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Article: `Chicken Run'.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- June 21, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The foulest movie of the summer may also be the fairest.
In fact, "Chicken Run," a witty, heartfelt fable, is among the best movies of the year. Created by the folks who made the delightful, Oscar-winning "Wallace and Gromit" short films, "Chicken Run" pays homage to POW camp movies such as "Stalag 17" and "The Great Escape," except its hollow-eyed urchins, trapped in a barbed-wire-rimmed camp, are a bunch of chickens who view their English farm as a prison from which they must escape.
Beginning with the opening music, a making-the-world-safe-for-democracy march, "Chicken Run" establishes a tone of exaggeration and gentle irony.
Early on, ...