy can hurt Ginger, Rocky returns and subdues her, before holding up the ramp with Ginger, allowing the plane to take flight. Rocky and Ginger grab onto the runway lights, which have been snagged by the departing plane. An axe-wielding Mrs Tweedy follows them by climbing up the lights, but Ginger tricks Mrs Tweedy into cutting the line, sending her falling into the pie machine, causing it to explode in a mushroom cloud of gravy.
The chickens celebrate their victory after defeating the Tweedys while Ginger and Rocky kiss, and they fly to an island bird sanctuary where they make their home. Sometime later, the chickens have settled into their new home, and Rocky and Ginger have started a romantic relationship. Nick and Fetcher, two rats that have been helping the chickens throughout the escape, decide to set up their own egg farm, but they fall into a circular debate over whether they must use a chicken or egg to start it.
Chicken Run was first conceived in 1995 by Aardman co-founder Peter Lord and Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park. According to Park, the project started as a spoof on the 1963 film The Great Escape . [17] Chicken Run was Aardman Animations' first feature-length production, which would be executive produced by Jake Eberts. Nick Park and Peter Lord, who run Aardman, directed the film, [18] while Karey Kirkpatrick scripted, with additional input from Mark Burton [ citation needed ] and John O'Farrell.[ citation needed ]
When a chicken speaks, each sound corresponds to a different beak that was placed on the character. [19]
Pathé agreed to finance the film in 1996, putting their finances into script development and model design. DreamWorks officially came on board in 1997. [4] [20] They beat out studios including Disney, 20th Century Fox (which had distributed the Wallace & Gromit shorts in the U.S.), and Warner Bros. and largely won due to the perseverance of DreamWorks co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg; as a company they were eager to make their presence felt in the animation market in an attempt to compete with Disney's dominance of the field. [4] Katzenberg explained that he had "been chasing these guys for five or six years, ever since I first saw Creature Comforts ." [4] DreamWorks secured their first animated feature with the film, and they handled distribution in all territories except Europe, which Pathé handled. [4] The two studios co-financed the film. [4] DreamWorks also retains rights to worldwide merchandising. [4]
Principal photography began on 29 January 1998. During production, 30 sets were used with 80 animators working along with 180 people working overall. The result was one minute of film completed for each week of filming, and production wrapped on 18 June 1999. [20]
John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams composed the music for the film, which was released on 20 June 2000 under the RCA Victor label. [21] [22] [23] It was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in London. [24] Powell incorporated some kazoos and whistles to create an even funnier soundtrack.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 97% approval rating and an average rating of 8.1/10, based on 174 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads: "Chicken Run has all the charm of Nick Park's Wallace & Gromit , and something for everybody. The voice acting is fabulous, the slapstick is brilliant, and the action sequences are spectacular." [25] At Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [26] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. [27]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave three and a half stars out of four, writing: "So it truly is a matter of life and death for the chickens to escape from the Tweedy Chicken Farm in Chicken Run, a magical new animated film that looks and sounds like no other. Like the otherwise completely different Babe , this is a movie that uses animals as surrogates for our hopes and fears, and as the chickens run through one failed escape attempt after another, the charm of the movie wins us over." [28]
Chicken Run and its sequel have been noted for their depiction of feminism, [29] [30] [31] [32] revolution, [29] [30] Marxism, [33] [29] [34] veganism [35] and fascism. [36] According to Florentine StrzeIczyk, Chicken Run points to the way that masculinity and femininity are mediated in popular film genres. [36] It also received attention for its female-led cast. Film School Rejects called the movie feminist, noting that "the stereotypical 'woman's work' of these female chickens (such as their sewing and knitting) is crucial in constructing their mechanism for escape and vital towards the revolution itself." [30] The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network argued it was a way to disguise Zionism [37] and Western propaganda. [31] [37]
On opening weekend, the film grossed $17,506,162 for a $7,027 average from 2,491 theatres. Overall, the film placed second behind Me, Myself & Irene . [38] [39] In its second weekend, the film held well as it slipped only 25% to $13,192,897 for a $4,627 average from expanding to 2,851 theatres and finishing in fourth place. [40] The film's widest release was 2,953 theatres, after grossing $106,834,564 in the United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom, it was the third highest-grossing film of the year with a gross of $43 million. [41] With an additional $75 million from other markets, it grossed $224,834,564 worldwide. Produced on an estimated budget of $42–45 million, the film was a huge box office hit. To date, it is still the highest grossing stop motion animated movie.
Group | Category (Recipient) | Result |
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Annie Awards [42] | Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature | Nominated |
Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production (Nick Park and Peter Lord) | Nominated | |
Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production (Karey Kirkpatrick) | Nominated | |
British Academy Film Awards [43] | Best British Film | Nominated |
Best Visual Effects | Nominated | |
British Academy Children's Awards [44] | Feature Film | Nominated |
Broadcast Film Critics [45] | Best Animated Feature | Won |
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics [46] | Won | |
Empire Awards | Best British Director (Nick Park and Peter Lord) | Nominated |
Best British Film | Nominated | |
Best Debut (Nick Park and Peter Lord) | Nominated | |
European Film Awards [47] | Best Film | Nominated |
Florida Film Critics [48] | Best Animated Feature | Won |
Genesis Awards [49] | Best Feature Film | Won |
Golden Globe Awards [50] | Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Nominated |
Kansas City Film Critics [51] | Best Animated Feature | Won |
Las Vegas Film Critics [52] | Best Family Film | Won |
Los Angeles Film Critics [53] | Best Animated Feature | Won |
National Board of Review [54] | Won | |
New York Film Critics [55] | Won | |
Phoenix Film Critics [56] | Won | |
Best Family Film | Won | |
Best Original Score (John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams) | Nominated | |
Satellite Awards [57] [58] | Best Motion Picture—Animated or Mixed Media | Won |
Best Sound | Nominated | |
Southeastern Film Critics [59] | Best Film | Nominated |
Chicken Run was released on VHS and DVD in the United States on 21 November 2000 by DreamWorks Home Entertainment. [60]
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released Chicken Run on Blu-ray in North America on 22 January 2019. [61]
In January 2022, the title for the sequel was revealed as Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and was announced for a 2023 release on Netflix. [62] [63] [64] Zachary Levi, Thandiwe Newton, Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays were revealed to be replacing Gibson, Sawalha, Spall and Daniels as the voices of Rocky, Ginger, Nick and Fetcher; David Bradley voiced Fowler due to Whitrow's death in 2017, while Horrocks, Staunton and Ferguson reprised their roles as Babs, Bunty and Mac. [65] Bella Ramsey was cast as Molly, while Nick Mohammed and Josie Sedgwick-Davies voiced two new characters, Dr Fry and Frizzle, respectively. Sam Fell directed with Steve Pegram and Leyla Hobart producing. Kirkpatrick and O'Farrell wrote the script with Rachel Tunnard. [65] In June 2023, Gregson-Williams was revealed to be composing the sequel. [66] Later that month, it was officially announced that the film would release on Netflix on 15 December 2023. [67] Its Netflix release followed its world premiere at the 67th BFI London Film Festival on 14 October 2023, which would also see preview screenings taking place at UK cinemas at the same time. [15]
Chicken Run is a stealth-based 3-D platformer based on the movie. It was released in November 2000 on most consoles. The game is a loose parody of the film The Great Escape , which is set during World War II. [68]
Wallace & Gromit is a British claymation comedy franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving inventor, and Gromit, his loyal and intelligent anthropomorphic beagle. It consists of four short films, two feature-length films, and numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The first short film, A Grand Day Out, was finished and released in 1989. Wallace has been voiced by Peter Sallis and Ben Whitehead. While Wallace speaks very often, Gromit is largely silent and has no dialogue, communicating through facial expressions and body language.
Aardman Animations Limited, stylised as AARDMAN since 2022, is a British animation studio based in Bristol. It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring its plasticine characters from Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Morph. After some experimental computer-animated short films during the late 1990s, beginning with Owzat (1997), Aardman entered the computer animation market with Flushed Away (2006). As of February 2020, it had earned $1.1 billion worldwide, with an average $135.6 million per film. Between 2000 and 2006, Aardman partnered with DreamWorks Animation.
Nicholas Wulstan Park is an English filmmaker and animator who created Wallace & Gromit, Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Early Man. Park has been nominated for an Academy Award six times and won four with Creature Comforts (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993), A Close Shave (1995) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).
Rex the Runt is a stop-motion adult animated claymation pixilation comedy series, primarily consisting of a television show and two short films produced by Aardman Animations and Egmont Imagination for BBC Bristol, with EVA Entertainment co-producing the first series. Its main characters are four plasticine dogs: Rex, Wendy, Bad Bob and Vince.
Creature Comforts is a British stop-motion comedy franchise originating in a 1989 animated short film. The film matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about their homes, making it appear as if the animals were being interviewed about their living conditions. It was created by Nick Park and Aardman Animations. The film became the basis of a series of television advertisements for the electricity boards in the United Kingdom. In 2003, a television series in the same style was released. An American version of the series was also made. A sequel series, Things We Love, first aired on BBC One in 2024.
The Wrong Trousers is a 1993 British stop-motion animated short film directed and co-written by Nick Park. It was produced by Aardman Animations in association with Wallace and Gromit Ltd., BBC Bristol, Lionheart Television and BBC Children's International. It is the second film featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace and his dog Gromit, following A Grand Day Out (1989). In the film, a villainous penguin, Feathers McGraw, uses a pair of robotic trousers to steal a diamond from the city museum.
Karey Kirkpatrick is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. His films include Chicken Run, The Rescuers Down Under, James and the Giant Peach,Over the Hedge, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlotte's Web, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He has also directed the films, Over the Hedge, Imagine That starring Eddie Murphy and Smallfoot. Kirkpatrick wrote the English-language screenplays for the U.S. releases of the Studio Ghibli films The Secret World of Arrietty in 2012 and From Up on Poppy Hill in 2013.
DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA) (also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The studio has produced a total of 49 feature films, including several of the highest-grossing animated films of all time, with Shrek 2 (2004) having been the highest at the time of its release. Its first film, Antz, was released on October 2, 1998, and its latest film, The Wild Robot, was released on September 27, 2024. They have an upcoming theatrical slate of films, which includes Dog Man on January 31, 2025, the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon on June 13, 2025, The Bad Guys 2 on August 1, 2025, Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie on September 26, 2025, and Shrek 5 on December 23, 2026.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 claymation comedy film directed by Nick Park and Steve Box and featuring Park's Wallace and Gromit characters. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation in collaboration with Aardman Animations. It was the second feature-length film by Aardman, after Chicken Run (2000). The film debuted in Sydney, Australia on 4 September 2005, before being released in theaters in the United States on 7 October 2005 and in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2005.
Flushed Away is a 2006 animated adventure comedy film directed by Sam Fell and David Bowers, produced by Cecil Kramer, David Sproxton, and Peter Lord, and written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan and Will Davies. It was the third and final DreamWorks Animation film co-produced with Aardman Features following Chicken Run (2000) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), and was the first Aardman project mostly made in CGI animation as opposed to starting with their usual stop-motion – this was because using water on plasticine models could damage them, and it was complex to render the effect in another way. The film stars the voices of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Shane Richie, Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis and Jean Reno. In the film, a pampered fancy rat named Roddy St. James (Jackman) is flushed down the toilet in his Kensington apartment by a sewer rat named Sid (Richie), and befriends a scavenger named Rita Malone (Winslet) in order to get back home while evading a sinister toad (McKellen) and his hench-rats.
Peter Duncan Fraser Lord CBE is a British animator, director, producer and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring plasticine duo Wallace & Gromit. He also directed Chicken Run along with Nick Park from DreamWorks Animation, and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! from Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation which was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85th Academy Awards.
Steven Royston Box is an English animator and director who works for Aardman Animations.
Chicken Run is a platform-stealth based 3-D platform video game based on the 2000 film of the same name. Developed by Blitz Games and published by Eidos Interactive and THQ, the game was released in November 2000, prior to the movie's home media release, for the PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, Dreamcast, and Game Boy Color. The game is a loose parody of the 1963 film The Great Escape. The Game Boy Color version is a 2D isometric puzzle-solving game. The game's plot centers about a band of chickens escaping from an egg farm from their evil owners and fighting for freedom.
Shaun the Sheep Movie is a 2015 animated adventure comedy film written and directed by Richard Starzak and Mark Burton. It is based on the British television series Shaun the Sheep, in turn a spin-off of the Wallace & Gromit film A Close Shave (1995). Starring the voices of Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, and Omid Djalili, the film follows Shaun and his flock navigating the big city to save their amnesiac farmer, while an overzealous animal control worker pursues the group. It was produced by Aardman Animations, and financed by StudioCanal in association with Anton Capital Entertainment.
Gulp is a 2011 British animated short film by Aardman Animations working with Wieden + Kennedy and filmed on Nokia N8 smart phone, then Nokia's top-of-the-range. It is considered a spiritual successor to another Aardman short, Dot. Gulp was filmed "on the world’s largest stop-motion set". The film run-time is under two minutes, and is followed by a behind-the-scenes featurette. The co-directors were Will Studd and Sumo Science.
A Pig's Tail is a 2012 British-American 5-minute stop motion animated short film directed by Sarah Cox, written by Matthew Walker, produced by Jason Bartholemew, Gutleben Christine and Heather Wright and created by Aardman Animations for The Humane Society of the United States.
Aardman Animations is an animation studio in Bristol, England that produces stop motion and computer-animated features, shorts, TV series and adverts.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is a 2023 British animated comedy film directed by Sam Fell from a screenplay written by Karey Kirkpatrick, John O'Farrell, and Rachel Tunnard, based on a story conceived by Kirkpatrick and O'Farrell. A sequel to Chicken Run (2000), the film was produced by Aardman Animations and stars the voices of Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi, Bella Ramsey, Romesh Ranganathan, David Bradley, Daniel Mays, Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, Josie Sedgwick-Davies, Peter Serafinowicz, Nick Mohammed, and Miranda Richardson. It tells the story of Rocky and Ginger who lead a rescue mission when their daughter has been abducted to a highly-advanced poultry farm run by their old enemy Mrs. Tweedy.
Robin Robin is a 2021 stop-motion animated musical short film produced by Aardman Animations, created and directed by Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, and written by Ojari, Please, and Sam Morrison.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a 2024 British stop-motion animated comedy film produced by Aardman Animations and the BBC in association with Netflix, and directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. It is the sixth Wallace & Gromit film, the first since A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008), and the second feature-length film after The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). It features the return of the villainous penguin Feathers McGraw from The Wrong Trousers (1993), who takes revenge on Wallace and Gromit by reprogramming their robotic garden gnome.
Through C+P, its joint acquisition venture with Pathe, it also has a deal with Mandalay Entertainment for rights in France and the UK to 12 films kicking off with Sleepy Hollow as well as European rights to animated movie Chicken Run, which was co-financed with DreamWorks SKG.
17 December 2000