Chicken Little (film)

Chicken Little is the forty-sixth full-length film in the Disney Animated Canon. It premiered in Los Angeles on October 3, 2005, and was released in theaters nationwide on November 4, 2005.

Plot
In the small town of Oakey Oaks, Chicken Little rings the school bell and warns everyone to run for their lives. This sends the whole town into a frenzied panic. Eventually, the Head of the Fire Department calms down enough to ask him what's going on, and he 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; however, he is unable to find the piece. His father, Buck Cluck, assumes that this "piece of sky" was just an acorn that had fallen off the tree and had hit him on the head, making Chicken Little the laughing stock of the town.. A year later, Chicken Little has become infamous in the town for being crazy. His only friends are outcasts like himself: Abby Mallard (who has a crush on him), Runt of the Litter (who is extremely large), and Fish Out of Water (who wears a helmet full of tap water). Trying to help, Abby encourages Chicken Little to talk to his father, but he really only wants to make his dad proud of him. As a result, he joins his school's baseball team in an attempt to recover his reputation and his father's pride, but is made last until the ninth inning of the last game. Chicken Little is reluctantly called to bat by the coach (even though the coach is certain that he will lose the game for them). Little is able to hit the ball and make it past first, second, and third bases, but is met at home plate by the outfielders. He tries sliding onto home plate but is touched by the ball. While it's presumed he lost the game, the umpire brushes away the dust to reveal Chicken Little's foot barely touching home plate, thus declaring Little safe and the game won; Little is hailed as a hero for winning the pennant.

Later that night back at home, he is hit on the head by the same "piece of the sky" — only to find out that it is not a piece of the sky, but a device which blends into the background (which would thereby explain why Chicken Little was unable to find it last time). He calls his friends over to help figure out what it is.

When Fish pushes a button on the back of the hexagon, it flies into the sky, taking Fish with it. It turns out to be part of the camouflage of an invisible UFO. Chicken Little manages to ring the bell to warn everyone, but the aliens see the crowds coming and manage to escape, leaving an orange alien child behind. No one believes the story of the alien invasion, and Chicken Little is ridiculed yet again... until the next day. He and his friends discover the orange alien, and a few minutes later a whole fleet of alien ships descends on the town and start what appears to be an invasion. The invasion is actually a misunderstanding, as the two aliens are looking for their lost child and attack only out of concern. As the aliens rampage throughout Oakey Oaks, vaporizing everything in their path, Little realizes he must return the alien to his parents to save the planet. First, though, he must confront his father and regain his trust.

In the invasion, Buck, now regaining his pride and trust in his son, defends him from the aliens until they get vaporized. It is then discovered that the aliens weren't vaporizing people, the ray guns teleported them aboard the UFO. Afterwards, the aliens return everything to normal (except Foxy Loxy, whose brain got scrambled, turning her into a Southern Belle, and as a result, Runt falls for her), and everyone is grateful for Chicken Little's efforts to save the town.

Cast

 * Zach Braff as Ace "Chicken Little" Cluck
 * Joan Cusack as Abby Mallard
 * Dan Molina as Fish Out of Water
 * Steve Zahn as Runt of the Litter
 * Amy Sedaris as Foxy Loxy
 * Mark Walton as Goosey Loosey
 * Garry Marshall as Buck Cluck
 * Don Knotts as Turkey Lurkey
 * Sean Elmore, Matthew Michael Joston, and Evan Dunn as Kirby
 * Fred Willard as Melvin
 * Catherine O'Hara as Tina
 * Mark Dindal as Morkubine Porcupine
 * Patrick Stewart as Mr. Woolensworth
 * Wallace Shawn as Principal Fetchit
 * Patrick Warburton as Alien Police
 * Adam West as Star-Ace Little

Production
When the project started in 2001, it was originally meant as a movie about "a young girl who went to summer camp to build confidence so she wouldn't overreact". Other changes included Abby being a boy. When David Stainton became Disney's new president of Walt Disney Feature Animation in early 2003, he decided the story needed a different approach and told the director the script had to be revised, and during the next three months it was rewritten into a tale of a boy trying to save his town from space aliens.

New software and hardware tools were introduced for the production of the film:

"Chicken Wire", a geometric wire frame model of the characters that the animators can stretch and squeeze as they please. "Shelf Control", which makes it possible to see the whole model on the screen while having a direct access to any chosen area of the character. New electronic tablet screens that allow the artists to draw digital sketches of the characters to rough out their movements, which is then transferred to the 3D characters. 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 film 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 CGI films without aid from Pixar. Discussions to renew the deal in 2005 were held off until both sides could access 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. The purchase was completed on May 5, 2006.

Reception
Chicken Little received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Critical response aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 36% of critics gave positive reviews based on 159 reviews with an average score of 5.5/10. The critical consensus states "In its first non-Pixar CGI venture, Disney expends more effort in the technical presentation than in crafting an original storyline." Another review aggretator, Metacritic gave the film an average score of 48 based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Richard Roeper of the then-Ebert & Roeper gave the film a "Thumbs Down" rating saying "I don't care whether the film is 2-D, 3-D, CGI, or hand-drawn, it all goes back to the story." A.O. Scott of the New York Times stated the film is "a hectic, uninspired pastiche of catchphrases and clichés, with very little wit, inspiration or originality to bring its frantically moving images to genuine life." However, Ty Burr of the Boston Globe gave the film a positive review saying the film was "shiny and peppy, with some solid laughs and dandy vocal performances". Angel Cohn of TV Guide gave the film 3 stars alluding the film that would "delight younger children with its bright colors and constant chaos, while adults are likely to be charmed by the witty banter, subtle one-liners and a sweet father-son relationship."

Trivia

 * According to the book Chicken Little: the Essential Guide, there was going to be a sequel, Chicken Little 2: Mission to Mars, but that never came to fruition, similar to Spaceballs 2: the Search for More Money, so the video game Chicken Little: Ace in Action serves as an actual sequel to this film.
 * This is the last movie that the animation studio released under the name Walt Disney Feature Animation.  Starting with Meet the Robinsons, further canon entities would be produced by the renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios.
 * This is the last animated feature in the Disney Canon to use the 1985 Walt Disney Pictures logo.
 * This is Don Knotts' last film.