“Chicken Run” was directed by Nick Park and Peter Lord. Park and Lord also directed “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget”, the sequel to “Chicken Run.” This film follows a group of hens cursed with laying eggs, but once they reach a certain age they would be sent to get chopped. Ginger, played by Julia Sawalha, pleads with the other hens to not give up and help her create a grand escape. Many of the hens were against the idea because anyone who escapes and gets caught is never seen again.

One day an american rooster named Rocky, voiced by Mel Gibson, lands inside the pen and Ginger convinces him to teach them how to fly. Only he doesn’t know how to fly. His old occupation was to be shot out of a cannon and soar across the room but he wasn’t actually flying. Of course Ginger didn’t know that, she only saw him fly into the coop with no cannon in sight. Then there was a mysterious truck dropping off an even more mysterious package. It was revealed to be a chicken pie maker. All you need is a whole chicken and it’s done within seconds. This increased fear in the hens and they started taking their training seriously. At this point Ginger starts getting skeptical about whether or not Rocky actually knows how to fly. When she asks him to fly for them he says no and claims it’s because he injured his wing and can’t fly. Eventually they escape and find asylum in a bird sanctuary located on a small island away from the old coop.

This movie is a classic as it has been watched throughout many childhoods and although it isn’t about thanksgiving it’s about chicken so it’s close enough. This film is funny and shows how dedicated the chickens were to escape. My favorite character is the old rooster, Fowler played by Benjamin Whitrow. He was funny and always talking about how he flew in World War II on jets. He inspired Ginger to build a plane prototype once it was revealed that Rocky actually couldn’t fly.

My favorite scene would probably be when Mrs. Tweedy, voiced by Miranda Richardson, gets a taste of her own medicine and gets sent into the chicken pie maker leading her to get stuck and explode. She survives and appears in a sequel released by Netflix on October 14,2023 called “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.”