As the sky falls, the box office soars

Ever since Orson Wells’ classic, “War of the Worlds,” everybody has wanted to get a piece of the end of the world pie. Disney is not exempt. Following last winter's release of Douglas Adams’, “Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” and the summer blockbuster remake of Wells’ “War of the Worlds,” Disney came out with their own end of the world genre film, “Chicken Little.” And, after a long string of, to put it mildly, flops, Disney has finally come out with a worthwhile animated movie outside of their Pixar partnership.

Disney’s “Chicken Little” is very loosely based on the children’s story published in the book, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. However, anybody who’s read the book would tell you that the movie seems only to bear similarity to the story in regard to the names of the characters and the line “The sky is falling!”

In the movie Chicken Little’s proclamation that the sky is falling is only the beginning. When he brings the mayor of the town, Turkey Lurkey, back to the spot where a piece of the sky fell on his head, the piece is gone. In an attempt to cover his own embarrassment, Chicken Little’s father, Buck Cluck, tells everybody that an acorn fell on his son’s head, and that it was all just a big misunderstanding.

A year later, Chicken Little manages to make the town forget about the incident when he scores the winning run for his school’s baseball championship game. That night, however, another piece of the sky falls and hits Chicken Little in the head. It is only then, with the help of his friends Runt of the Litter, Fish out of Water, and Abby Mallard - rudely called Ugly Duckling by Foxy Loxy, the class bully - that he discovers that this “piece of the sky” is actually a part of an alien space craft, specially designed to blend in with its surroundings, effectively making the space craft invisible.

When Fish out of Water accidentally gets abducted by these aliens, the others must board the craft to rescue him, and while there they discover the aliens’ plan to obliterate earth. Now Chicken Little must overcome his issues with his father and the town’s mistrust and warn them of the impending doom.

This film features the amazing voice talents of Don Knotts, Steve Zahn and Joan Cusak. And, of course, what animated comedy would be complete without the voice stylings of Wallace Shawn, best known for his role in “The Princess Bride.” The voiceovers were impeccable. The voices captured the characters and the situations very well.

The animation complimented the voiceovers perfectly. I am always impressed by the abilities of animators, and this time was no different. Not being an artist myself, I have no foundation from which to talk about the artistic perspective of the animation. Suffice it to say that some of the things they did to mimic real life in the animation were done impressively well.

The best part of this film was the dialogue. Very funny lines were delivered very well. And the film even paid homage to a plethora of other films. Among those was, of course, the film that started it all, “War of the Worlds.”

Overall, “Chicken Little” gets 3 out of 5 stars from this reviewer. Very funny dialogue and well interpreted characters defined this movie. A slightly cliché story and some spots of dead or repetitive action took away from its good qualities. Thanks to this film, my hope for the Disney animated feature has been restored. With “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” hitting theaters next month, Disney may be making a box office comeback.