Rating: G
Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy and Animation
Running Time: 1 hr 21 min
Hand-drawn cartoons pioneer, Walt Disney now finds itself chasing upstart competitors into the digital age with Chicken Little, the studio's first totally computer-animated film. It's a fitful start, likely to please kids and their parents without wowing them as did DreamWorks' Shrek movies or Pixar's Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.

Chicken Little opens far more strongly than it closes, with an early string of amusing zingers and sight gags petering out amid a lot of noise and commotion. The movie does present a nice father-son dynamic that will make parents happy to show something wholesome to the little ones.

Also in Shrek-like fashion, the movie tosses in a succession of familiar pop songs and Hollywood asides with references to King Kong, Star Wars, War of the Worlds, Disney's own The Lion King and Homer Simpson's trademark 'D'Oh!'.

There's even a Mickey Mouse watch thrown in. But the alien theme feels like a rehash of Lilo & Stitch, one of Disney's few recent cartoon successes among duds such as Home on the Range, Treasure Planet and Atlantis.

The animation is pretty good, though far short of the razzle-dazzle Pixar and DreamWorks produce. The design leaves the characters cute, without quite being cuddly, the settings cozy, without being terribly clever or memorable. Ultimately, Chicken Little wants to be as funny or cute as it thinks it is, but it falls shy of the mark. Although it's slightly above par for a Disney outing, it's still not quite as entertaining as other children's films.

The studio used to have a legacy of producing films that families could repeatedly enjoy, but now they're just churning out a cookie-cutter product with a few winks at the grown-ups, as if to say they're above it all.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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