Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Chicken Run Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 22, 2019

Chicken Run blends humorous stop-motion talking animal shenanigans with classic World War II prison camp grim. It's a mishmash of styles that wouldn't seem to portend a promising and polished product, but here it is, a fairly good and very unique little movie from the mind of Screenwriter Karey Kirkpatrick, whose other notable works include James and the Giant Peach and The Smurfs 2. The film is tonally dark and not necessarily the sort of happy-go-lucky kids film that it may appear to be; the plot revolves around a coop full of chickens hoping to flee from malicious farmers who ultimately want to process them through a machine that makes chicken pies. Adults might find it a bit more palatable for not only the darker themes but the darker tones that compliment the story rather than a barrage of cheerful hues meant to play to a specific audience.

Farmers Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy (voiced by Tony Haygarth and Miranda Richardson) are fed up with making minuscule profits from the eggs their chickens lay. The villainous Mrs. Tweedy stumbles across a product promising something more, a new way to harvest chickens, not for their eggs but rather for their meat. The chickens are largely unaware of what’s happening, all but for Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha), an unusually intelligent hen who warns of the coming apocalypse. But her voice alone cannot save everyone. She recruits an American cockerel named Rocky Rhodes (voiced by Mel Gibson), who Ginger believes can fly, to help the others learn to fly, too, so thy might soar above the wire and escape their pending fate. Little does Ginger know that Rocky cannot fly and is actually a circus performer who had more than a little propulsion help to make it look like he could soar through the sky.

More so than the core plot or characterization it’s the setting that makes Chicken Run unique. There’s some modest truth to the movie -- and all good humor, and maybe horror, in the case of how the chickens rightly perceive their world and fate, is grounded in some level of truth -- when one considers the real-world wiry wooden coops where chickens do indeed lay their eggs, and from the chicken’s perspective, were they able to think in such terms, that home may very well resemble a prison camp. But it’s a good feel for the movie. The camp, or coop, or however one would label it, is designed with an obvious World War II aesthetic. Shades of movies like The Bridge on the River Kwai and particularly The Great Escape are not only evident in core camp design but also serve as inspirations for the narrative. It’s fun to watch the movie and imagine whether this is how the coop has really been made to look or if it’s just a product of the chickens' imaginations, because one can certainly see it from both the human and chicken perspectives: the humans willingly playing the part of the strict captors with an eye for ending the prisoners' lives while the chickens envision themselves as imprisoned jailbirds awaiting the inevitable slaughter.

The film makes sure to play up the danger without pushing too hard. The pie making machine is made to intimidate. It's grossly impractical, but that's kind of the point. The fear factor drives the chickens to hatch their escape plan, and it is in devising and preparing to execute that plan that the film finds its offsetting, counterbalancing humor. Rocky puts the chickens on a workout plan, there's a stress relieving party, and maybe even a little romance brewing in the air, but the big bad machine is the necessary evil lurking behind closed doors that must be large enough to actually allow it to become a set piece later in the film. The voice cast capably carries the dichotomy; Gibson handles the plucky happy-go-lucky Rocky quite well while Julia Sawalha's work as Ginger remains fairly grounded. Side characters are voiced with aplomb; every actor knows their character and that character's role in the film, each of them playing up the humor as necessary and perfectly intermixing the lighter sides with the foreboding terror. It's done very well all around.

Chicken Run Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This is a very well-rounded image. The picture maintains a natural and strict grain structure that holds for the duration. The filmic qualities are impressive and the Blu-ray maintains the animation's textural goodness as a result. Woods around the prison camp are of obvious note, as is the earthy terrain, but the characters are the obvious highlights, with each and every piece presenting with very handsome clarity and attention to detail. The image's high quality allows audiences to absorb the finer points and marvel at the workmanship inherent to the production. Color-wise, this one is not particularly bold by design. The movie is fairly dark and gloomy, and even the bolder colors often fail to explode off the screen. Much of the story unfolds within shadowy henhouse interiors and nighttime exteriors, where shadow details and black levels do hold up nicely. Even in daytime, though, there's not a significant color explosion, favoring toned-down tones and colors like reds and greens, which are in somewhat ample supply, lacking major pump and pizzaz. Colors are fine within the movies somewhat drab overall scheme. The image shows no major source or encode anomalies of note. This is a very strong presentation from Universal.

Chicken Run Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Chicken Run's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack doesn't blast at reference volume, but it doesn't come across as too stifled or shallow, either. Some might find a minor upward decibel increase a good thing, and it is there that, to this reviewer's ears, the track finds more of a sweet spot for its musical output, sound effects, and dialogue. Lively dance music in chapter 11 represents one of the more robust and agreeably wide and immersive moments in the film. Clarity and spacing are both solid. Whirring machinery a few moments later is another highlight, offering full surround use, well defined spacial awareness, and good rumbly depth. Ditto a few moments later when the machine's burners fire on in a pattern around the listener. The end action sequence offers its share of robust elements and full-stage saturation. Atmospheric effects are not prominent but do fold in as needed. Dialogue is delivered without flaw from a firm front-center position.

Chicken Run Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Chicken Run's Blu-ray includes two featurettes and an audio commentary track. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. A DVD is not. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• Poultry in Motion: The Making of Chicken Run (480i, 20:50): A good overview that explores story, style, technical construction, voice acting, and more. Interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and film clips comprise the bulk of the supplement.
• The Hatching of Chicken Run (480i, 15:03): Another making-of that explores the film's aesthetic and the three-year process behind making the movie.
• Audio Commentary: Directors/Producers Peter Lord & Nick Park deliver a technically sound but somewhat dryly delivered track. It's very insightful, however, in terms of delivering details about the entire filmmaking process.

Chicken Run Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Chicken Run might be too dark for younger viewers, both tonally too dark and visually too dark. But older children and certainly grown-ups -- particularly those with an affinity for some of the classic World War II prison break films of yore -- will find this a fun, funny, and often exhilarating journey. The film folds in some life lessons, too -- some obvious, some opaque -- but works best on the surface rather than as a metaphorical life reflection. Universal's Blu-ray is solid all around, offering quality video and audio presentations. A few extras are included. Recommended.