Run You Chicken, Run...
BY BERT EHRMANN

CHICKEN RUN summed up in one word: GO SEE THIS FRICKEN' MOVIE! all right, that's five words, but I'm sure you get the picture. CHICKEN RUN is one of the best movies that has been released this year and I can't recommend it enough. It's one of those rare films that both kids and adults will love, for entirely different reasons.

Rocky to the rescue

At it's essence, CHICKEN RUN is a World War 2 prison camp drama, except that the allied soldiers have been replaced with chickens and the Nazi guards are the farmer Mr. Tweedy, his wife, Mrs. Tweedy, and their two dogs.

The chickens, lead by the total optimist Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha) spend their days eating and laying eggs. The chickens do have one major price to pay for their seemingly good life: they are killed and turned into food when they can no longer deliver on eggs.

Ginger spends her days coming up with different escape plans, but spends her nights locked away when the escape plans are discovered by Mr. Tweedy or his dogs. The chickens are on the brink of giving up and accepting their lot in life when Rocky (voiced by Mel Gibson) seemingly flies in from the dark agreeing to teach the chickens how to fly, and thereby escaping the farm, in trade for them hiding him from a circus owner looking for his main attraction: Rocky the Flying Chicken.

Live free or fry

What ensues is Rocky trying to teach the Ginger and the chickens how to fly and the chickens developing a sense of "hope". Hope that they will escape from the farm and go someplace better. Unfortunately for the chickens, Mrs. Tweedy (voiced by Miranda Richardson) has decided to switch the farm from producing eggs into producing chicken pies. Unless the chickens can figure a way to escape, all will be turned into pies.

Even though the basic story of CHICKEN RUN is one that has been around for awhile (the dark stranger comes into town promising something that he can't really deliver on, but somehow pulls it off in the end) I really liked how director Nick Park handled the whole story. Don't expect the typical Disney movie here, a chicken dies by getting it's head chopped off, abet off screen, at the start of the movie and there are many references to death and sex.

Right from the start, I was drawn in by the movie. My attention never wavered from the screen as the story unfolded before me. I never thought that the movie was running too long or that scenes should be cut. The best parts of the movie were the multiple homage's to other movies. From Rocky and Ginger escaping from the chicken pie machine mimicking the beginning of INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC to Rocky's jump across the prison camp wire that was a lot like Steve McQueen's more famous motorcycle jump in THE GREAT ESCAPE, the homage's were numerous and usually funny.

Go see this movie and I'm sure you'll like it as much as I did. Even if X-MEN is a horrible movie later this summer, the summer of 2000 won't be a wash out: I saw CHICKEN RUN and I loved it.

If I had to rate this movie, I'd give it a ten out of ten. I wasn't expecting much going into the theater but sure took a lot out when I left. I can't wait for this movie to come out on DVD, so that I can watch it again, and again and again... 6/25/2000