Chicken Little (2005)

Chicken Little (2005) is a computer-generated imagery (CGI) animated film and the forty-fifth animated feature made and produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution on November 4, 2005. It was written by Mark Dindal and Mark Kennedy with the screenplay by Steve Bencich, Ron J. Friedman, and Ron Anderson and directed by Mark Dindal. The film was animated in-house at WDFA's main headquarters in Burbank, California.

This was Disney's first all-CG picture since ceasing production of traditionally-animated films. (Pixar's films were distributed but not produced by Disney of the 2000 film Dinosaur was a combination of live-action and computer-animation).

Plot
The film is loosely based on the fable Chicken Little, otherwise known as The Sky is Falling. In the small suburban town of Oakey Oaks, Chicken Little rings the school bell and cries for everyone to "run for your lives!" This sends the whole town into a frenzied panic; eventually they calm down enough to ask him what's wrong, and Chicken Little explains that a piece of the sky shaped like a stop sign had fallen on his head when he was sitting under the big oak tree in the town square. He's unable to find the piece now. His father, Buck Cluck, ashamedly assumes that this "piece of sky" was just an acorn that had fallen off the tree and had hit him on the head. Chicken Little becomes the laughing stock of the town.

A year later, Little's only friends are outcasts like himself: Abby Mallard, who is called "Ugly Duckling"; Runt of the Litter, who is extremely large despite being the smallest in his family; and Fish out of Water, who wears a helmet full of water and does not speak. All have been mocked and teased by neighborhood bully Foxy Loxy and her friend Goosey Loosey.

During a dodgeball game (the coach pits the popular vs. the unpopular), Abby tells Little to talk to his dad, when Little wants his dad to be proud. While Little, Abby and Fish are dodging, Runt is getting hit by every ball thrown at him. To help Chicken, Abby hands Little magazines about talking to your parents, but he hands them to Fish, who immediately starts ripping pages out of each one, making a miniature building and airplanes. Fish then proceeds to pull a King Kong impersonation. Foxy and Goosey bully Little and Friends soon after.

Chicken Little joins his school's Little League baseball team in an attempt to recover his reputation and his father's pride, but is unfairly made last, while Foxy Loxy impresses spectators and the newspapers with her pitches and "miracle catches"—until the ninth inning when Chicken Little, reluctantly called to bat by the coach, scores an inside-the-park home run after two strikes.

But that night back at home, he is hit on the head by what appears to be a chunk of the sky "shaped like a Stop sign" with a glowing star on it, only (after narrowly avoiding telling his father about it) to find out that it is not a piece of the sky, but something else. It has chameleonic characteristics- it's not invisible, but it blends into the background. He summons his friends to help figure it out.

When Fish pushes a button on the back of the octagon, it flies back up into the sky, taking Fish with it. It turns out to be part of the camouflage of an invisible alien spaceship, apparently part of an invading force. It is up to Chicken Little and his friends to save the day.

The invasion is actually a misunderstanding, as two aliens are looking for their lost child (whose name is Kirby) and attack only out of concern. Little realizes he must return the lost alien to save the planet. At first he tries to do it covertly but once the aliens attack, he's forced to confront his father and regain his trust first.

In the invasion, Buck Cluck, now regaining his pride and trust in Little, defends Little from the aliens, even going as far as deflecting an incoming vaporiser ray with a garbage can lid, throwing the lid at the creatures, and punching them away at the top of town hall. Abby, Runt and Fish also aid Chicken Little in his little quest to return the child to the alien invaders. After the aliens get the kid, the aliens return everything to normal, and Hollywood makes a heavily dramatized film about Chicken Little.

Characters

 * Chicken Little
 * Abby Mallard: A female duck with buckteeth, a corresponding speech impediment, and a long, asymmetrical face; she has been nicknamed Ugly Duckling by the other children. She is accustomed to being teased for her appearance, and takes a generally optimistic approach to life.
 * Fish Out of Water: A goldfish who wears a scuba helmet filled with water and lives on the surface. He is unable to speak proper English, instead making gurgling sounds and acting out what he feels. Because of this he isn't very shy around others and he will perform brave stunts without fear.
 * Runt of the Litter: A giant pig, Runt is easily frightened and is prone to panic.
 * Foxy Loxy: A fox who is a baseball star and the "home town hero", she is a tomboy and one of the "popular kids" at school. She teases Chicken Little throughout the movie for being a "loser".
 * Goosey Loosey: A goose, and Foxy Loxy's best friend. Usually helps Foxy Loxy do her bullying. She speaks in quacks, honks and squacks.
 * Buck Cluck: Chicken Little's father.

Impact
At the time of the release of Chicken Little, the co-production deal between Disney and Pixar Animation Studios was set to expire with the release of Cars in 2006. The end result of the contentious negotiations between Disney and Pixar was viewed to depend heavily on how Chicken Little performed at the box office. If successful, the movie would have given Disney leverage in its negotiations for a new contract to distribute Pixar's films. A failure would have allowed Pixar to argue that Disney could not produce CG films without aid from Pixar. Discussions to renew the deal in 2005 were held off until both sides could assess Chicken Little's performance at the box office.

It is not known how the two sides regarded Chicken Little's modest success. While it underperformed compared to Pixar's product, it was more successful than Disney's recent output and was much more profitable for the company, since they did not need to share the revenue. Regardless, both sides decided that they were better off with each other than separate. However, instead of negotiating a new contract, on January 24 2006, Disney announced their intent to purchase Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 Billion USD. (Note that Pixar had roughly $1 Billion in cash, making the effective cost closer to $6.4 Billion.) The purchase was completed on May 5 2006.

Box office
In its opening weekend, Chicken Little debuted at number one, the first Disney animated film to do so since Tarzan (1999) taking $40 million and tying with The Lion King (1994) as the largest opener for a Disney animated film (not including Pixar's films). It also managed to claim the number one spot again in its second week of release, earning $31.7 million beating the Columbia Pictures' sci-fi/family flop, Zathura. With a drop of only 20 percent on the second week, that brought its two week total to $80.4 million. In the end Chicken Little grossed $134,881,973 in North America alone. This is good news for Disney, for not only is it its first CGI movie by its own means, but it also reversed a slump that the company was facing since 2000, during which time it released several flops, most notably Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and Treasure Planet (2002), the latter credited for destroying Disney's animation department. A few critics believe that this could be a turnaround for Disney animation, most are less hopeful. Overall, critical reception to the film was mediocre at best, with critics such as A.O. Scott, Richard Roeper, and many others panning the movie's narrative weakness.

3D Digital format introduced
The movie was also released in Disney Digital 3D along with the 2D version. Unlike many recent 3D movies which only show selected segments in 3D, the entire length of Chicken Little including the credits is presented in 3D. The 3D did quite well, almost 3 times the level of the 2D release, in the 79 theaters (84 screens) that showed the film.

The DVD was released on March 21, 2006.

Trivia

 * The fifth feature Disney film ever to consist of no humans (or at least, visible humans) whatsoever, and the first to do so since 1994's The Lion King.
 * In the Italian version, Mayor Turkey Lurkey is voiced by Walter Veltroni, a famous political leader and currently Mayor of the city of Rome.
 * In the Spanish version, singer Kalimba is the voice of Chicken Little
 * Originally, Chicken Little was supposed to be a girl, voiced by Holly Hunter (voice of Elastigirl from The Incredibles), but the character was switched to a boy, voiced by Zach Braff.
 * This was Don Knotts' prelast film. He died before the DVD version of this film was released.
 * This is Disney's first, in-house, fully CGI theatrical film.
 * Fish Out of Water's dialogue was recorded from editor Dan Molina blowing through a hose into a 5 gallon water barrel.
 * In the beginning when they're trying to decide on an opening, the storybook opening was actually at alternate opening.
 * As major studios continue to phase out VHS, this was the first Disney computer-animated film only released on DVD. (Disney films continue to phase in DVD) The last Disney animated film released on VHS was Bambi II.
 * In the trailer for this movie, Chicken Little was dancing to a sped up version of O-Zone's hit song, Dragostea Din Tei.
 * Chicken Little makes an appearance in the popular PlayStation 2 game, Kingdom Hearts II, in the form of a summon (armed with baseballs) that the player can call upon for aid during battle.

Cast

 * Zach Braff .... Chicken Little (voice)
 * Garry Marshall .... Buck Cluck (voice)
 * Don Knotts .... Mayor Turkey Lurkey (voice)
 * Patrick Stewart .... Mr. Woolensworth (voice)
 * Amy Sedaris .... Foxy Loxy (voice)
 * Steve Zahn .... Master Runt of the Litter (voice)
 * Joan Cusack .... Abby Mallard (voice)
 * Wallace Shawn .... Principal Fetchit (voice)
 * Harry Shearer .... Dog Announcer (voice)
 * Fred Willard .... Melvin - Alien Dad (voice)
 * Catherine O'Hara .... Tina - Alien Mom (voice)
 * Patrick Warburton .... Alien Cop (voice)
 * Adam West .... Ace - Hollywood Chicken Little (voice)
 * Mark Walton .... Goosey Loosey (voice)
 * Mark Dindal .... Morkubine Porcupine/Coach (voice)
 * Dan Molina .... Fish Out of Water (voice)
 * Joe Whyte .... Rodriguez/Acorn Mascot/Umpire (voice)
 * Sean Elmore .... Kirby - Alien Kid (voice)
 * Evan Dunn .... Kirby - Alien Kid (voice)
 * Matthew Michael Josten .... Kirby - Alien Kid (voice) (as Matthew Josten)
 * Kelly Hoover .... Mama Runt (voice)
 * Will Finn .... Hollywood Fish (voice)
 * Dara McGarry .... Hollywood Abby (voice)
 * Mark Kennedy .... Hollywood Runt (voice)
 * Additional Voices by Brad Abrell, Tom Amundsen, Steve Bencich, Greg Berg, Julianne Buescher, David Cowgill, Terri Douglas, Chris Edgerly, Amanda Fein, Caitlin Fein, Patrick Fraley, Eddie Frierson, Jackie Gonneau, Archie Hahn, Jason Harris, Brittney Lee Harvey, Brian Herskowitz, Amanda Kaplan, Nathan Kress, Anne Lockhart, Connor Matheus, Mona Marshall, Scott Menville, Rene Mujica, Jonathan Nichols, Paul Pape, Aaron Spann, Pepper Sweeney


 * In the Australian Version of Chicken Little, the voice of Buck Cluck was played by an Australian, Mark Mitchell, who put on an American accent. Although released in Australian Cinemas, this voiced version of the film has not been released on the Australian DVD.
 * Charlene Choi provided the voice of Abby Mallard in the Cantonese version of the film.

Crew

 * Director
 * Mark Dindal


 * Writers
 * Robert L. Baird, Steve Bencich, Ron J. Friedman, Dan Gerson


 * Producers
 * Peter Del Vecho, Randy Fullmer


 * Original music
 * John Debney, Billy Martin, Jeremy Sweet


 * Film editor
 * Dan Molina


 * Casting directors
 * Matthew Jon Beck, Jen Rudin