Chicken Little
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: B- Feature: B-
When Disney decided to strike out on their own and do a
computer generated (CG) animated feature without Pixar’s talents, everyone
thought it would be a disaster. When it
was going to be about a legendary children’s character, some wondered how much
of story could be made of a young boy who said the sky was falling and no one
believed him. Then, Chicken Little
came out in 2005 and was a surprise blockbuster hit that surprised critics and
the industry alike. Now comes the DVD
and it is not bad either.
Zack Braff voices the title character and it is a dead-on
match that works. Bespeckled like Miss
Prissy’s fatherless son Egghead in the old Warner Bros. cartoon shorts, the
young chicken is made out to be losing his mind and made an outcast. After that goes on for a while, events start
to occur that slowly start to give the young guy some credibility. But will it be in time before it is too late
to prevent some kind of disaster? Garry
Marshall, Patrick Stewart, Amy Sedaris, Steve Zahn, Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn,
Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, Patrick Warburton, the feature’s
director Mark Dindal, a hilarious bit by Adam West and the late, great Don
Knotts in his last feature film work do an exceptional job of bringing the very
likable characters to life.
The story is simple and this is a G-rated film aimed a
young children that really respects their hearts, souls and minds in a way we
do not see enough. The story is nothing
groundbreaking or earth shattering, but it moves along nicely and has some
pleasant and funny moments. Besides
having all that talent and good qualities going for it, there is one other
thing that makes this work and makes it so watchable. Like the approach to the Toy Story films of digging into
the world and history of toys past and present, this film goes way out of its
way to recreate the world of illustrated storybooks for children in a 3-D like
way, including the kinds of solid and semi-vibrant colors that have made those
volumes classics and even collectibles.
Until the 1980s when home video came in, this was a special world of the
printed page for children’s imaginations and Chicken Little brings this
lovingly to life in a way that can only be described as charming. On the CG art level, that makes it a
classic.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is pretty good,
especially in the choice of color, which is nice and consistent
throughout. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix
is not bad, though was there not room for DTS?
This has some nice sound design and sometimes the Dolby just cannot cut
it. Extras include deleted scenes with
3 alternate openings & optional introductions, Hatching Chicken
Little: A 'making of' featurette, 'Where's Fish?' interactive game,
Cheetah Girls’ Music Video, Barenaked Ladies’ Music Video, Karaoke sing along
and trailers. There is plenty of room
for a sequel and a story even cleverer.
With the business this will do on DVD following its theatrical success,
which should not be too long from now.
- Nicholas Sheffo
