I remember being introduced to Aardman at a very young age with the classic Wallace & Gromit episodes, in fact they’re some of the earliest things I remember watching. I distinctly remember my grandparents picking up a VHS copy of Chicken Run to be kept at their house for all of the grandkids, and I had that thing running on a loop.
But it’s been a good few years since I last watched Chicken Run, and with the release of the sequel on Netflix today, I felt like now was the perfect time to revisit what was probably one of my favourite films as a child.
Life on Tweedy’s Chicken Farm is like living in a prison. Eggs must be laid frequently, and plentifully, or you face the chop.
Ginger (Julia Sawalha) wants to escape, and she wants to take her sisters with her for a better life beyond the wire fence cage.
But when Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) invests in a pie making machine, she aims to improve profits by fattening the hens up and baking them into pies instead.
With the arrival of a rooster, Rocky (Mel Gibson), who claims he can teach the hens to fly, time is running out for the chickens, especially with Mr. Tweedy (Tony Haygarth) believing that ‘those chickens are up to something’.
But it’s been a good few years since I last watched Chicken Run, and with the release of the sequel on Netflix today, I felt like now was the perfect time to revisit what was probably one of my favourite films as a child.
Life on Tweedy’s Chicken Farm is like living in a prison. Eggs must be laid frequently, and plentifully, or you face the chop.
Ginger (Julia Sawalha) wants to escape, and she wants to take her sisters with her for a better life beyond the wire fence cage.
But when Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) invests in a pie making machine, she aims to improve profits by fattening the hens up and baking them into pies instead.
With the arrival of a rooster, Rocky (Mel Gibson), who claims he can teach the hens to fly, time is running out for the chickens, especially with Mr. Tweedy (Tony Haygarth) believing that ‘those chickens are up to something’.
It’s tough to know exactly where to start with the praise for Chicken Run because it’s all just so great. The story is heavily based on The Great Escape, but it’s imbued with so much Aardman humour that I’d say it kind of tops the original in the same weird way that The Muppets Christmas Carol does for Charles Dickens.
The story of an escape from a WWII prisoner of war camp translates surprisingly well to a chicken farm. In fact, I’d say that the farm itself is kind of the biggest star of the show here because it’s just got so much personality for a place that looks so dreary. I’d say the weakest part of the story is Ginger, mostly because she doesn’t have much of a personality beyond wanting to escape from the farm. That seems to be her only reason to exist, to try and escape. Meanwhile her fellow inmates Babs (Jane Horrocks), Bunty (Imelda Staunton), Mac (Lynn Ferguson), and Fowler (Benjamin Whitrow) are great personalities that have their own reasons for wanting to escape or even stay at the farm. Rocky’s also a great character and Gibson gives the best vocal performance of the film as a result. I love the reveal later in the film that he doesn’t actually know how to fly and he’s just lying to them so that he has somewhere to lay low until the travelling circus he’s a part of moves on without him. For him it’s just as much a prison break as the others, and yet he fails to understand why they want out so much. It’s an intriguing character flaw that gets explored really well in the final act.
I also can’t move on until I’ve addressed the Tweedy’s. Mr. Tweedy’s this bumbling idiot of a man who genuinely comes across as crazy because he thinks the chickens are scheming and plotting. He sounds deranged and the flat way that Haygarth delivers the lines works perfectly.
Mrs. Tweedy is of course the standout of the two though and she’s genuinely terrifying. The way that directors Nick Park and Peter Lord have her animated makes her a genuinely imposing screen presence, and paired with Richardson’s chillingly evil line delivery made Mrs. Tweedy a villain I was genuinely terrified of as a child, and as an adult I revel in how excellent of a villain she is.
The story of an escape from a WWII prisoner of war camp translates surprisingly well to a chicken farm. In fact, I’d say that the farm itself is kind of the biggest star of the show here because it’s just got so much personality for a place that looks so dreary. I’d say the weakest part of the story is Ginger, mostly because she doesn’t have much of a personality beyond wanting to escape from the farm. That seems to be her only reason to exist, to try and escape. Meanwhile her fellow inmates Babs (Jane Horrocks), Bunty (Imelda Staunton), Mac (Lynn Ferguson), and Fowler (Benjamin Whitrow) are great personalities that have their own reasons for wanting to escape or even stay at the farm. Rocky’s also a great character and Gibson gives the best vocal performance of the film as a result. I love the reveal later in the film that he doesn’t actually know how to fly and he’s just lying to them so that he has somewhere to lay low until the travelling circus he’s a part of moves on without him. For him it’s just as much a prison break as the others, and yet he fails to understand why they want out so much. It’s an intriguing character flaw that gets explored really well in the final act.
I also can’t move on until I’ve addressed the Tweedy’s. Mr. Tweedy’s this bumbling idiot of a man who genuinely comes across as crazy because he thinks the chickens are scheming and plotting. He sounds deranged and the flat way that Haygarth delivers the lines works perfectly.
Mrs. Tweedy is of course the standout of the two though and she’s genuinely terrifying. The way that directors Nick Park and Peter Lord have her animated makes her a genuinely imposing screen presence, and paired with Richardson’s chillingly evil line delivery made Mrs. Tweedy a villain I was genuinely terrified of as a child, and as an adult I revel in how excellent of a villain she is.
Aardman are world famous for their Claymation skills and this was their first feature film, so it’s really impressive to see how excellent of a first go this was. It’s so small in scale when you think about it, how the majority of the film takes place within the chicken pen, but the scale of everything seems so grand when blown up on the big screen. I think stop-motion and Claymation may be my favourite form of animation because the labour of love can be seen in every single detail. Everything was made by hand, physically scratched into a surface or moulded into a shape. The kind of materials that are being worked with, and the authenticity of what you’re seeing is simply unrivalled and Chicken Run shows all of that off in every single frame.
Chicken Run is simply incredible. It’s brilliant entertainment for the whole family, and I just love the animation style so much. Mrs. Tweedy is an excellent villain, and the supporting cast of characters are great fun with plenty of side-splitting jokes. With Dawn of the Nugget out now it’s never been a better time to revisit Chicken Run, and I may just dip my toe back into Aardman’s entire back catalogue for the claymation alone.
Chicken Run is simply incredible. It’s brilliant entertainment for the whole family, and I just love the animation style so much. Mrs. Tweedy is an excellent villain, and the supporting cast of characters are great fun with plenty of side-splitting jokes. With Dawn of the Nugget out now it’s never been a better time to revisit Chicken Run, and I may just dip my toe back into Aardman’s entire back catalogue for the claymation alone.