Review by Gary Tooze

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• Easter Egg "Foxy Loxy" (:57)

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Description: Disney's first venture into the realm of CGI animation (without Pixar) tells the tale of all-animal town Oakey Oaks's most infamous resident, Chicken Little (voiced by Zach Braff), who causes town-wide panic when he claims the sky is falling. A year later he's still shunned by everyone, including his dad (Gary Marshall), a single rooster with an incredibly wide tie. Determined to end his losing streak, the bespectacled Little joins the baseball team, even though he can barely lift the bat. Luckily his three equally outcast friends have faith in him: a pig with a yen for '70s disco (Steve Zahn); a Harpo Marx-esque goldfish in a diving helmet; and Abby, a buck-toothed female duckling (Joan Cusak). According to her sources in magazines such as Modern Mallard, Abby is sure Chicken Little merely needs closure with dad over the sky incident. But when the sky really does start falling due to a full-on alien invasion, and only Chicken Little knows why, dad still doesn't want to believe him. Kids are sure to understand Chick's frustration in this matter, and parents will dig the sly riffs on films like 'Vertigo' (1958), 'The Blob' (1959), 'Independence Day' (1996), and 'War Of The Worlds' (1953), as well as Disney's own back catalogue. In place of the usual musical numbers, 'Chicken Little' includes montages set to Barenaked Ladies songs and reinterpreted pop favourites (the old Art Garfunkel gut-wrencher, 'All I Know', is a standout), while celebrity voiceovers come from Harry Shearer, Wallace Shawn, Patrick Stewart, Adam West, and Don Knotts, with Amy Sedaris as the obnoxious 'Foxy Loxy'.

 

 

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Audio :

The audio commentary with director Mark Dindal, producer Randy Fullmer and visual effects supervisor Steve Goldberg is pretty standard stuff covering production and more intimate details of the animation process. I wasn't overly keen on the filmmaker Q&A and introduction which allows pop-up windows with questions and answers during the film. This was an early attempt at the BD capabilities and this doesn't come across very seamlessly. The Movie Showcase is described as "Instant Access to the Filmmakers most cinematic moments that showcase the ultimate in HD picture and sound." Essentially, It is 3 scenes with the most impressive looking and sounding a/v running about 5-minutes in total. There is an interactive Alien Invasion Game, 8 deleted scenes playable with introductions (28:37 or without intros - 23:15) - 4 are listed as 'BD Exclusive' (meaning not on the DVD edition) and there is amusement here. Music & More consists of two music videos (Cheetah Girls - 'Shake Your Tail Feather' - 3:05 / Barenaked Ladies 'One Little Slip' - 2:54) and both sing-along and Karaoke for 'One Little Slip'. The Hatching "Chicken Little" is a 5-part making of... for less than 20-minutes which doesn't repeat too much from the commentary and is okay for any who are really keen on the filmmaking process here. Lastly there are two inconsequential 'Easter Eggs' entitled "Runt of the Litter" (1:07) and "Foxy Loxy" (:57).

BOTTOM LINE:
Of Dinosaur, The Wild and Chicken Little - I'd say Chicken Little is the most fun for adults. It is easily my favorite the of three and doesn't lose an iota for transfer quality. I really question reviewers that had a middling response - I have seen this with my kids at least half-a-dozen times and it is never without total charm. The music and voice characterizations are tremendous (Zach Braff, Garry Marshall, Don Knotts, Patrick Stewart, Steve Zahn, Joan Cusack - as my favorite, Miss Abby Mallard - Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, and Adam West among the notables.) The parody and film references are rife (very intelligently written with hints at the original Chicken Little fable, the magic of the great American pastime, War of the Worlds and yes, even celebrating uniqueness with square-peg friends supporting each other 'till the end') and the Blu-ray supplies a perfect presentation. I'm giving this a strong recommendation - I think it's too good to pass-up. I kinda love this film. 

Re-issued on February 8th, 2011: