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For five to ten year olds, I can surely see
“Chicken Little” entertaining them and drawing them into fits of giggles
and smiles. But, anyone over that age bracket, and it will get shaky. My
nephew loves it, and he’s five. But I assure you that’s not the reason
for the generous sentiment. I mean in spite of the lacking of Pixar from
this Disney cash cow, “Chicken Little” has appeal. Not just because it
has a lot of cute animals, but because the animation is hilarious. There
are plenty of great sight gags that I thoroughly enjoyed watching and
didn’t rely on the dialogue completely. The “Fish out of water”
character alone verifies the pretty sharp humor. I giggled a few times,
I'll admit, but perhaps that’s because with animation I’m pretty easy to
please. Granted, “Home on the Range” and “Shark Tale” were pure swill,
but in spite of that, "Chicken Little" is a pleasing film for the first
half.
“Shrek” was a real black cloud on animated
films, and it continues to be an irritating framework for further
animated entries into film. “Chicken Little” adheres to the formula of
“Shrek” with a world filled with pop culture references. Hell, the
writers even feel as if they have to turn “Chicken Little” into a
quasi-“War of the Worlds” in the second half. And it ends up becoming a
cheap retread in the end. But it’s not entirely surprising considering
the film tends to meander over and over again.
The writers can never seem to understand the
plot to their own film, so they jump from central plot to central plot
leaving “Chicken Little” to feel utterly disjointed and hackneyed.
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First, Chicken Little is trying
to overcome his mistake in confusing a street sign as the
sky falling, then he joins a baseball team trying to prove
himself, then he suddenly wants to prove he can play by
winning the champion, and suddenly we revert to the alien
plot involving the street sign that’s not a street sign, and
weak climax involving the alien’s intentions which happen to
parallel Chicken Little’s situation with his father.
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It’s this type of predictable tripe you’d
expect from Disney, and “Chicken Little” never achieves its potential.
That can be because the plot for the real Chicken Little is one note.
He thinks the sky is falling, when it’s not.
But they felt they had to expand on this ending in a weak film with
numerous plots.
“Chicken Little” is a bland byproduct of too
many cooks in the kitchen, with not enough ideas on how to bring their
different sub-plots together into a cohesive entertaining film for kids.
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