Chicken Little (2005)

"I hear some teenagers get a major rush out of stamp-collecting!", 7 April 2008

For my family's second official Family Movie Night, we went with Chicken Little. In the movie, Chicken Little is hit in the head and causes a great deal of panic and confusion in the town of Oakey Oak with his claim that the sky is falling. When it appears that it was nothing more than an acorn that hit Chicken Little, he becomes the laughing stock of the town. One year later, still attempting to redeem himself, fate strikes once again when Chicken Little is hit on the head. This time, however, he's got the evidence. Even so, is anyone really going to believe Chicken Little's story of an alien invasion?

Going into the movie I had read some of the negative reviews, but wasn't sure whether to believe them or not. I mean, this is Disney after all – how bad can it be? Well the answer is that while Chicken Little isn't the worst movie I've seen recently, it's got way too many problems to call it a winner. Calling it "mediocre" is about the best I can do. While there were a lot of problems I had with the movie, the biggest was with the plot. It just lays there – lifeless. The movie gets off to a good start, but by the time Chicken Little wins the baseball game it becomes quickly apparent that the movie has nothing to offer. The movie's message is handled so ham-fisted that it puts a damper on the whole thing. And who decided to hire Garry Marshall to do the voice of Chicken Little's dad? He's terrible. So I the end, as much as I enjoyed the animation, some of the set-pieces, Don Knotts, and some of the cute characters, they're not near enough to save Chicken Little from the dreaded, unexciting, and mundane 5/10 rating.

And for what it's worth, I'm not sure the movie did much better with my 5 year-old. If he likes a movie, he'll usually watch it again as soon as possible. It's been almost three days now and we've had no mention of a re-watch. Instead, he's back to watching Surf's Up.

5/10