Easy, quick and utterly forgettable.
Chicken Little (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:152
Fresh:54
Rotten:98
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: In its first non-Pixar CGI venture, Disney expends more effort in the technical presentation than in crafting an original storyline.
Runtime: 81 mins
Genre: Childrens
US Box Office: $135,289,768
Synopsis: Disney's first venture into the realm of CGI animation (without Pixar) tells the tale of all-animal town Oakey Oaks's most infamous resident, Chicken Little (voiced by Zach Braff), who causes... Disney's first venture into the realm of CGI animation (without Pixar) tells the tale of all-animal town Oakey Oaks's most infamous resident, Chicken Little (voiced by Zach Braff), who causes town-wide panic when he claims the sky is falling. A year later he's still shunned by everyone, including his dad (Gary Marshall), a single rooster with an incredibly wide tie. Determined to end his losing streak, the bespectacled Little joins the baseball team, even though he can barely lift the bat. Luckily his three equally outcast friends have faith in him: a pig with a yen for '70s disco (Steve Zahn); a Harpo Marx-esque goldfish in a diving helmet; and Abby, a buck-toothed female duckling (Joan Cusak). According to her sources in magazines such as Modern Mallard, Abby is sure Chicken Little merely needs "closure" with dad over the sky incident. But when the sky really does start falling due to a full-on alien invasion, and only Chicken Little knows why, dad still doesn't want to believe him. Kids are sure to understand Chick's frustration in this matter, and parents will dig the sly riffs on films like VERTIGO (1958), THE BLOB (1959), INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996), and WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953), as well as Disney's own back catalog. In place of the usual musical numbers, CHICKEN LITTLE includes montages set to Barenaked Ladies songs and reinterpreted pop favorites (the old Art Garfunkel gut-wrencher, "All I Know," is a standout), while celebrity voiceovers come from Harry Shearer, Wallace Shawn, Patrick Stewart, Adam West, and Don Knotts, with Amy Sedaris as the obnoxious "Foxy Loxy." [More]
Starring: Zach Braff, Joan Cusack, Don Knotts, Catherine O'Hara
Starring: Zach Braff, Joan Cusack, Don Knotts, Catherine O'Hara, Steve Zahn, Fred Willard, Garry Marshall
Director: Garry Marshall, Mark Dindal
Director: Garry Marshall, Mark Dindal
Producer: Randy Fulmer
Screenwriter: Steve Bencich, Ron J. Friedman
Composer: John Debney
Studio: Buena Vista Pictures
Reviews for Chicken Little
So this new Chicken Little is a hero, of sorts: a feisty little nerd in green hipster specs, who bounces off walls and babbles like Woody Allen.
Animation fans will find this worth the wait, though apparently there's no story-generating software that can tap into the dark recesses of a child's psyche as cannily as Uncle Walt once did.
Heavy with the sweat of a studio straining to snatch the kids back by throwing digi-crayons, potty jokes, and disco tunes at the lens
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.
Tasteful vocal performances, by a talented cast including Zach Braff, Garry Marshall and Steve Zahn, can't relieve Disney's first inhouse all-computer generated animation movie from its music video trappings and inadequate storyline.
the cinematic equivalent of a battery-farmed egg: not exactly rotten, but surrounded by dozens of others just like it in appearance, shape and taste.
It lacks a good, old-fashioned story -- the fourth dimension every 3-D feature needs to be a classic.
Post-Pixar Disney’s “Digital 3-D” concept doesn’t seem to include any reservations about 2-D character development.
A cute movie that -- with a G rating -- is suitable for even the smallest children.
...overall lack of substance ultimately lends the proceedings a vibe of irrelevance.
...because of its winsome characters, it may appeal to the very young.
Truly there's no sense of calm to the film, which feels as if it's been assembled with the manic energy of a preschooler trying to fit square-shaped plastic toys into circle-shaped holes.
Not quite the animated masterpiece one would expect of Disney of old, but nonetheless a step in the right direction.
Line by line, scene by scene, visual gag by visual gag, this picture is disappointing: underpowered and dull, even for kids.
Only a singularly subversive sidekick, a Streisand-obsessed porker (Zahn), makes this movie stand out from a host of other mediocre animated kids' flicks.
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