USA: AMERICAN PREMIERE OF NICK PARK AND AARDMAN'S ANIMATORS FIRST FULL LENGTH MOVIE "CHICKEN RUN"

Record ID: 169681

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  • Title: USA: AMERICAN PREMIERE OF NICK PARK AND AARDMAN'S ANIMATORS FIRST FULL LENGTH MOVIE "CHICKEN RUN"
  • Date: 15th June 2000
  • Summary: USA: AMERICAN PREMIERE OF NICK PARK AND AARDMAN'S ANIMATORS FIRST FULL LENGTH MOVIE "CHICKEN RUN" Play AllSlideshowShotlist USA: AMERICAN PREMIERE OF NICK PARK AND AARDMAN'S ANIMATORS FIRST FULL LENGTH MOVIE "CHICKEN RUN" USA: AMERICAN PREMIERE OF NICK PARK AND AARDMAN'S ANIMATORS FIRST FULL LENGTH MOVIE "CHICKEN RUN" USA: AMERICAN PREMIERE OF NICK PARK AND AARDMAN'S ANIMATORS FIRST FULL LENGTH MOVIE "CHICKEN RUN" spaceplay / pause escstop ffullscreen shift + ←→slower / faster (latest Chrome and Safari) ↑↓volume mmute ←→seek . seek to previous 12…6 seek to 10%, 20%, …60% 1 of 3 Items Duration00:02:35 CopyrightREUTERS Clip RestrictionsNONE LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JUNE 16, 2000) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) CO-DIRECTOR OF CHICKEN RUN, NICK PARK, SAYING "Why chickens? We often asked ourselves in the last couple of years. I think it's because they're so funny, aren't they. They're very much the subject of ridicule and calling somebody a chicken for being cowardly. They're in our language and, they're the common man's, common person's animal really, aren't they. Everybody's owned chickens throughout history. I have. PETER LORD, CO-DIRECTOR, SAYING "Nick is an ex-chicken owner. But also, because we decided to do this prisoner of war escape drama, and the two are completely hand-in-hand, it wasn't one without the other. We didn't think let's do a chicken film, let's do "Sound of Music" with chickens, this would have been a really bad idea, it had to be a chicken film and an escape film, because . . . the perfect match. Because when you look at, say, "The Great Escape," or "Stalag 17," if you take all the people out of shot, and put chickens in, it does look just like a chicken farm. It's got kind of the same wire, and the same huts, and it was that kind of sight gag that really made us laugh, and got us going." SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) MEL GIBSON SAYING "I think the great thing about Nick Park and Peter Lord and their Aardman stuff, their stop-motion photography animation is that, the genius of it is that it appeals to everybody at every age-level. Because I enjoy it more than the kids do, and that's why I wanted to do it so bad, because I really, really appreciate it." SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) NICK PARK, ASKED IF THE ROLE OF ROCKY WAS FULLY CONCEIVED BEFORE HIRING MEL GIBSON TO VOICE THE PART OR WHETHER GIBSON'S CASTING SHAPED THE PART, SAYING "That's that age-old question. Well we had Rocky first. Rocky was written, he was more or less written, anyway, and he was more or less designed and then we were actually watching the movie "Maverick," Mel Gibson's earlier movie, and we thought, what we were working with in Rocky wasn't that distant from the "Maverick" Character," not the same but . . . we thought, maybe we could start with our number one choice, just try him out. We didn't know whether he'd do it or not and so we tried just a bit of dialogue from "Maverick," in the mouth of this puppet and tried animating, to see if his mouth, that voice would belong in his mouth and it worked and so we got in touch with him and we discovered that he was a "Wallace and Gromit" fan as well so that was a good way in and he agreed to do it which really surprised us and delighted us." Details Britain's extraordinary 'Aardman' team of stop-motion animators, the artists behind the "Wallace and Gromit" shorts, have hit the shores of America, bringing with them "Chicken Run," their first full-length film, which features the voice of Mel Gibson as a cocky Yankee rooster in a spoof of 'The Great Escape." In format, "Chicken Run" is like a World War II prison camp thriller in which the inmates plot various escape attempts before making a spectacular flight for freedom in the end. In this case, however, the cloistered ones are the hens at Tweedy's Egg Farm, who either produce a constant flow of eggs or are served up at dinner. A dismal place of innumerable stalag-like hen houses surrounded by barbed wire, the compound is made especially worthy of escape by the stern rule of the grim Mrs. Tweedy and her seriously hen-pecked husband. The mild-mannered, resigned mold of the hens is broken by Ginger, a feisty bird who dreams of wide open spaces and can't let a day go by without a try at breaking out. Her unsuccessful efforts are duly rewarded by spells in solitary (a garbage bin), and the film nods its hat to the genre classic "The Great Escape," both via the march-like music of the early going and the gag of having Ginger bounce a ball against a wall to pass the time. But everything changes when an upstart Yank literally falls into the hens' midst. Rocky the Flying Rooster, the self-described "lone free-ranger," has made his living being shot from a cannon at a circus. On the lam from his owner, Rocky takes convenient refuge on the farm and does nothing to discourage the idea that he can fly, which allows Ginger to pin all her hopes for a mass escape on Rocky's teaching the girls how to get airborne. At the same time, however, Mrs. Tweedy, fed up with the "minuscule profits" from eggs, decides to re-tool her operation and begin making chicken pies. Putting the hens on double rations to fatten them up quickly, she installs a mass-production oven and pie-maker, and the film's great set piece is a perilous voyage Ginger and Rocky take through this infernal device, which threatens to grind, chop, encrust, bake and stamp them at every turn, like a lethal amusement-park ride. Motivated by their imminent demise to arrange their escape without further ado, the hens must rise to the occasion in spite of their disappointment when it's revealed Rocky is not all they imagined him to be. The scene is set for a rip-roaring finale and a literal flight of fancy. Mel Gibson voices the boisterous rooster Rocky; Julia Sawalha, the long suffering Saffron of "Absolutely Fabuluous," is Ginger, the self-sufficient yet officious Ginger. Other voices include Jane Horrocks as the portly and complacent mother hen Babs; Miranda Richardson spews out bile as the evil Mrs Tweedy and Benjamin Whithrow hearkens nostalgia for Britain as an old bird who recalls his glory days with the RAF. Although not a song-score musical, music plays an important part in "Chicken Run," using World War II derived dance numbers to give the film a post-war feel. Co-director Nick Park has won three Oscars for best animated short, the first for "Creature Comforts" and the second two for the popular "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave," both featuring the man-and-dog combo of Wallace and Gromit, who first appeared in "A Grand Day Out." Wry humor with dark, threatening overtones is his hallmark, and these elements remain front and center here. For his part, Peter Lord, Aardman co-founder and chairman, is a pioneer in clay-model animation and directed the Oscar-nominated shorts "Adam" and "Wat's Pig," in addition to many videos, commercials and other shorts. Aardman has veered in a new direction with "Chicken Run," partnering with US studio Dreamworks on the $42 million (usd) picture. Dreamworks will help develop and produce Aardman's next four features, including "The Tortoise and the Hare," next up for Park and Lord. "Chicken Run" hits theatres on June 23.
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