For Disney's 2005 retelling, or rather sequel, the moral is more like "never fire Pixar".
Okay, that's on the harsh side. The movie, surprisingly, isn't that bad. In fact, it's entertaining, unique from a technical perspective and introduces some great characters, just doesn't let them meet up to their potential. In this story, young Chicken Little (voiced by Scrub's Zach Braff), isn't exactly popular after the "sky is falling" incident a year earlier nearly destroyed the small town of Oakey Oaks where he lives. Now the town see's CL as a little nuts and even his Disney-Typical single father can't find much faith in his son. His only friends are other school outcasts: Abbey Mallard (Ugly Duckling, Joan Cusack), Runt of the Litter and Fish out of Water. Fish is the stand out character. Though he never says anything understandable, his facial expressions and penchant for dramatics leave you wanting more from this little guy, similar to the claymation dog Gromit. Chicken Little is coincidently hit on the head again, but discovers that this piece of the sky is more than he could have expected.
The film is a pretty average affair. The story has more of a twist than I expected, but still tended to be predictable. There's a good amount of comedy, mostly in the form of one-liners and pop culture references, which actually dated the film right off by including Spice Girls, Barbara Streisand and Gloria Gaynor references. Still, at a cool hour 21, the film moved along quickly enough to hold your attention.
I have to say though, part of the reason for my rating falls to technical achievement. Firstly, Disney animators found a way to really recreate the general feel of a 2D animated film that is lacking in most 3D animations. Something Pixar has yet to do. Animators refer to the technique as Squash and Stretch, a way to draw that overemphasizes movement and bends shapes to give movement some oomph. Chicken Little animators have succesfully done this to the extent that some of my faith has been restored.
Additionally, select theatres offer Chicken Little in stereoscopic 3D. This is a new technique however, one that ILM has been developing that brings a level of depth and comfort I've never experienced before in a 3D film. Using polarized glasses, viewers see what I like to call a "Deep Screen". Instead of the cheap scares where a hand comes out of the screen or explosions send shrapnel towards your face, the feeling is more like a shadow box look instead of a pop-up book. Background elements appear behind the screen and foreground characters appear rounded and tangible. The experience is one that is both subtle and dramatic. It was the first 3D film, animated or not, that I walked away from that didn't fell like my eyes needed readjusting. During a special presentation at our screening, Disney animators promised more films using this technique, including America Dog and LucasFilms redux of the original Star Wars Trilogy.
If you have the opportunity to see this in 3D, I can do nothing but recommend seeing the film. As a standard flic, the movie is cute and well animated, funny at times and generally light hearted entertainment. Chicken Little doesn't hold a candle to The Incredibles, but take a crack at it anyway....get it? Chicken egg, crack? Aw c'mon!! All the pro reviews had bad puns in them!!!
