Can 'Chicken Little' Reanimate Disney?

flippyshark · 11-21-2005, 09:41 AM

This was marginally better than I was expecting, with a few good laughs, and great, not-in-your-face use of 3-D. The best gags were visual, often taking place in the periphery of the main "action." Unfortunately, our main characters spent a godawful lot of time yapping and yapping about "closure." We got the same "talk to your Dad" lecture at least three times.

I thought the baseball game was a very good sequence, funny and suspenseful, and, alas, it brought the story to a satisfying close at the halfway point. Dad and son are reconciled and dad sees that he should have had faith in his tiny nerdy kid. Then, the UFOs arrive, and Dad reverts right back to his previous attitude. Several noisy scenes later, father and son have an endless discussion in an empty movie theater. Talkity talkity talk. Aaargh! I hated this aspect of the movie.

As to the use of disco and other well-worn pop motifs, I wasn't a fan. I didn't like disco in the seventies, and it's impossible to get me to respond warmly to it three decades later. And for criminy's sake, could we please have a looong moritorium on REM's "End of the World As We Know It?"

This must be the first use of actual product placement in a Disney theatrical animated feature - Jolly Time Popcorn and Tic Tacs both got branded and prominent onscreen positioning. I know the Di$ney company has sold its soul, but do they have to flaunt it? Yeesh.

As much as I sound grouchy about Chicken Little, I didn't hate it. And, in spite of my earlier prophecies of box office doom, it has reached 99 mil over this last weekend. So, more power to it. I just hope that the folks at the "new" Disney don't take this as a cue to set the bar at mediocre for their next few features.

11-21-2005, 09:41 AM	#23
flippyshark Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 2,852	This was marginally better than I was expecting, with a few good laughs, and great, not-in-your-face use of 3-D. The best gags were visual, often taking place in the periphery of the main "action." Unfortunately, our main characters spent a godawful lot of time yapping and yapping about "closure." We got the same "talk to your Dad" lecture at least three times. I thought the baseball game was a very good sequence, funny and suspenseful, and, alas, it brought the story to a satisfying close at the halfway point. Dad and son are reconciled and dad sees that he should have had faith in his tiny nerdy kid. Then, the UFOs arrive, and Dad reverts right back to his previous attitude. Several noisy scenes later, father and son have an endless discussion in an empty movie theater. Talkity talkity talk. Aaargh! I hated this aspect of the movie. As to the use of disco and other well-worn pop motifs, I wasn't a fan. I didn't like disco in the seventies, and it's impossible to get me to respond warmly to it three decades later. And for criminy's sake, could we please have a looong moritorium on REM's "End of the World As We Know It?" This must be the first use of actual product placement in a Disney theatrical animated feature - Jolly Time Popcorn and Tic Tacs both got branded and prominent onscreen positioning. I know the Di$ney company has sold its soul, but do they have to flaunt it? Yeesh. As much as I sound grouchy about Chicken Little, I didn't hate it. And, in spite of my earlier prophecies of box office doom, it has reached 99 mil over this last weekend. So, more power to it. I just hope that the folks at the "new" Disney don't take this as a cue to set the bar at mediocre for their next few features.
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