Review of Chicken Run

Introduction

This was one of my favourite films of 2000 as I have always been an Aardman Animation fan since the days of Morph and the Creature Comforts short films.

I was especially looking forward to the dvd as it was expected to contain a whole host of extras. I wasn`t disappointed.

For those who don`t know, Aardman are the Oscar-winning makers of the Wallace and Gromit animated short films and have become the one of (if not the) largest and most successful animation studios of all time. Chicken Run, the first ever full-length animated feature, took over three years to animate and film with a typical minute of animation requiring over a week of work in the studios.

Video

Nothing to complain about here, we get an anamorphic widescreen transfer with no dust or scratches present and no sign of digital artefacts or jaggies.

The dvd menus are nicely animated with a decent length musical background track although they almost reach slightly annoying levels when you are trying to browse the dvd quickly to reach a specific extra or to change audio/video settings.

Decent English subtitles are included.

Audio

Excellent as they have included not only Dolby Digital 5.1 but also a full DTS soundtrack. Personally I couldn`t really hear much to differentiate them, both were excellent, with clear voices and nice use of surround effects. If I had to choose I`d probably take the DTS over DD but It would be a matter of personal taste. Nice to have the option.

There is also an audio description track, narrated by Gwyneth Strong, which does an excellent job of describing the feature in good detail whilst maintaining the feel of the film throughout.

Features

The special feature section is nicely laid out and fairly easy to navigate via some large chicken footprints!

For starters there are three trailers, including the C:R-1, Chicken Impossible trailer that was airing around the time of Mission:Impossible 2 which people begged to be included on the disc. There is also an advert (trailer) for the computer game although this didn`t grab my wassname as the game is mostly aimed at kids.

By far the best sections of extras on the disc consist of the two `makings of` and the Aardman archive section. The Archive showcases clips of around a dozen Aardman animations from 1971 when it all began up to the recent Wallace and Gromit features, including the rail-laying scene from `The Wrong Trousers`. Whilst the audio and visual quality of these is poor in places and is never anywhere near the quality of the main feature, they give a fun insight into the way animation has developed over the last 30 years.

There are two `makings of` on the disc, a shorter one `Chickens go in, Pies come out` about animation and the longer `Fowl Play` which is a proper documentary about the whole process from concept to final cut. There are a few common scenes between the two but put together they opened my eyes to exactly how complicated is was to create a stop-motion animation over 80 minutes long. I was also surprised to discover the puppets were larger that I expected (and frequently had no legs)

And finally, we get to the directors commentary. This is by both directors, Nick Park and Peter Lord and is in a nice chatty style. As to content it`s pretty well in line with most commentaries I`ve listened to in that it`s mostly waffle punctuated by some hilarious of interesting revelations. In this case they acknowledged the numerous references to `The Great Escape` and also explained why the one fatality during the feature was a chicken called Edwina......

Conclusion

Whew, yet another feature packed disc - most of which is even worth watching! This makes the disc something of a bargain compared with some of the other offerings out there.

The film itself is excellent, a great family film and perfect for Christmas day instead of The Titanic which the BBC are airing.

Don`t forget to watch the closing titles through to the end to discover the rats` conclusions on the whole chicken and egg problem.