Barnes & Noble

Crazy, they call him: Ever since Chicken Little (endearingly voiced by Zach Braff of Scrubs) caused Katrina-like mayhem in Oakey Oaks by proclaiming that the sky was falling, he has been an outcast, a laughingstock to his classmates, and a disappointment to his father (Garry Marshall), a former baseball hero. But just as he is redeemed by some miraculous heroics of his own on the diamond, hysteria repeats itself when another piece of celestial debris crashes into his room. Chicken Little, Disney's first computer-animated feature, does not exactly lay an egg. It was an Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Film, and technically and artistically, it dazzles as only a Disney product can. But the story is a scrambled mélange of character types, themes, and comic conceits lifted from other films. Jimmy Neutron fans may recognize Carl Wheezer in Runt of the Litter, the pathetic porcine character voiced by Steve Zahn. And the climactic Hollywoodization of Chicken Little's adventure echoes the drive-in finale of Pee-wee's Big Adventure. With the baseball subplot, a seeking-closure-with dad subplot, and even a War of the Worlds alien invasion, Chicken Little is anything but. This disc hatches the usual Disney goodies, including three interesting discarded alternate openings. One is a remnant of the time when the title character was conceived as a girl. Another, narrated by the late Don Knotts (as Mayor Turkey Lurkey), is a charming, traditional 2-D animated recap of the classic Chicken Little fable. Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

An old fable gets a high-tech update in this computer-animated comedy from Walt Disney Pictures. Chicken Little (voice of Zach Braff) is an earnest young fowl living in the town of Oakley Oaks who one day starts a panic when a falling acorn drops on his head, and he warns everyone that the sky has started to collapse. Chicken Little was wrong, of course, much to the embarrassment of his father, Buck Cluck (voice of Garry Marshall), and now the young chicken is struggling to live down the incident. While his best friends Abby Mallard (voice of Joan Cusack), Runt of the Litter (voice of Steve Zahn), and Fish out of Water stand by him, the school's star athlete Foxy Loxy (voice of Amy Sedaris) never passes up an opportunity to make fun of the diminutive chicken. As a result, Chicken Little tends to keep his more recent discoveries to himself, but what's a bird to do when he uncovers pseudo-scientific evidence that suggests the sky really is starting to fall, in large hexagonal chunks? Chicken Little was directed by Mark Dindal, who previously helmed The Emperor's New Groove for Disney. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 786936246803
• Source: WALT DISNEY VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Editions: Dubbed
• Time: 1:21:00
• Sales Rank: 14,288

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