Though He Be Little He Be Boring
I don't usually like to brag, but last night I watched 2005's Chicken Little. I didn't expect it to be so difficult. I knew it wasn't considered one of Disney's best films but I didn't anticipate just how soulless and unimaginative it is. I suppose I could enjoy the lesser Disney films of the '70s a little more because they have the added interest of being from the period. Chicken Little is all too modern and familiar.
Much as Home on the Range imitated the humour of Animaniacs, Chicken Little seems to be chasing The Simpsons and Family Guy with mild absurdism and constant, random pop culture references. The Family Guy influence is probably the reason Adam West is in the film, though, and he's one of the few bright spots.
Playing a beefy, movie star version of the main character, he's paired with some entertaining animation. I like how the animators use his pauses to have the character show his bottom teeth.
This was the first fully cgi movie in Disney's main line of theatrical releases--Dinosaur had used live action backgrounds. But the rendering doesn't look much better than Dinosaur. At least the moral of the story isn't quite so obnoxious as Dinosaur though it did leave me unsatisfied.
Zach Braff gives an adequate performance as the title character, though someone younger would've fit the character design better. The film subverts the original fable by making it so the sky really is falling. The drama revolves around Chicken Little's father, voiced by Garry Marshall in an effectively understated performance, struggling to have faith in his son. This drama almost works but there's too much noise around it to really be coherent.
I think something hewing closer to the original tale might have been bolder and more intelligent. Paranoia and conspiracy theories have become a more and more serious problem. A movie about a kid learning not to blow things out of proportion may've set a good example. I'm not sure it could've saved Chicken Little from being a big turkey, though.
Chicken Little is available on Disney+.
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This is part of a series of posts I'm writing on the Disney animated canon.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Pinocchio
Fantasia
Dumbo
Bambi
Saludos Amigos
The Three Caballeros
Make Mine Music
Fun and Fancy Free
Melody Time
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Cinderella
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
Lady and the Tramp
Sleeping Beauty
101 Dalmatians
The Sword in the Stone
The Jungle Book
The Aristocats
Robin Hood
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Rescuers
The Fox and the Hound
The Black Cauldron
The Great Mouse Detective
Oliver & Company
The Little Mermaid
The Rescuers Down Under
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
The Lion King
Pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
Tarzan
Fantasia 2000
Dinosaur
The Emperor's New Groove
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Lilo and Stitch
Treasure Planet
Brother Bear
Home on the Range