Chicken Run

Positive—Clean family cartoon type movie. Lots of laughs! Even kept my 20 month old’s attention! Nice to go see a movie and not worry about what you may hear or see.
My Ratings: [4/4]

Positive—I have been fond of this stop-motion picture ever since I first watched it as a nine-year-old. I have seen it a few times again since, and I always enjoy the actors, the colorful clay and fabric-animated visuals (including emotional moments), the musical score and most of the characters. Every human and animal (the animals, especially) are impressive an expressive to look at and there is beautiful flying scenery (a similarity to “Wallace and Gromit,” another from Aardman Animation).

While this animal escape tale is one of the most memorable and likable of its genre that I’ve seen, there are a few questionable moments that I recall. Many of the characters” lines are cute and creatively humorous, but there are two rodent characters whose jokes are occasionally clever, but generally a bit distasteful. For example, they briefly can be heard joking at the expense of a hen who has laid the eggs that they plan to sell, or possibly make a meal of for themselves. These two characters are not intended to be role models during most of the story, however (since they begin as crafty charlatans). Their comedy becomes cleaner after they aid the hens and roosters in their escape from cruelty.

The only other morally questionable elements I can remember was a scene of flirting that isn’t taken very far (between some of the hens and Rocky the American circus rooster), and the villain (Mrs. Tweedy) verbally abusing her husband once or twice for not understanding something.

The positive characters on the other hand are forgiving of each other, resourceful, hopeful, and although one’s dishonesty jeopardizes the safety of the others, he admits this to himself and rescues them without any selfish motives, while the others instantly accept him back. Characters who are threatened find ways to evade or delay their antagonist, but not harm them out of vengeance. The female protagonist, Ginger, is also self-sacrificing, wise and is seen praying sincerely when she does not know what to do.

As for profanity or vulgar dialog, hardly any of the characters use it—the only offenses being from an antagonist and a frustrated secondary character (“idiot” and one faint use of “flipping”). I do find the latter startling for a family picture. There are no other such remarks, and no blasphemous or sacrilegious dialog.

There is no substance use, and any violence is non-graphical (such as a brief, but somewhat serious fight scene between the chickens as a result of a life-and-death matter and near-abandonment that was shortly resolved and not encouraged). The villain is given an authentic sinister performance and the death of a chicken at her hands occurs offscreen.

While not a specifically biblical story, I would mostly recommend this film for its central moral, endearing characters, generally positive portrayals and pretty animation. However, the mute button is necessary for a few short crude lines.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 4½

Wonderful! Finally, a movie we can take our kids to see without worry! Our family loves “Wallace and Gromit”, so it was a treat to have a full length movie of this type of humor. You will enjoy this movie whether you’ve seen W and G or not, so GO SEE IT! Pre-school through grandparents will like this one. My Ratings: [5/5]

From the opening scenes of a chicken “concentration camp” to the wild finale, I enjoyed this movie from beginning to end. I really enjoyed the wacky humor, a lot of which I believe went right over the heads of my teenage kids. Small children will surely enjoy the slapstick behavior and silly-looking characters, adults will roar at the dialogue, which is filled with puns, references to old films, and so on. The plot is very predictable, no surprises here. But the movie is very clean, very funny, and I had a great time watching it. The only reason I did not give it a “5” on moral rating is that it was not explicitly Christian, but there was absolutely nothing offensive here. I recommend it highly. My Ratings: [4½/4]

…really funny… Some moral themes found portrayed in the movie were; the chickens’ desire to be free from the tyranny of Mrs. Tweedy, who controls and rules their lives. We see that freedom is very costly. Ginger had many opportunities to be free, yet sacrificed her own freedom time and again to make sure ALL the chickens would be free together. It’s also brought out that people (or chickens, as the case may be) should not set out to lie and deceive others. Lying for one’s own gain is never right. The things that may seem offensive include some innuendoes about the rooster being in a barnyard full of hens. The demise of a “non-egg-producing chicken” was pretty harrowing, nothing is shown directly, but the idea is clear.your children may never want to eat chicken again. (The PETA people will love this movie.) Our family understands farm life, but I don’t know if all children viewing this movie will be able to comprehend why this happened, or if younger children will even understand what happened. My Ratings: [3/5]

Our family truly enjoyed this movie. We have children ages 7 and 5 and they enjoyed it as much as my husband and I did. The jokes and gags were great. The Hogan’s Hero’s similarities are a great flash back of when TV was fun to watch without the sex and violence we have today! Rocky and Ginger are great examples of being strong willed, but able to work things out in the end. The ending is a good one. Be sure to stay through all the credits. We waited until they brought the lights up and we thankful we did. Patience is a virtue and we got a reward for it! Bottom line is, take the whole family and enjoy the show! My Ratings: [5/5]

Nick Park is a genius. This movie was funny, clean, and not offensive at all. No swearing, no sex—not even alludes to it. The script was great. If you like Wallace and Gromit, you will love this movie. I forgot I was watching clay figures! I would recommend this to all audiences, but I think some children under 6 may get a little bored since it is 1½ hours long. My Ratings: [5/5]

What a great relief! I think the adults may have laughed more than the kids at times. Movie appears like a war prisoner movie. You can see some similarities in “Stalag 13.” Only scene that partially bothered my 7 yr old was the “execution” of a chicken. All they showed was the shadow of an axe coming up and the sound, but there is no doubt that the chicken does not make it. Could bother small kids. The rest is hilarious. “Wallace and Gromit” maker does a great job with humor, context, and story line. The story line is good to show that you should never give up no matter what the consequences and what happens along the way. Biblically it reads a lot of how most of all the oppressed people had to keep fighting to get out of where they did not want to be. I was reminded again of Moses and the freeing of his people. The lead character (who shows good leadership) is always going back for more, and never giving up, not for one chicken, but for the whole barnyard. My Ratings: [4/4]

Clean family cartoon type movie. Lots of laughs! Even kept my 20 month old’s attention! Nice to go see a movie and not worry about what you may hear or see. My Ratings: [4/4]

Generally about once a year Hollywood gets a family movie right. Last year it was “Toy Story 2.” This year we got it a bit earlier with “Chicken Run.” Whether or not you’re familiar with Nick Park’s “Wallace and Gromit,” you can’t help but love this movie. It’s imaginative, clever, full of great characters, and just plain fun to watch. This is no computer generated, hands off animation. You can delight and be awed by the sheer task of pulling off claymation at this level of smoothness and complexity. The crowded house we watched it with at the first showing on opening night clapped and cheered at the end, and laughed throughout the movie. I will have to watch it on video to catch all of the humor because many lines were missed amongst the laughter. See this movie if you see only one this summer. We need to back these guys up and hope they continue to bring some magic back to the movies. My Ratings: [4/4½]

This movie actually came as a surprise to me. It actually kept you interested and laughing without having to lower your standards. The claymation truly surpassed all past efforts I have seen. Only one comment from the rat pushed it from being “perfect” but wasn’t truly out of line. It was more a matter of taste. I have a 15, 11, and 5 year old and each one of them thoroughly enjoyed it. My 5 year old is sensitive to the anticipation of scary moments but even this movie’s more intense moments did not seem to bother him. Let’s hope for more good entertainment like this. My Ratings: [4/4]

I was pleasantly surprised to find a G-rated movie with nothing offensive in it. We took our 5 yo. to see it and he really enjoyed it. It was your typical predictable kid’s movie, but at least no one had a bad attitude toward adults, there were no references to the occult, and the bad guys were not demonic. I would recommend it as a good wholesome movie for any age child. My Ratings: [4½/3]

Positive—“Chicken Run” was an amazing movie. The chickens struggle very hard to obtain the freedom they desire. Nick and Fetcher were a bit crooked in terms of morality, but they are ultimately good characters who risk their lives for the chickens. Rocky starts out as an arrogant liar, but he soon learns the error of his ways; even before he learns a lesson, Ginger vehemently speaks against his ways of thinking. We need more protagonists like Ginger for the kids and less like Eric Cartman. When Rocky does return to help the chickens in the nick of time, Ginger sums up disapproval and forgiveness in a nice way: Just a quick disciplinary smack for leaving, immediately followed by an attempted kiss for coming back. It’s nice that Ginger does not drag her grudge on and on with an apologetic and repentant Rocky in the corner. Good is portrayed as awesome and heroic and evil is portrayed as greedy and insane. It’s nice that good is called good and evil is called evil in this movie.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Good / Moviemaking quality: 4

This movie is definitely for kids. The humor is not at an adult level, but I found nothing objectable about it, other than it bored me as a parent. My son who is 5 years-old really enjoyed it and would like the whole family to go see this. I made no promises and just really don’t believe that I could sit through this again. If you decide to go, make sure you go to a matinee and this one could even wait until it comes out on rental. There is no bad language or in appropriate behavior.

…All of the charm of Wallace and Gromit… hilarious moments, and some truly incredible actions sequences… something for everybody…

Preview gladly recommends that you run out and catch CHICKEN RUN with the whole family.

…Every moment… is rich with detail and movement.

…near-perfection…