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'Chicken' doesn't fly
Weak script, jokes and music ground Disney's foray into computer animation
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This "Chicken" is indeed little.
After all the big hype about how Disney's first venture into pure computer animation needs to save the company, "Chicken Little" turns out to be nothing more than a passably average cartoon feature. Little kids will love it because it is what it is. Parents will put up with it because at times it's visually awesome. But this movie isn't going to change anyone's life.
Think "Shark Tale" instead of "Finding Nemo." Think "Madagascar" instead of "The Incredibles." In other words, think small and you won't be disappointed. The sky isn't falling, but neither is it exploding.
The film certainly starts out on a rollicking note, with Chicken Little (voiced by Zach Braff) sounding an alarm because he thinks the sky is indeed falling, sending his hometown of Oakey Oaks into a crazed panic that's a complete delight to watch, all crashes and feathers flying and every manner of critter running for his or her life. It serves immediate notice that the folks at Disney have indeed mastered the use of computer animation.
If only they had mastered screenwriting as well. The reason the best computer-animated films -- in other words, the films Pixar has made -- work so beautifully is, as with all the best movies, because the stories are so good. The story for "Chicken Little" isn't bad; it's just somewhat rambling and inconsequential.
It's so inconsequential that the film takes its own sweet time even getting to the actual story. Instead, we meet CL a year after he caused the town panic; he's a dinky guy who's still being ridiculed, and who hungers for the trust of his protective but doubtful father, Buck Cluck (Garry Marshall). He's a portrait in rejection.
Luckily, he has the obligatory group of fellow rejects at school to console him. There's the huge piglet Runt of the Litter (Steve Zahn), the ugly duckling Abby Mallard (Joan Cusack) and the bubble-miming Fish Out of Water, whose head is stuck inside a helmet of H2O.
The script wastes way too much time introducing these admittedly cute characters, and then lingers too long on Abby's crusade to make CL open up to his father.
And then the story starts, right? Nope. Then Chicken Little joins the school baseball team for an overlong sequence that goes exactly where you expect it will.
Eventually -- like halfway through -- we get to what the movie's about. It turns out CL wasn't imagining things when he felt the sky fall on his head. Aliens are in fact circling above and what hit him was a stray tile from their spaceship. So Chicken and his gang have to sound the alarm again to save the world from alien invasion.
As a result of the story's late start, one of the cutest creatures in the movie -- although he does resemble a leftover from "Monsters Inc." -- doesn't get introduced until far too near the end. And CL's big mission to save the earth becomes somewhat compressed.
None of which kills the film. As with most computer animation, you can just sit there and be boggled by the visuals if you want. The texture of the upholstery in Buck Cluck's car alone is stunning (although some of the backgrounds seem a bit lazy at times).
But the film has a nasty habit of falling back on pop-culture references for jokes, the modern hallmark of lazy writing. And are Barbra Streisand jokes really funny these days? Beyond that, it resorts to bodily function yuks as well; Walt's frozen body must be spinning in its cryogenic chamber.
Add to those offenses a soundtrack of disposable ditties and maudlin covers -- this from the company that did "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King" -- and it's safe to say disappointments abound if you care to look for them.
On the flip side, the casting of voices is right on. Braff channels Woody Allen through Billy Crystal and comes up with just the right level of insecurity for Chicken Little, and Marshall's crackled gruff sincerity is perfect for Buck Cluck. Cusack and Zahn have the sidekicks nailed, and a late appearance by Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara kicks up some well-earned chuckles.
The result is a movie that looks good and, aside from the music, sounds good, but isn't really all that good.
It's almost as if Disney was so nervous about its big chance at computer animation that it crammed in the cheap jokes and disposable music and wayward side plots to make sure it appealed to everyone.
They should have had a little more faith in the Chicken. The Little guy might have roared. As it is, he peeps.
You can reach Tom Long at tlong@detnews.com. And join him for Reel Talk, a movie preview and discussion, monthly at the Star Southfield Theatre. To register call (313) 222-1457, (313) 222-1458, or go online at www.detnews.com/entertainment.
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