Chicken Little

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Whilst it’s not as terrible as Home on the Range, Chicken Little goes in such a bizarre direction and has such dire animation that it still ranks amongst the worst films so far.  

In fact, the basic idea behind the film, that Chicken Little was right and that the sky really was falling, actually shows some promise, as it’s a unique and interesting take on a classic children’s story. If this film had been made in any other decade, it could’ve turned out a lot better. Unfortunately, it was made in the 2000s when Walt Disney Animation Studios were desperately trying to keep up with shiny new modern studios Dreamworks and Pixar. As previously seen in their other films to increasing extents, this meant that classic timeless stories with beautiful animation were out and desperate attempts to be hip and ‘down with the kids’ were in. Due to the failure of Home on the Range, Disney also decided to scrap hand drawn animation. Because that’s why Home on the Range flopped apparently. As a result, Chicken Little was Disney’s first foray into CGI and… let’s just say it doesn’t look great. In fact, other than a few nice backgrounds and some creative scenery choices, much of the film is quite frankly ugly to look at. Their desperate need to be trendy also means that unfortunately instead of the sweeping scores of the Renaissance, we now get largely forgettable pop songs as our soundtrack.

In addition to this, when developing the premise of this film, they decided that the reason for the sky falling should be…aliens?!? As I said, this is such a bizarre direction for the plot to take that it’s hard to take it seriously after that point. Even before that, the plot about Chicken Little’s relationship with his father is marred by the fact that they somehow managed to make Chicken Little’s Dad one of the worst parents in Disney history, possibly in animation in general. The fact that Chicken Little needs to be proven right in his claims to earn his Dad’s support also sends a pretty dodgy message overall.

But outside of all this, it does have some redeeming qualities, as Chicken Little himself makes for an adorable protagonist and there are some genuinely funny moments. Other than that, there’s not much great about Chicken Little. 

Overall score

Good guys: Although Chicken Little is really cute, apart from his sidekick fish out of water none of the other good guys are particularly likable or memorable, meaning the good guys get 5/10 overall

Bad guys: The aliens also aren’t particularly memorable, so they get 4/10

Animation: Aside from some nice backgrounds, this is some of Disney’s worst animation, meaning it gets 2/10

Music: Most of the music is pretty bland, but none of it’s awful so the music balances out to 5/10

Plot: It initially shows promise, but goes in a completely bizarre direction, meaning that the plot gets 4/10

Overall score: 20/50

Next review: Meet the Robinsons