Chicken Run

Ok, there is an huge temptation to riddle this review with puns - but I'm just going to say it's a cracking little family adventure. It's seemingly based on a whole range of classic movies from the "Great Escape", "Star Trek" to "Love Story" with a score cannibalised from just about any/everything ever written by Messrs. Korngold/Williams & Bernstein all adding to this really super stop-motion animation that Ray Harryhausen would have been proud of.. A flock of chickens are relentlessly exploited for their eggs by the evil "Mrs Tweedy" - that is, until "Rocky" (an on-form Mel Gibson) arrives over the fence and incites escape plans... Meantime their malevolent owner (Miranda Richardson) has plans to industrialise production - and this time, not just of the eggs... It's a fun frolic, this - with great vocal performances from Jane Horrocks, Julia Sawalha and Benjamin Whitrow as the rather pompous RAF spotter chicken "Fowler". Nick Park and Peter Lord - and the wonderfully imaginative Aardman team - have built upon their "Wallace and Gromit" experience and created some charming characters with some great lines for both the young, and the formerly young. Certainly a film you can leave the kids alone in front of the telly to.