Chicken Run (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Featurette-Poultry In Motion Featurette-Hatching Of Chicken Run Theatrical Trailer-2 TV Spots-1 Audio Commentary-Peter Lord (Co-Director) & Nick Park (Co-Director) Read Along Biographies-Cast & Crew Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	80:23
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (60:09)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Peter Lord Nick Park
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Mel Gibson Julia Sawalha Miranda Richardson Jane Horrocks Lynn Ferguson Phil Daniels Tony Haygarth Timothy Spall Imelda Staunton Benjamin Whitrow
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	John Powell Harry Gregson-Williams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, after credits

    The local chicken population is lead by Ginger (Julia Sawalha), who never seems to be able to successfully execute her numerous escape plans. Despite her constant failures, she remains determined that they must escape. Their hopes for freedom are fading, when a rooster called Rocky (voiced by Mel Gibson) drops in and provides new hope. Rocky is an escaped rooster from a travelling circus who the local chickens believe can fly after seeing a promotional poster. With this belief, the chickens enlist Rocky to teach them how to fly and they begin training.

    The urgency to complete their escape plan is increased when the Tweedy's purchase a pie-making machine. Unfortunately, Rocky has been keeping a vital secret from them that will change their plans significantly.

    This is the first full-length animation from Aardman Animation, the creators of Wallace and Gromit. Directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park, this film continues the tradition of their excellent work on short animations. The type of animation utilized is known as claymation and involves the use of plasticine and latex characters that are animated by hand. For each scene in the film, animators would position the models and a single frame would be taken. The animators would then slightly move the characters and the next frame would be taken. To create a single second of animation, twenty four individual frames are required. Obviously this process takes an enormous amount of time and dedication and this film contains over 110,000 individual frames. It took almost three years to complete the movie with each animator creating an average of only two and a half seconds work of footage per day. A small amount of computer animation was used in this film to produce effects such as smoke and fire that are not able to be achieved via stop motion.

   To provide the voices for the movie, an impressive cast of actors was assembled including Mel Gibson as Rocky, in a role designed for him, Julia Sawalha, who most people will remember as Saffy from Absolutely Fabulous and Miranda Richardson as Mrs. Tweedy. The excellent voice talents of these actors and their supporting cast members successfully helps to convey their emotions and provide another level of personality to their characters.

    Chicken Run provides an engaging story with excellent characters in a film that both children and adults alike will find very enjoyable.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. Automatic Pan & Scan information is encoded into this transfer.

    The transfer is constantly razor sharp with excellent definition shown at all times. No artificial edge enhancement was used during the transfer. The clarity of the images presented with this transfer is superb. Shadow detail is excellent and there are never any problems displayed in any of the darker scenes. No low level noise is present at any stage.

    Colours are excellent and are always presented accurately. The transfer does not have particularly vibrant colours, but this fits in with the general feeling of an oppressive prison-like environment.

    At no stage during the transfer were any MPEG artefacts of any type seen. Aliasing was not present at all during the transfer and no film artefacts were seen at any stage. The only fault with the transfer was a small amount of telecine wobble that could be seen during the opening and closing credits. At no stage was this distracting.

    The only subtitles present are English for the Hearing Impaired and these are consistently accurate. The subtitles must be selected from the menu and cannot be turned on or off via the remote control.

    The position of the layer change cannot be seen at all during the feature, but if it does occur during the feature, then the most likely position would be at 60:09 during a natural fade-to-black between chapters.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Dialogue was always clear and easy to understand. At no stage were there any dropouts or problems with the mix detected. As this is an animated feature, the usual problems associated with audio sync are present and accounted for.

    The score for the film is highly effective and draws many of its influences from famous prison escape films. The main theme includes an obvious homage to The Great Escape, a film which is referred to many times in the movie.

    The surround channels are used effectively throughout for directional effects as well as for the score and general effects. Numerous excellent examples of surround channel use can be heard during the scenes with the pie-making machine in Chapters 14 and 15. The subwoofer channel is used extensively during the movie to provide support for the score and effects, but at no stage is it overpowering.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

NBC Featurette - Poultry In Motion

HBO Featurette - Hatching Of Chicken Run

Theatrical Trailer - x 2

TV Spot

Audio Commentary - Lord, Peter & Park, Nick (Directors)

Read Along

Biographies-Cast & Crew

• DTS ES 6.1 soundtrack
• Dolby Digital 2.0  soundtrack
• DVD-ROM content
• Animated menus and scene selections
• Easter eggs
• Shrek preview

• Pan and Scan version

• Pan and Scan version

   The UK R2 version of Chicken Run has slightly different extras when compared with the R1 version. The differences relate to the making-of documentaries, apparently due to distribution rights. Instead of receiving the NBC and HBO featurettes you receive 'Fowl Play' The Making of Chicken Run, a 20 Minute Interview With Peter Lord And Nick Park, and Aardman Archive Clips. While these featurettes sound very interesting I have not seen them so I am unable to compare their content to what is presented on the R1 and R4 versions. Looking at UK reviews, they appear to rate the extras to be about equal between R1 and R2.

   The exclusion of the DTS ES track is a disappointment, as this track, present on both the R2 UK and R1 versions, provides a more enveloping and dynamic soundfield than the Dolby Digital track. Luckily, this is primarily a dialogue-driven film and the differences between the DTS and Dolby Digital tracks are not enormous. Unfortunately, with the R4 exclusion of the DTS track and the DVD-ROM content, I would have to rate the R2 UK version with PAL formatting as superior but if these features do not matter to you I am sure you would be extremely happy with any version.

    The extras included provide an informative insight into the development of this film.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall