Someday I will have to ask my niece how she came to know about Chicken Little (2005).  Actually, I have no idea if she has seen it.  It would seem silly, though, for her to be so enthralled by a Disney pin she recently purchased during our last trip to the world of the Mouse if she has no knowledge of it.  If you know my niece, and you look at the item in question, you will see why there might be something to her attraction.  I am proud to say that, like her uncle, she is developing a quirky sense of humor.  I love it.  As for the decorative piece, it features the title character, Ace “Chicken Little” Cluck (voiced by Zach Braff), gesturing in desperation to the skies.  It is fun, and I am glad she enjoys it.  It is hard for kids that age to develop a personality of their own, and today’s film speaks in part to this truth.

There are a few nods to other Disney titles as Chicken Little begins.  If you are at all familiar with the source material, you will not be surprised with what comes next.  There is Chicken Little, a small, anthropomorphic rooster, sounding the alarm in the town square that the sky is falling.  This ushers in a panic of Biblical proportions.  Hey, it is not me that exaggerates, it is the film.  As the town panics, I grew confused.  For example, there is a moment when the town’s water tower falls to the ground and begins tearing up a swath of destruction as it rolls along.  It barrels through a movie theater where Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) is playing just as a similarly sized boulder bears down on Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford).  Keep in mind that all the characters are anthropomorphic animals.  They all have names that identify their species.  Sigh.  As the dust settles, everyone gathers around Chicken Little, including his father, Buck “Ace” Cluck (voiced by Gary Marshall), wondering about the source of the commotion.  There is nothing apparent, and the only thing Chicken Little can manage is gibberish.  Given the pandemonium, the puny poultry becomes a pariah.  They even make a movie about him.  I guess there is not a lot going on in this town.  A year passes, and the new pastime in their hamlet has become bullying Chicken Little.  Ace tries to tell his son to lay low, but all the young one wants to do is impress his father.  All the same, the unwanted attention Chicken Little gets is making his life harder, even with simple tasks like getting to school and being in class.  Following a ridiculous game of dodgeball, our “hero” accidentally pulls the fire alarm, once again bringing him the ire of his peers.  As Ace talks to Principal Fetchit (voiced by Wallace Shawn) about Chicken Little’s latest transgression, the younger Cluck notices how much of a star athlete was his dad.  Chicken Little then resolves to join the baseball team.  Nobody believes in his abilities, least of all the coach (voiced by Mark Dindal), who barely lets Chicken Little play.  Yet, as these things so often do, it comes down to the last at-bat of the championship game, and Chicken Little is called upon to swing the lumber.  Shockingly, he comes through, and is fêted for once in his short life. As he thanks his “lucky star,” a piece of the sky of the same shape as the previous year drops on his head.  He notices right away its ability to completely camouflage itself, adapting to its surroundings in a chameleon-like manner.  This is unfortunate timing for our hero because he feels like he is on the verge of getting everything he wants, particularly the attention and love of his dad.  In order to help him with this situation, he calls on the help of his friends, who will be introduced as needed.  For now, just know that they all come over to Cluck residence.  Upon examining the flat hexagon more closely, Fish Out of Water (voiced by Dan Molina) jumps on top of it as it floats, and is ushered into an alien space craft.  Though it has the ability to cloak itself, Fish Out of Water has a glow stick that sticks out of the bottom of the craft, allowing them to track it to the baseball field.  There, they have a close encounter of the third kind (sorry, I could not resist).  While the octopus-esque beings operating the flying saucer get off to look around, Chicken Little and the rest board the ship to find Fish Out of Water.  Chicken Little also has a brief interaction with Kirby (voiced by Sean Elmore), a miniature, orange, extra-terrestrial (think of one of those troll dolls that is all hair).  When the others return to the alien craft, they begin to hunt down Chicken Little and his friends.  Once again, the title character must ring the town bell (despite having all sorts of technology, they still alert people with the same system employed in the Dark Ages) and warn everyone of their impending doom.  They believe him, but when the space ship disappears before they can see it, he is ridiculed once more.  Everything would return to normal if not for one thing: the aliens forgot Kirby.  Alternatively, this works well for Chicken Little.  As the folk are getting on the young Cluck as before, the sky literally does begin to fall. Hundreds of flying saucers have returned to find their lost kind.  Chicken Little takes it upon himself to ensure that Kirby gets where he needs to go.  Ace, though, will not listen to his son.  It takes some encouragement from Abigail “Abby” Mallard (voiced by Joan Cusack), who also has a crush on Chicken Little, to get the two to talk.  Once this is settled, they return Kirby to his people, and the aliens help rebuild what they have destroyed.  We end with a new version of Chicken Little’s story, this one making him out to be an action hero.

At times, I was a little taken aback by Chicken Little.  I supposed I should mention that this is a Disney animated feature.  As such, I was not expecting how taken for granted is bullying in this movie.  This is not the moral lesson Disney wants to spoon feed you with this one, but some stand against this behavior would have been welcome.  I also went into it thinking that in this section I would be writing about Chicken Little by comparing him to one of the Old Testament prophets who, like our title character, had their warnings of impending doom ignored.  Indeed, aside from the interest my niece has shown, the other reason I watched it was to write about this aspect.  Instead, I am inclined to say a bit about the film’s true heart: the desire for unconditional love.  Yes, this is a cartoon, yet the animators (likely unintentionally) gave a proof for the existence of God.  Chicken Little’s motivation, as mentioned above, is to impress his dad.  I did not discuss how Ace’s wife, Chicken Little’s mother, has passed away because it does not directly impact the film.  I say it now to underscore what the main character is missing: the kind of unconditional love parents are called upon to give, which is meant to mirror what God has for us.  I think the film is a bunch of nonsense, and I had to struggle at times to remain focused on what was happening.  At the same time, I recognize that Chicken Little is yearning for that which God imbues in us all: a desire for His love.  That is why Ace’s role is so important, and it is at least refreshing that he realizes this by the end.

I wish movies would avoid what Chicken Little did with the anthropomorphic characters.  I find that I get bogged down in trying to figure out the mechanics of such worlds.  If it were not for this feature, would I have appreciated it more?  I doubt it.  It is animated, after all.  However, there are worse cinematic choices you can make.