Chicken Run is the funniest movie of the year, if you are under the age of 5 or suffering from severe head trauma. The Hobbit fits into neither of these categories and thus found himself sitting at home on a Friday night trying to keep awake through the rest of his latest movie rental, Chicken Run.
Unlike many cartoon/cgi/claymation films, Chicken Run has little to offer the adult audience. Unlike last year's spectacular children's film the Iron Giant, Chicken Run is neither smart, nor intelligent, nor particularly clever. It makes attempts at humor, but they never once reach a level that could be entertaining to anyone of even limited adult intelligence.
The Hobbit found this very disappointing after all the hype Chicken Run has received over the past few months since its initial release, but it was at least gratifying to know that I had missed NOTHING by not seeing this in the theatre.
So is this a good family film? Yes, if everyone in you family wants to take a nice relaxing nap while its younger elements enjoy the movie. You are just as well off watching Pikachu shoot lighting bolts in Pokeman 2000 as you are watching a bunch of mediocre claymation chickens flap around whining about getting made into pies.
So is this a good film for kids? It depends. How smart are your kids? Certainly the 5 and under crowd will love it. Funny chickens doing funny things, making silly noises and generally doing the types of things really little kids like to watch. Course little kids also seem to like Barney, so there you go. The 5-8 crowd may like it, but the conspicuous lack of poo poo jokes and cartoon violence may turn today's modern desensitized children off... if this is the case with your kids, it may actually be good for them to watch something a little less violent for a change. You never know, couldn't hurt even if they are terribly bored by the whole thing. Try duct taping their eyes open and tying them to their chair so they'll watch it. You can tell them you are playing "police interrogator" or something.
