Chicken Little... the Un-Review

First Things First

For those who only want to know something about what to expect when you go to see Disney's first fully computer-animated film Chicken Little, just stick to the first two sections of this column. As I mentioned in our October 11 story, Little Chicken, Big Expectations, I don't do movie reviews; so consider this a sort of un-review. When you get to the "Great Expectations" subhead, stop reading, close your browser, get up from the keyboard, and go see Chicken Little.

And I do mean you should go see Chicken Little. I can't guarantee what your experience will be like, but mine was a lot of fun.

Fish out of Water, gurgled by Dan Molina and Mr. Woolensworth voiced by Patrick Stewart in Disney's Chicken Little.
© 2005 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

The screening I attended this past Wednesday afternoon, at the El Capitan theatre in Hollywood, was a Dolby Digital Cinema presentation in Disney Digital 3-D. It was amazing. The 3-D glasses designed by Real D work pretty much like ordinary sunglasses, although they come with a warning not to use them as such. The glasses were not cumbersome or annoying, and they don't distort your vision when looking away from the screen as older 3-D systems used to do, often giving audiences headaches.

This was digital 3-D done right. An Academy award winning sound engineer once told me that when Surround Sound came into use, the first thing the studio heads told everyone was that this new technology should never take anyone out of the experience of the story they were watching. And that's precisely what Disney did with its "revolutionary new system" of digital 3-D technology.

After a few dazzling three-dimensional effects during the opening credits, a few moments spent ogling the depth and clarity of the image, you soon forget that what you're watching is a huge special effect. That's not to say that the 3-D imaging is toned down once the movie gets going; quite the opposite. The depth, lighting, and shading is so crisp, so clear that the experience soon becomes as natural as watching a ball game from the bleachers of your favorite stadium.

But what about the movie? Well…I laughed, I cried, I had a great time. I found Chicken Little engaging, entertaining, and, despite being a guest of the Disney Company, well worth the price of admission. That is to say, I plan on going back to see it again and this time on my own dime, or in this case more like $10.

Then Again

Chicken Little, however, does have some problems. The middle of the story bogs down when it makes its uneasy shift from a father-son bonding comedy to a science-fiction-slapstick-thriller and then back to the father-son thing now joined with an action-adventure-comedy thingy. The audience that I was a part of included a great many children of all ages. I noticed that the kids tended to loose interest, started to fidget, and began asking their parents questions about the story during the SciFi scenes.

Zach Braff and Gary Marshall play son and father Chicken Little and Buck Cluck in Disney's Chicken Little.
© 2005 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

All of that said, however, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed some of the gags and bits that several reviewers have found the most annoying.

More than one critic has complained about the use of contemporary pop-culture references. They found things such as linking one of Chicken Little's sight gags with a scene from Steven Spielberg's Indian Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc particularly onerous, this despite the fact that Disney uses the same gag in its Indiana Jones Temple of Doom attraction at Disneyland. I thought it was well executed and funny, even though I knew it was coming.

Disney animation purists have complained that the use of pop-music, especially by Runt of the Litter (voiced hilariously by Steve Zahan), will keep Chicken Little forever a product of this decade, thus preventing it from ever becoming an enduring and endearing Disney classic like Cinderella.

But who cares? It was funny, and if your grandkids don't understand it when you're sitting around your home 4-D holographic theatre watching the sixth titanium release of the video, well, it will give you something to talk with them about.

So does Chicken Little mark the return of Disney animation to the heights of critical and box office acclaim it enjoyed with films like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King: probably not.

I have absolutely no idea how well Chicken Little will do at the box office. I will tell you I honestly believe it's a much better film than Disney's last traditionally animated film, Home on the Range and will probably have broader audience appeal than Treasure Planet and Atlantis.

Go see it. I think you'll enjoy it.

Great Expectations

Probably the best thing I could say about Chicken Little is that just like the wonder of its 3-D imagery, the unfolding story soon made me forget about most, if not all, of the things I've been hearing about this film for more than two years.

As previously mentioned in our Little Chicken, Big Expectations story, Chicken Little hatched during one of the most tumultuous times in Disney Company history. As a result, Chicken Little, unlike any animated feature from the Mouse House before it, came into being carrying a coop full of expectations not usually heaped on an animated film.

During the '90s and the first part of this decade, virtually every division of the Walt Disney Company, save for its cruise lines, came under attack from guests, long time fans, investors, and even Walt's nephew Roy E. Disney for squandering the Disney legacy of quality and innovation in favor of short term gain.

During his Save Disney shareholder revolt, Roy Disney was particularly critical of the way WDFA was being run. Reports of an animation division overrun by MBAs, even as creative talent was being terminated by the hundreds, were rampant.

To its credit, and that of Director Mark Dindal, Producer Randy Fullmer, and an exceptionally talented and dedicated staff of artists at WDFA, Chicken Little, while still bearing some of the scars of creation by marketing committee, shows the first real blush of being the kind of animated storytelling one expects to be associated with the name Disney.

Mark Dindal director and Randy Fullmer producer of Disney's Chicken Little.
©2005 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

As one veteran Disney animator who was there at the beginning of this project told me, "I have a lot of respect for Randy Fullmer and Mark Dindal. I think both were stuck with a pretty daunting task. Disney was actively trying to reinvent itself with the (then) new medium of CGI and totally forgot that what made Disney work was not the medium, but good story telling. DreamWorks Animation had cleaned up at the box office with Shrek, and Disney demanded that Randy and Mark give them a Shrek as well.

"It's the old story of management meddling in…creative affairs. This movie is not the film Mark started out to make some years ago. The big boss, Michael Eisner, even insisted that Chicken Little be a boy, not a girl. The story was totally reworked to fit what management thought would be a cool, hip, edgy movie with broad appeal. Y'know, like Shrek."

He went on to tell me that crafting a good story is never an easy task, and that was why he felt it was important that he learned his skill and his craft from "the old guys" who did the job before him.

"But, today Disney does not value the 'old guys,' so the kids never learn," he continued. "Some of the young kids at Disney think I want to trash their films. They're dead wrong."

He concluded his remarks by saying that all he wants is for today's generation of animated film makers to learn from the mistakes and success of their predecessors "how to make better films." But how are a bunch of business school educated know-it-alls ever going to do that?

At times, Chicken Little is a little too clever by half. And despite the fact that I really enjoyed the film, there were several gags that just screamed, "Oh! Oh, put this in 'cause teenage boys just love (insert potty joke here)." But, for every lame concession to marketers, there are at least three well earned laughs.

Will Chicken Little do well at the box office just because I think it's a good first step on the road back to great Disney storytelling? I have no idea. In general this has been a bad year at the box office for Hollywood. Films that were supposed to have done well, like Cinderella Man, tanked, and for every Batman Begins and Star Wars III there was a Guess Who and Monster In Law.

Chicken Little does not have the benefit of being a summer release, where a hit film can rack up big box office from repeat business from vacationing school kids and parents looking for something to do with the kids. It's being released this Friday, a full three weeks before the fall holiday season while kids are still in school. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, it will be going head-to-head with the magical mystery tour that is Harry Potter. Even Disney's own The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, scheduled for release December 9, is likely to eat into any residual business Chicken Little might hope to grab.

Walt Disney Studios is being very tight lipped about what it expects Chicken Little's opening weekend box office to be like. As a friend of mine in the business said, "You can expect that when the numbers come in, the Mouse is going to find a way to express its satisfaction with them."

As for me, whatever the final box office totals turn out to be, I'm betting that this film will have a long and prosperous life on video, especially if they can recreate that great 3-D effect on TV!

C'ya real soon.