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Chicken Little (Frank's Take)
01/12/2005 . Source: Frank Ochieng 
Frank discovers that in the innocuous Disney digitally animated feature Chicken Little, director Mark Dindal (The Emperor's New Groove) serves up a cute and cosy tale about a tiny bespectacled bird saddled with all kinds of paranoia and self-doubt. Buy Chicken Little in the USA - or Buy Chicken Little in the UK  Now how can anybody find displeasure with a breezy, sweet-minded kiddie fable about our panic-stricken fine-feathered friend? Well, give us time and chances are we could probably pin a rap sheet on some girl scouts selling poisonous cookies. In the innocuous Disney digitally animated feature Chicken Little, director Mark Dindal (The Emperor's New Groove) serves up a cute and cosy tale about a tiny bespectacled bird saddled with all kinds of paranoia and self-doubt. And while the CGI special effects are passable and the familiar antics concerning the lovable panicky chick will delight impressionable tots everywhere, Dindal's saccharine-coated narrative lack distinction and imagination. There's no doubt that Dindal's tyke tale will put us in a "fowl" mood as Chicken Little morphs into a big stuffed turkey laced with stale-minded shenanigans.
With the assembled voice talent behind the scenes, one would think that Chicken Little had the potential to be a riotous romp that would appeal to both children and adults alike. However, the movie that's based on a popular 18th century childhood story manages to toss into the mix a variety of nonsensical nuttiness without concentrating on any one giving theme-particularly the need for our young bird-brained basket case to find acceptance.
Chicken Little is unevenly cluttered with pointless juvenile slapstick, irrelevant adult-oriented pop cultural references, laboured gags concerning psychological angst and annoying in-jokes that register with a few while flying the coop with others. Whenever a kid-induced piece of entertainment has to struggle with conveying its sense of zany spirit, you know that your options are limited. As an energetic computer-generated kiddie comedy, Chicken Little will automatically cluck gleefully for its youthful audience. But for others, this bland bird will take time to roast.
Alarmist Chicken Little (voiced by Zach Braff from NBC-TV's Scrubs) has dutifully rung the bell notifying the animalistic residents of Oakey Oaks that the sky is falling after having an object hit his head from above. Unfortunately, it was an acorn-not a piece of the sky-that tapped on Chicken Little's noggin. Feeling embarrassed by the incident, Chicken Little becomes an immediate laughingstock to the community. More important, his false alarm has cemented instant humiliation in the eyes of his widower father Buck Cluck (Garry Marshall). So how will Chicken Little win back the respect and confidence of his disappointed father not to mention the ridiculing townsfolk?
Determined to achieve some respectability, Chicken Little joins the school's baseball team where he enjoys some moderate success thus cementing a newfound positive feeling with his ex-jock dad Buck and the entire town. But another object happens to hit Chicken Little on the head-this time it's not to be mistaken for an acorn. In fact, it appears to be some space-aged camouflage from a travelling galactic force. Noting how he got in hot water the first time around, Chicken Little doesn't want to take a chance and announce this latest occurrence. Otherwise, he loses his credibility with his old man Buck and the entire Oakey Oaks village.
Thankfully, Chicken Little can turn to his supportive friends and report his ominous findings. Among the informed are Abby "The Ugly Duckling" Mallard (Joan Cusack), a tune-loving Runt of the Litter piglet (Steve Zahn), and Fish Out of Water (Dan Molina). Abby, whom Chicken Little smites, advises him to talk to his father about this latest visiting item from the sky. Should Chicken Little risk another session of bad press that could drive a permanent emotional wedge between him and his hard-nosed father? And will the town suffer from Chicken Little's forced silence just because he selfishly doesn't want to be a verbal punching bag anymore?
For the most part, Chicken Little will hold the collective attention of children because it's the instinctual response for an animated ruse to do so. The grown-ups, however, will be searching for the exit signs in the dark theatre. As a motivational stunt for holding the interests of "the big kids", Chicken Little shamelessly panders to them by paying indirect yet disjointed homage to other established animated gems such as Shrek and Madagascar. Strangely, Dindal decides to take a curious creative turn and awkwardly transcend Chicken Little into a soured satirical riff of sci-fi ditties that range from Steven Spielberg's E.T. and War of the Worlds to M. Night Shyamalan's Signs. Even the film's music tries to add personality to the flavourless frenzy such as playing R.E.M.'s predictable anthem "It's the End of the World As We Know It" to the defiant Diana Ross song "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".
So what's the bird's eye view of the mediocre Chicken Little as a frenetic fable that flaps its furious wings but travels nowhere? Whatever the outcome, the undiscriminating munchkins will acquire a taste for Disney's anaemic 3-D treatment in how to uneventfully clip-not necessarily kill-a mockingbird.
Frank Ochieng
(c) Frank Ochieng 2005
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