Chicken Run

Chicken Run (2000)

Timing: 1:24 (84 min)

6.838/10
5375

6.968/10
95486

7.1/10
224000

All about film

Video 3

Photo 90

Actors and characters

Release date

2000-06-23

Country

United Kingdom, United States, France, Netherlands

Production

DreamWorks Animation, DreamWorks Pictures, Aardman, Pathé, Pathé Films

Genre

Animation, Comedy, Family

Budget

$45 000 000

Revenue

$224 834 564

Website

https://www.aardman.com/film-tv-games/chicken-run/

Director

Nick Park, Peter Lord

Actors

Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Imelda Staunton, Jane Horrocks, Lynn Ferguson, Miranda Richardson, Tony Haygarth, Benjamin Whitrow, Timothy Spall, Phil Daniels
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Nick Park, Peter Lord, David Sproxton, Lenny Young, Jacky Chrisp, Jake Eberts, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Michael Rose

Operator

Tristan Oliver

Composer

Harry Gregson-Williams

Artist

Trisha Budd

Audition

Patsy Pollock

Editing

Mark Solomon, Robert Francis, Tamsin Parry
All team (208)

• This is the first feature-length film by «Aardman Animations». It parodies the famous film «The Great Escape» (1963), only instead of prisoners of war, there are chickens.
• Babs really does knit, but she uses toothpicks instead of knitting needles.
• A full-scale campaign was organized to nominate the film for an 'Oscar' in the 'Best Picture' category. The failure of the nomination campaign and the film's popularity among Academy members (referring to the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) led to the inclusion of a 'Best Animated Feature' category in the nominations for the following year (2002). The award was given to the animated film 'Shrek' (2001), also produced by DreamWorks Studios.
• A significant role in Mel Gibson voicing the main character was played by his children. They convinced him to take on the voice acting after watching the short animated films about Wallace and Gromit.
• The characters' bodies were made of silicone with a latex coating, and the heads and hands (or wings) were made of plasticine. Collars or lacy ruffled collars on the chicks conceal the boundary between the plasticine heads and wings on one side and the latex-covered bodies on the other.
• Ginger and Rocky were named after the favorite chicks of one of the scriptwriters and director Nick Park, who had them as a child.
• The filmmakers were very concerned about the kissing scene between Rocky and Ginger, believing that the kiss (beaks touching) would look unconvincing. This gave rise to the idea that every time they were about to kiss, something would interfere. When they finally managed to kiss, the beak-to-beak contact is not visible to the viewer.
• Mel Gibson recorded all of his lines in the United States, while the rest of the voice actors recorded in Bristol, England.
• It took a week to create 3-4 chickens. Each of them contained an armature acting as a skeleton, and rods were used when any of the chickens ran or flew. After that, the puppets were manipulated and photographed at 24 frames per second of film. Several puppets were created because plasticine turned out to be not a very strong or reliable material. More reliable silicone was also used. Creating one puppet chicken involved 100 separate stages.
• Edwina is named after Edwina Curry, a member of parliament for the Conservative Party, whose political career ended in 1988 after a statement about salmonella, following which egg sales in the country fell by 60%.
• The chicken pie baking machine was meant to symbolize the threat posed by mechanization. 50 people worked on its design.
• The courses were created in two sizes – full-size and reduced size for scenes with the Tweedy family and general shots with altered perspective.
• By the middle of the film's production, the animators had used one and a half tons of plasticine.
• Creating the scene with Rocky and Ginger on the roof took 5 months.
• A whole campaign was organized to nominate the film for an 'Oscar' in the 'Best Picture' category. The failure of the nomination campaign and the film's popularity among Academy members (referring to the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) led to the inclusion of the 'Best Animated Feature' category in the nominations for the following year (2002).
• This is the first feature-length film from 'Aardman Animations.' It parodies the famous film 'The Great Escape' (1963), only instead of prisoners of war, it features chickens.
• A full-scale campaign was organized to nominate the film for an “Oscar” in the “Best Picture” category. The campaign’s failure to secure a nomination and the film’s popularity among Academy members (referring to the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) led to its inclusion in the “Best Animated Feature” category for the following year’s awards (2002).