Nostalgia Nook: Chicken Run

There needs to be more Thanksgiving movies. So I’m doing a movie staring chickens because they’re close to turkeys. Right?

So, watch out for feathers and SPOILERS!


Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy own a chicken farm and sell eggs. Mr. Tweedy (Tony Haygarth) is convinced the chickens are organized and he’s right: They live in military-style camp. The Tweedys collect the eggs and the chickens keep count of how many have been produced. Mostly to keep themselves safe—chickens with low egg totals become the Tweedys’ dinner. One chicken does suffer this fate at the start of the film. Ginger (Julia Sawalha), the chickens’ unofficial leader, becomes more determined to escape.

She gets caught every time.

Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) decides that they need to expand from selling eggs. She orders a machine that will allow them to make frozen chicken pot pies. When the chickens discover this, Ginger decides it’s time for drastic measures. They are going to go over the fence. Which means figuring out how to fly higher than chickens naturally do.

It seems impossible until Rocky Rhodes (Mel Gibson) lands in their camp. With him comes a flier that shows he can fly. Ginger thinks their prayers have been answered. She says Rocky can teach them how to fly and they can get over the fence to FREEDOM! Ahem, sorry. You can’t help but see that reference coming a mile away when you watch this movie. Rocky agrees to train them.

So they do exercises that are supposed to help them prepare to learn how to fly. But they seem to be failing. Mac (Lynn Ferguson), a chicken with engineering skills and who seems to be the closest to Ginger, realizes they need thrust to get in the air. She starts to figure out a way to give them that needed thrust.

Meanwhile, the machine arrives and Mrs. Tweedy decides to test it out. She chooses Ginger to be her first victim. Rocky manages to save Ginger and put the machine out of service temporarily, giving the chickens more time to plot their escape. He becomes a hero to everyone, especially Ginger. They even start to fall in love.

But Rocky panics. He knows he’s a fake and soon the others will discover that as well. So he bails on them, leaving behind the missing part of the poster that shows he was shot out of a cannon. Ginger is understandably betrayed. But she’s still determined to escape. This time, she thinks they can build a plane and fly out that way.

So they start to build it just as Mrs. Tweedy gets the machine repaired. The chickens race to escape becoming chicken pot pies but face a struggle as Mrs. Tweedy realizes her husband’s belief about them being like a military unit wasn’t just the ramblings of an idiot. The chickens are fighting for their lives. And Rocky returns to help them. He and Ginger have it out, but she’s touched he came back.

The chickens defeat the Tweedys and escape to freedom. They set up a colony and live happily ever after.
And that’s “Chicken Run.” It’s a fun romp and a great claymation movie. So go ahead, enjoy it.
(And yes, I know there’s a movie staring turkeys rising up to prevent becoming Thanksgiving dinner. I haven’t seen it).

Next month: The Santa Clause 2