Chicken Little (2005) -

"...the perfect family film...  Scott Mantz, Access Hollywood
"...should delight younger children with its bright colors and constant chaos, while adults are likely to be charmed by the witty banter, subtle one-liners...  Angel Cohn, TV Guide
"A consistently amusing, often inspired family romp.  Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter
"...irrepressibly witty...morphs from the classic fable into a spoof on "War of the Worlds." I prefer this version to Spielberg's.  Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
"One of the funniest and most exhilarating movies in years.  Richard Corliss, Time

Editor's Note 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 catalog. In place of the usual musical numbers, CHICKEN LITTLE includes montages set to Barenaked Ladies songs and reinterpreted pop favorites (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."

	Amy Sedaris - Voice Of
	Dan Molina - Editor
	Don Knotts - Voice Of
	John Debney - Original Music By
	Mark Dindal - Director
	Peter Del Vecho - Producer
	Randy Fullmer - Producer
	Ron Friedman - Writer
	Steve Bencich - Writer
	Steve Zahn - Voice Of
	Zach Braff - Voice Of
	Dan Cooper - Art Director
	Fred Willard - Voice Of
	Garry Marshall - Voice Of
	Ian Gooding - Art Director
	Joan Cusack - Voice Of
	Mark Dindal, et. al. - Story By
	Patrick Stewart - Voice Of
	Steve Bencich, et. al. - Screenplay

USA Today
"Lusciously pigmented, child-friendly CHICKEN LITTLE is no HOWARD THE DUCK..." 11/23/2005 p.7D

Sight and Sound
"CHICKEN LITTLE turns out to be good-hearted fun....With snappy cartoon comedy, amusing characters and a pleasingly fresh approach." 03/01/2006 p.54

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "Movie references abound....The real selling-point is the startling picture quality..." 07/01/2006 p.117

Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
As the hero of a story, "Chicken Little" is the poultry equivalent of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". Once you understand their mistakes, their stories are over, and attention passes to the results of their errors. In "Chicken Little"'s case, the sky was not falling. In the case of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", I cannot remember if he was eaten by one, but he was asking for it...Yes, it's funny how they involve animal traits in the daily affairs of the town, and yes, the voice talent (especially Garry Marshall and such verbal originals as Wallace Shawn, Fred Willard and Don Knotts) is sometimes funny just because of the performers...The movie did make me smile. It didn't make me laugh, and it didn't involve my emotions, or the higher regions of my intellect, for that matter. It's a perfectly acceptable feature cartoon for kids up to a certain age, but it doesn't have the universal appeal of some of the best recent animation. - Roger Ebert

Variety.com 8 of 10
Rounding out the scintillating group of central characters are a disturbingly overweight young porker named Runt of the Litter (Steve Zahn), who's into Streisand records and can be relied upon to overreact hysterically to all occurrences; and Fish Out of Water, who wears a water-filled diving helmet (the reverse of Sandy in "SpongeBob SquarePants") and therefore cannot utter a single intelligible word. Visuals are bright without being distinguished, while John Debney's eclectic score is all but overwhelmed by an avalanche of mostly '70s pop hits. - Todd McCarthy

Reel.com 9 of 10
Disney unveils its post-Pixar strategy with its new computer-animated comedy Chicken Little. It is not a hugely ambitious work in line with The Incredibles or Monsters Inc., but that's not necessarily anything to cluck about. It might be small-scale in stature, but just like the bantam bird that holds down its center, its heart is in the right place and so are most of the laughs...Its embrace of the satirical is where Chicken Little most resembles the Looney Tunes style. It is going to be very hard to take Peter Jackson's epic take on King Kong very seriously after seeing Fish Out of Water re-create the ape legend in the span of about 30 seconds. And where was this feature-length cartoon's platoon of writers when Steven Spielberg was putting together War of the Worlds? Their take on the H.G. Wells' alien invasion saga is smarter and tighter, not to mention hilarious. - Pam Grady