Have you read Terry Pratchett's short story "Hollywood Chickens? It's about some chickens that got trapped in the middle of a highway, and how their attempts to get off that island of grass and brush got more and more …elaborate…
It's those details that make the DVD version of films great (Streaming and theater are still convenient / fun, don't get me wrong, but) You can't beat the interactivity / charm that some DVDs have. Like the Monster House one for example starts off looking at the house in it's "Aware, but not quite monstrous" form, with the "GO AWAY" signs being the interaction icons. If you go to bonus features you get dragged towards the house and see the red kite in the main room. If you play the film, the doorbell rings, the signs go away, and the camera gets eaten. Typical title screen stuff, many films do that. But, if you wait around long enough, there is a chance that the house can roar at you for a second without prompting it to. And it's that personality that physical discs have that, unless streaming integrates a main menu system, won't get replicated by it.
Naming the chicken who stopped laying 'Edwina' was no random choice: She's named after Edwina Currie, who, back in the late 80s was a Conservative MP from the UK who tried banning eggs due to salmonella.
I speculate that Tweedys farm wasn't too bad a place for the chickens until Mrs Tweedy took over, that Mr Tweedy and his family were actually fairly decent as far as egg farmers go, and while he does go along with whatever his wife wants to placate her, Mr Tweedy didn't start hating the chickens until they decided to try escaping due to the poor conditions.
@@nathancruz9172 That probably truthful cause in the movie there seem to be some clues or implications. When I watched this as a kid I didn't feel okay with her on screen.
We owned chickens while I was growing up so I can confirm that, prison escape movie references aside, there was always one escape artist in every flock who would constantly find a way out of the pen and show all the others how to do it! Our "Ginger" was named "Goldie".
There's always one super smart chicken in the flock! (I noticed the red chickens were the smart ones, the white were total airheads and the black ones were shy) 😄
The quality of this is incredible. I especially love the British humor, great characters, and beautiful stop motion. Fun Fact: Those bandanas annd necklaces are to cover up the notches in the model's necks. Apparently, this film got so close to being nominated for Best Picture, that it helped create the Best Animated Feature category.
The joke of "Land of the free, home of the brave," and Mac responds, "Scotland". That's very funny and is most likely intentional because Mel Gibson, who played Rocky, played and made "Braveheart".
Lol, ridiculous!! 'Braveheart' was an utterly fictitious fairytale of bollocks with no historical accuracy whatsoever ..... it exists simply as a propaganda film for embittered Jocks to refer too to backup their victim complex and massive sense of inferiority. It has to be that, why else would a nation lament a history they never endured? lol.
Chicken Run is an absolutely fantastic film. Really love how it pays homage to other prison escape films like The Great Escape for instance. Hope you guys get to check out the other Aardman/DreamWorks films, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away!
I'd say watch the Wallace and Gromit half hour films first before Curse of the Were-Rabbit. They're so much better and you won't like Were-Rabbit as much if you don't know the characters and the world
Chicken run is such an underrated classic (which deconstructs so many older prison films) and a fantastic movie in its own right. I'm so glad Nobu liked Ginger so much. She was the first strong FMC that left a lasting impression on me as a kid
ROFL I love how protective you guys are of Babs, she too is my favorite character. To this day, I STILL quote her "Ooo me life flashed before me eyes! ... It was really boring."
When I was a kid I didn't understand how much stress and fear that Ginger had. I understood that she cares for the other chickens and wants them to be free and happy, now that I am an adult that I understand it is more than that. She had known these chickens her whole life, and had close bonds with them. We don't know how many have perished before the film started. Losing her "sisters" and "aunts" over the years. She is incredibly tough to endure that, and still not giving up despite failure after failure.
Fun fact: these are the same people who did Wallace and Grommet With claymation, they take a picture of each individual figure in a certain position for each frame, So basically stop motion
A couple of the voice actors appeared later in the Harry Potter franchise. Miranda Richardson (Mrs. Tweedy) played Rita Skeeter in The Goblet of Fire, Imelda Staunton (Bunty) was Dolores Umbridge in The Order of Phoenix and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Timothy Spall (Nick) did Peter Pettigrew AKA Wormtail in The Prisoner from Azkaban, The Goblet of Fire, The Order of Phoenix, The Half-Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows Part 1.
@natallison6823 But Timothy Spall also played (and voiced him in the animated sequences) Nathaniel in Enchanted, where he starts as a bumbling yet cunning classical henchman to the villain but has a redemption arch.
Thank you James and Nobu for reacting to this amazing and awesome film, and to answer your question James at 0:56-1:00, the British studio (Bristol, England) who did _Chicken Run_ is Aardman Animations, they've been around since 1972 and are best known for being the creators of _Wallace & Gromit_ which has 4 short films (2 of which won Academy Awards) and a feature film (Curse of the Were-Rabbit), along with _Shaun the Sheep, Creature Comforts_ just to name a few. They also happen to do the Serta commercials with the couting sheep and this along with _Chicken Run_ and _Wallace & Gromit_ were my first familiarity with the studio. I also love how you discuss how the animation is done for each animated movie so we learn something new each day and hopefully you guys will react to the _Wallace & Gromit_ shorts _(A Grand Day Out (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995))_ very soon before you react to _The Curse of the Were-Rabbit_ and the rest of Aardman animations films (The Pirates! Band of Misfits, the Shaun the Sheep Movies, Early Man, Arthur Christmas, and Flushed Away) for future reactions.
Something I never noticed is that all of the chickens, including Fowler and Rocky, have accessories around their necks like scarves, kerchiefs, or necklaces. There isn't a single chicken who isn't wearing something around their neck. Here's why: The neck skeletons were articulated to the neck and head piece could detach from the body, and the seam where the two parts joined was hidden by those neck accessories. Not to mention that each one helped visually differentiate between all the birds!
My favourite Nick Park animation, and epic homage to war films. I usually hate the whole "Liar Revealed" trope, but luckily, it doesn't last very long here.
I'm with you I can't stand most "Liar Revealed" conflicts. And this one always landed well for me because it really felt like it was Rocky's *abandonment* that was the true betrayal. Ginger herself says it when she berates him later: "That's for leaving!" She doesn't even mention the big lie. I love this. It just feels like a more grounded and honest way of handling the conflict :)
The reason it works is because you dont have the worst part of liar reveal stories, the confrontation; is completely avoided by Rocky sneaking out at night, though we still get a very personal conflict with the chickens fighting eachother.
(DARK FACT) Many people don't realize that Edwina's death was her own doing. She was perfectly capable of laying eggs but refused so she could get killed because she gave up hope for escaping the farm after so many failed attempts, hence the reason why she told no one that she hadn't laid any eggs.
@@KyuuDesperation you said you'd rather die than giving birth non stop and your children turned into ingredients for vegans? I assumed that meant the eggs are the ingredients?
There's a sequel coming out on Netflix. They recast Ginger's voice actress, they said she was "too old." The actress made a video reciting lines and she sounded the same! Really sad.
It makes no sense, they've kept the same VAs for Babs, Bunty and Mac (as they should). There's no reason why they couldn't keep Ginger. The only person the recast makes sense for it Rocky.
Good lord, chickens portraying WWII POW camps and is somehow hilarious and also extremely respectful of the seriousness of what actually happened. Spiced up by that perfect amount of British humor.
I love how ride or die you both were for Babs bc honestly same 😂 All the Aardman Animations projects have got such a classic British humour to them, it's great!
6:48 I completely agree! You have no idea how much I cried watching this scene when I was a 4 year old 😂 still makes me tear up a little bit 20 years later. This movie is a masterpiece
Claymation and stop motion requires SO MANY faceplates. I think from nightmare before christmas, Sally had over 40 faceplates made for the whole movies. Gotta give mad respect for these artists
i was OBSESSED with this movie when i was a kid, i loved all the little plans and contraptions they made. i also love the sound design and different textures made from the clay, it's so satisfying
LOVE the animations on this movie. I remember being obsessed with how the dirt looked, sounded and looked on the boots, etc. The scene where she digs the dirt with the spoon was my favourite scene XD I literally watched that movie many times because of the dirt. Well just the whole animation. Didn't care for the story as I was too young to even understand what's going on lol
This movie is a true classic, and meant a lot to me as a child. I heard that there will be a sequel, and i really hope they don’t taint the movies legacy.
I don't know. It's coming out later this year but they've replaced Rocky's voice because of Mel Gibson's questionable past (with someone with a questionable future). And they replaced Ginger's voice because Julia Sawalha's voice has supposedly aged too much. Only thing is she did a video as Ginger and her voice is still great and the person replacing her is only 4 years younger but a bigger name. Some scummy stuff from Aardman if you ask me replacing a lot of the voice actors with bigger name actors
@@joevictor53 Things like this really annoy me. Like in the Lion King 2019 remake, instead of getting the original voice actors to play the roles, (all who were available by the way), or just voice actors in general, they chose the biggest stars in the music industry like Donald Glover and Beyonce. The only voice actor they called back was James Earl Jones, and his voice just doesn’t sound as good as it did before.
I'll never forget when my mom and aunt took my cousin and me to see this when it first came out. I was so young and fell asleep during the whole thing🤣🤣 years later, it's one of my fave films! Glad you reacted to it!
Claymation is just stop-motion with clay figures. Robot Chicken uses stop-motion but they are toy dolls and sticker mouths so they could focus on humor on a TV budget and a TV release time. Aardman Studios made thousands of custom mouths and expressions and it took tens of thousands of hours on manual labor switching out each component and moving it slightly frame by frame with no reliance on tweens or other computer generated movement shortcuts. Each clay piece, in itself, probably took an hour or so to make. It is a real dedication to the craft in in any case regarding consecutive picture animation. (Rendering 3D animation on the computer, of course, basically simplifies that and allows algorithmic and now complex AI to streamline some of the work but it still basically takes high definition pictures every 24-60 frames a second depending on the medium.)
Something I always found very, very dark about the ending: Mrs Tweedy ends up being crushed under the farm door at the end, after the explosion. But if you look closely, it seems that it was Mr Tweedy that pushed the door down onto her. A door like that is very heavy. Also, Mrs Tweedy was already injured from the explosion. So Mr Tweedy probably killed her, likely being fed up with her incessant bullying. I think that's very dark.
I thought about it, and this was a scam ad in the magazine for suckers. Mrs Tweedy is the sucker who bought the machine. First the machine will need to be maintained, they may need new parts, and so forth as time goes on. Then once all the chickens are turned into pies, they would then need to be sold. Advertisement costs money, the pies also have a shelf life, unless she intended to sell those pies frozen, (which also costs money). Then they need to keep a supply of chickens to make more pies, I am not sure how expensive a single chicken costs at the time of this film. I would guess, much more than fertilized eggs. There is also no guarantee that people would even buy those pies at all. So yeah, they are worse off because of that machine. They could have expanded their farm to grow other things to sell. It seems however that the Tweedeys put all their eggs in one basket.
For stop motion, Jason and the Argonauts @13:00 Rocky the flying chicken is voiced by Mel Gibson, he also starred in Braveheart with its classic line of "Freedom!". BTW, Mell was born in NY state, so he is a real American. @40:00 ^$$ Squadron was involved with Paratroop drops and glider towing during WWII
9:26 - with stop-motion animation films having talking characters, they have a separate piece for each sound. So they'll have one for "S" sounds, one for "Ch" sounds, one for "ah" sounds, and so on. When the character pronounces a word, they swap out mouths as it goes in the right order so it appears the puppet is making the right movements for the right sounds. The "a" sound in "that" would have to be an open mouth, while one for an "ee" sound would have to show the teeth (or some equivalent).
LOL, it was the Valentine's Day Couples event after this movie was released at theaters... and EVERYONE brought chicken to eat! I loudly said for everyone to hear, "Did NO ONE see that movie???"
Makes me so proud to be British, Nick Parks and Peter Lord are literally one of the greatest innovators when it came to films/short films. there earliest of works was a tv series called 'Morph' there most notable works are my favourite Wallace and Gromit. Other amazing works are pirates, shaun the sheep, Pirates!
This movie absolutely freaked me & my sister out as young kids!!! We still talk about how frightened we were. I had pet chickens that I loved when I was younger so that definitely made me steer clear of this movie after watching it once. Now years later, I’m watching your reaction and y’all helped me appreciate how much of this movie is actually funny and well-done! Thanks for bringing some healing to this childhood nightmare!😆
I've watched some behind the scenes from this movie, and one thing I found interesting is that all of the character models were the same size, but they had smaller versions of the chickens whenever they were with the humans. It's one of those things that is quite obvious in hindsight, but I thought it was pretty interesting.
This has to be the darkest movie ever to come out of Aardman Studios: the protagonists living in a P.O.W. camp, each knowing every day could be their last. I wish Aardman was still making movies like this one: life or death stakes, and a sinister, vile, intimidating villain.
I absolutely loved this movie when I got to see it AT A DRIVE-IN THEATER, and when my parents surprised my sister and I with the VHS tape at Christmas, we watched it over and over again. Great movie!
You guys HAVE to watch the animation short, “The Wrong Trousers,” one of the brilliant Wallace & Grommit films! You guys would have an absolute BLAST with it!😄
Greatest movie of all time This movie never lets me down when I was a kid. I didn’t understand it at first but as I got older, I kind of understand what the meaning of this movie meant. I love it.❤❤😂😂😂
I love Aardman (Nick Park who created Wallace and Gromit is from just down the road from me, there’s even a statue of them in front of the market). W&G will always be my favourite, but this is great. My grandma did work with Jane Horrocks (the voice of Babs).
Rocky's line "Look at the size of that thing!" is what Wedge Antilles say in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope when the Rebel Squadron approaches The Death Star. In the audio commentary Nick Park refers the pie machine as The Death Star for chickens.
*“Easy Pops! Cockfightings illegal where I come from!”* There’s so many jokes like this that went way over my head when I was little! Now I know why my parents were laughing at certain times in the film and I didn’t understand why! 😂
So fun to see you guys react to this one! I remember getting to see this at a drive-in theater when I was a kid and just having a blast. 😂 Here"s a fun bit of casting trivia: Nick the rat was voiced by Timothy Spall, who went on to play the rat-themed antagonist Wormtail in the Harry Potter movies! Gotta love those wacky coincidences!
I have a lot of nostalgia for this one too, I used to watch it all the time before I grew old enough to realize how horrfying it is. The scenes with the pie machine specially were such an 180 for me, one day it just dawned on me that the fun slapstick scenes I laughed so much at were the smae scenes of the two main characters fighting for their lives in a death trap, ahhh the joys of growing up. Haven't watched in a while but I still love this movie to pieces.
Watching chicken run in theaters and still watch chicken run today is one of the funniest claymation oof all time. Chicken run is made from the same creators who made Wallace and Gromit who are also the best claymation animation studio and Wallace and Gromit are funny to watch for all!!!
Fact: a scene was planned where Rocky found a chicken skeleton in the pie machine and said something like "Geez, how old is that thing?", meaning that it was used and Mrs. Tweedy bought it cheap, but then it was removed from the scenario. I mean, duh, the movie is pretty dark without it as well if you think about it
After hearing they are rebooting this movìe, I really hope they bring back the "MAYBE SHE WENT ON HOLIDAY" Character. She made me laugh as a kid when this first came out. I am 33 now and this is an underrated classic! I am glad I got to re-watch it again with you guys! You guys should watch James and The Giant Peach next!
This is such a classic and I hear there is a sequel in the works. It's amazing how its not until you are an adult you finally get the darker parts and adult jokes hidden in the movie. Flushed away and Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-rabbit are also good Claymation movies
I loved seeing your reaction. This movie is one of my favorites. While a good portion of the references are from The Great Escape, about half of the other references are from an old black and white WW2 movie called Stalag 17. I highly recommend you watch it. It's an excellent movie with a more ambiguously happy ending than The Great Escape. If you watch it, I'm sure you'll notice how much of it is referenced in Chicken Run.
Flashback, Christmas day 2000. I look under the tree and there's a box that's quite large with my name on it. I open it, and inside is my first DVD player (it was about the size of a VCR) and my first DVD, Chicken Run
I'm actually begging you to do The Great Escape after this. It's one of my favourite older movies and genuinely amazing, but it's also basically what Chicken Run is based on. We watched both movies for a film unit in high school and please imagine a bunch of fourteen year olds realising a movie they watched growing up was pretty much a somewhat child-friendly version of a POW camp! Also, fun fact, all the chickens have things around their necks (necklaces/scarves etc) to hide the joining of the clay!
After years I got 2 things. 1- How much references the movie made. 2- And a question with no anwsers... How in the WORLD this chick held a HUMAN with one hand 44:10
41:59 Doing the gesture Rocky is doing, a "peace sign" but with your plan facing in/towards you and the back of your hand facing the person, is the equivalent of flipping someone off in New Zealand, Australia... and in England. In other words, Rocky flipped Mrs Tweedy the bird. lolll (The gesture was done to archers who had their index and middle fingers cut off so they couldn't shoot, by people who still had all their fingers.)
There's an extra scene at the end of the credits, where the rats are still arguing about the chicken and egg question, and Rocky tells him to pipe down.
Im so glad youre doing this movie! I grew up next to Aardman's studio on Spike Island in Bristol, it was right around the corner from the block of flats I lived in 😭 unfortunately their old warehouse burned down and so many of the original claymation pieces (particularly a lot of the Wallace and Gromit ones) were lost forever. Aardman have such a special place in my heart and remind me so much of home and Bristol ❤ they have come so far and even did an episode for Star Wars Visions season 2! Im so proud of my old neighbours and look forward to everything they do.
28:15 I think they special order a specific kind of clay, the company that manufactured clay is actually shut down but they have a load of supply and worked on the room
This movie was done by the same people who did Wallace and Gromit, and claymation was absolutely where they got their start, but Chicken Run was using a lot of silicon for the parts that didn't have to be moulded and needed to stay basically the same (like the basic body shape and the feathers), and the beaks and mouths were hot-swappable (though still sculptable, to give a base shape for each sound), so it was a lot less 'clay'mation than some of their previous works, but the style was still heavily inspired by the style that they built up with their claymation start, and the faces and arms (the most expressive parts) are all plasticine. Fun fact, the eyes in a lot of claymation movies are beads, so that you can adjust the direction that they're looking with a toothpick in the pupil.
Love this movie so much. Another one that goes over everyones head though. This is how i imagine what might go through animals heads on their way to slaughter. So glad i dont pay for it. We definitely need more movies like this
I remember being a kid and having these neighbours who would sneak out of their house because their parents wouldn't let them stay up and outside till late in the night and we would call them the chicken run kids in reference to this movie xD
Okay so im british and ive been to a wallace and gromit exhibition that the company did where they were showing how they did it and had the models on show for us to look at and it is stop motion with sets and things also yeah they use hand made faces mouth hands and every expression that they switch out for every take they do which i imagine they did the same for this aswell. For this movie i know they used the accessories like the necklasses clothes ect to hide their seems cause its handmade models. claymation takes years to complete on this scale for a full feature length movie theyre both classics that i loved growing up, they never get old "i dont like gravy" is by far the best line for me in this whole movie tickles me everytime
Chicken hut #17 at 4:19 was a reference to the prisoner of war camp Stalag 17-B in Austria. The 1953 movie Stalag 17, was based on the prisoners' experiences. A light hearted version of those experiences was aired in the 1965-1971 television show Hogan's Heros.
You know what's funny is at 42:54, when I was watching this film myself earlier today, I didn't hear the part about the "cling-on" (Klingon) and just heard the part about the engines, and was like, "Hm... I wonder if that's a Scotty reference..." lol, I need to pay more attention!
Oh this movie scared me as a kid. On the other hand, this is what my mom used to convince my brother to eat chicken pot pie. Lol excited to watch this with you guys I haven't seen it in over a decade
My favourite fact is that they made hundreds of chicken models, all at different sizes for different shots. Sadly after the Premier of Were Rabbit there was a fire and Aardman's entire collection of sets, props and models from years of movies were destroyed.
It surely is a childhood classic, had it on VHS tape ❤ it's very clever how they do the claymation I always found it fascinating, the patience is unreal. The scene where the hen gets taken out back and dies is so traumatic 😢
Any other Claymation movies we should watch?
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away, the two other Aardman films from DreamWorks.
Please cover Paranorman, if you haven't already!
The Boxtrolls is good as well
The Pirates Band of Misfits would be a great reaction
- The Shaun the Sheep Movies
- Early Man
- Arthur Christmas (maybe nearer Christmas or whenever).
As someone who has chickens, if they ever built a functional plane, I'd just let them go. 💀 They clearly deserve it.
Totally, I would be scared
This is my fav comment.
Have you read Terry Pratchett's short story "Hollywood Chickens?
It's about some chickens that got trapped in the middle of a highway, and how their attempts to get off that island of grass and brush got more and more …elaborate…
@@Autoskip no, I haven't, sounds interesting
same here haha. how long have you owned chickens? i have chickens as well :)
I always loved how Ms Tweedy's axe, which is what the chickens feared the most is the thing that ended up saving them.
The blu-ray disk had a "PANIC" button in the menu that played a couple seconds of the scene where everyone suddenly panics. A very amusing addition :)
Wait really
@@Thehunter905 Yep :) I love little details like that...
@@Thehunter905 I confirm it too! It was pretty funny XD
Same for the regular DVD
It's those details that make the DVD version of films great (Streaming and theater are still convenient / fun, don't get me wrong, but)
You can't beat the interactivity / charm that some DVDs have. Like the Monster House one for example starts off looking at the house in it's "Aware, but not quite monstrous" form, with the "GO AWAY" signs being the interaction icons. If you go to bonus features you get dragged towards the house and see the red kite in the main room. If you play the film, the doorbell rings, the signs go away, and the camera gets eaten. Typical title screen stuff, many films do that.
But, if you wait around long enough, there is a chance that the house can roar at you for a second without prompting it to. And it's that personality that physical discs have that, unless streaming integrates a main menu system, won't get replicated by it.
Naming the chicken who stopped laying 'Edwina' was no random choice: She's named after Edwina Currie, who, back in the late 80s was a Conservative MP from the UK who tried banning eggs due to salmonella.
Seriously? That’s fascinating. I never would’ve guessed it.
@@robbieking4070 *The more you know* 🙂
Yeah, she damn near destroyed the UK egg farming industry
I didn't know she tried to do that
Imagine stopping nature because of a virus….. that you can prevent
I speculate that Tweedys farm wasn't too bad a place for the chickens until Mrs Tweedy took over, that Mr Tweedy and his family were actually fairly decent as far as egg farmers go, and while he does go along with whatever his wife wants to placate her, Mr Tweedy didn't start hating the chickens until they decided to try escaping due to the poor conditions.
Me too. However, she’s absolutely greedy and abusive wife.
@@nathancruz9172
That probably truthful cause in the movie there seem to be some clues or implications. When I watched this as a kid I didn't feel okay with her on screen.
We owned chickens while I was growing up so I can confirm that, prison escape movie references aside, there was always one escape artist in every flock who would constantly find a way out of the pen and show all the others how to do it! Our "Ginger" was named "Goldie".
My family owned a cattle ranch and they similarly had one cow who was an incredible escape artist lol
There's always one super smart chicken in the flock!
(I noticed the red chickens were the smart ones, the white were total airheads and the black ones were shy) 😄
@@laurashepherd2479 That sounds like a chicken version of racism...
The quality of this is incredible. I especially love the British humor, great characters, and beautiful stop motion. Fun Fact: Those bandanas annd necklaces are to cover up the notches in the model's necks. Apparently, this film got so close to being nominated for Best Picture, that it helped create the Best Animated Feature category.
Meh, I think WALL-E should have won Best Picture regardless.
Creating the Best Animated Feature category was just a cop out.
It is a shame that the sequel didn't got nominated for anything, but at least to be fair 2023 was stock full of great films
@@mnomadvfx yeah, they basically ghettoised animation
The joke of "Land of the free, home of the brave," and Mac responds, "Scotland". That's very funny and is most likely intentional because Mel Gibson, who played Rocky, played and made "Braveheart".
That’s right.
Lol, ridiculous!! 'Braveheart' was an utterly fictitious fairytale of bollocks with no historical accuracy whatsoever ..... it exists simply as a propaganda film for embittered Jocks to refer too to backup their victim complex and massive sense of inferiority. It has to be that, why else would a nation lament a history they never endured? lol.
Also him shouting, “Freedom!”
"No. America." -Rocky
😅
Chicken Run is an absolutely fantastic film. Really love how it pays homage to other prison escape films like The Great Escape for instance. Hope you guys get to check out the other Aardman/DreamWorks films, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away!
Preach, although it's still simplified for kids, it's still fun, and boosts and memorable characters, such as Ginger, Rocky, Babs and Fowler.
Wallace and gromit it's such a great movie! I love it!!
I'd say watch the Wallace and Gromit half hour films first before Curse of the Were-Rabbit. They're so much better and you won't like Were-Rabbit as much if you don't know the characters and the world
LOVE flushed away
Chicken run is such an underrated classic (which deconstructs so many older prison films) and a fantastic movie in its own right. I'm so glad Nobu liked Ginger so much. She was the first strong FMC that left a lasting impression on me as a kid
Yeah, Ginger is my most favourite in the movie. There's just something about her personality and how she acts that makes her such a unique character.
ROFL I love how protective you guys are of Babs, she too is my favorite character.
To this day, I STILL quote her "Ooo me life flashed before me eyes! ... It was really boring."
When I was a kid I didn't understand how much stress and fear that Ginger had. I understood that she cares for the other chickens and wants them to be free and happy, now that I am an adult that I understand it is more than that. She had known these chickens her whole life, and had close bonds with them. We don't know how many have perished before the film started. Losing her "sisters" and "aunts" over the years. She is incredibly tough to endure that, and still not giving up despite failure after failure.
Fun fact: these are the same people who did Wallace and Grommet
With claymation, they take a picture of each individual figure in a certain position for each frame,
So basically stop motion
Takes about a day or two to get 30 seconds of movement
@@sarahfields288
I can't imagine how long the plane since took
Aardman studios are truly Masters
I just love how Mel Gibson's introduction in this film is his soaring into the farm yelling "FREEDOM!" - his last line in Braveheart!
A couple of the voice actors appeared later in the Harry Potter franchise. Miranda Richardson (Mrs. Tweedy) played Rita Skeeter in The Goblet of Fire, Imelda Staunton (Bunty) was Dolores Umbridge in The Order of Phoenix and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Timothy Spall (Nick) did Peter Pettigrew AKA Wormtail in The Prisoner from Azkaban, The Goblet of Fire, The Order of Phoenix, The Half-Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows Part 1.
Oh great! Not I can’t hear one of the best characters in this movie without thinking of the worst characters of the Harry Potter films 😫
@natallison6823 But Timothy Spall also played (and voiced him in the animated sequences) Nathaniel in Enchanted, where he starts as a bumbling yet cunning classical henchman to the villain but has a redemption arch.
Thank you James and Nobu for reacting to this amazing and awesome film, and to answer your question James at 0:56-1:00, the British studio (Bristol, England) who did _Chicken Run_ is Aardman Animations, they've been around since 1972 and are best known for being the creators of _Wallace & Gromit_ which has 4 short films (2 of which won Academy Awards) and a feature film (Curse of the Were-Rabbit), along with _Shaun the Sheep, Creature Comforts_ just to name a few. They also happen to do the Serta commercials with the couting sheep and this along with _Chicken Run_ and _Wallace & Gromit_ were my first familiarity with the studio.
I also love how you discuss how the animation is done for each animated movie so we learn something new each day and hopefully you guys will react to the _Wallace & Gromit_ shorts _(A Grand Day Out (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995))_ very soon before you react to _The Curse of the Were-Rabbit_ and the rest of Aardman animations films (The Pirates! Band of Misfits, the Shaun the Sheep Movies, Early Man, Arthur Christmas, and Flushed Away) for future reactions.
Something I never noticed is that all of the chickens, including Fowler and Rocky, have accessories around their necks like scarves, kerchiefs, or necklaces. There isn't a single chicken who isn't wearing something around their neck. Here's why: The neck skeletons were articulated to the neck and head piece could detach from the body, and the seam where the two parts joined was hidden by those neck accessories. Not to mention that each one helped visually differentiate between all the birds!
Mr. Tweedy: Mrs. Tweedy! The chickens are revolting!
Mrs. Tweedy: Finally, something we agree on.
I always heard him say it as "The chickens are evolved! Heehee, Ha ha ha!
My favourite Nick Park animation, and epic homage to war films. I usually hate the whole "Liar Revealed" trope, but luckily, it doesn't last very long here.
Yeah, the "Liar Revealed" trope is the film's only weakness, but it's still handled very well.
I'm with you I can't stand most "Liar Revealed" conflicts. And this one always landed well for me because it really felt like it was Rocky's *abandonment* that was the true betrayal. Ginger herself says it when she berates him later: "That's for leaving!" She doesn't even mention the big lie. I love this. It just feels like a more grounded and honest way of handling the conflict :)
The reason it works is because you dont have the worst part of liar reveal stories, the confrontation; is completely avoided by Rocky sneaking out at night, though we still get a very personal conflict with the chickens fighting eachother.
(DARK FACT) Many people don't realize that Edwina's death was her own doing. She was perfectly capable of laying eggs but refused so she could get killed because she gave up hope for escaping the farm after so many failed attempts, hence the reason why she told no one that she hadn't laid any eggs.
That explains a lot.
I'd rather die on the first day if my fate was giving birth non stop and all my children turn into ingredients for vegans.
@@KyuuDesperation vegans don't eat eggs 😂
@@JeM130177 that's literally the point.
@@KyuuDesperation you said you'd rather die than giving birth non stop and your children turned into ingredients for vegans? I assumed that meant the eggs are the ingredients?
There's a sequel coming out on Netflix. They recast Ginger's voice actress, they said she was "too old." The actress made a video reciting lines and she sounded the same! Really sad.
Ohh could u link it? I really love Ginger’s voice :< some of the recasting is kinda sad but some are still here so it’s ok
It makes no sense, they've kept the same VAs for Babs, Bunty and Mac (as they should). There's no reason why they couldn't keep Ginger. The only person the recast makes sense for it Rocky.
and r tweedy if he's back along with Mrs Tweedy, since I think the actor died @@jazzycat8917
I am sorry to hear that.
Honestly I suspect they wanted to recast Rocky but they wanted to avoid it becoming too much of a ‘drama’ thing so they recast her. Sucks though
Good lord, chickens portraying WWII POW camps and is somehow hilarious and also extremely respectful of the seriousness of what actually happened. Spiced up by that perfect amount of British humor.
I love how ride or die you both were for Babs bc honestly same 😂
All the Aardman Animations projects have got such a classic British humour to them, it's great!
6:48 I completely agree! You have no idea how much I cried watching this scene when I was a 4 year old 😂 still makes me tear up a little bit 20 years later. This movie is a masterpiece
Claymation and stop motion requires SO MANY faceplates. I think from nightmare before christmas, Sally had over 40 faceplates made for the whole movies.
Gotta give mad respect for these artists
i was OBSESSED with this movie when i was a kid, i loved all the little plans and contraptions they made. i also love the sound design and different textures made from the clay, it's so satisfying
LOVE the animations on this movie. I remember being obsessed with how the dirt looked, sounded and looked on the boots, etc. The scene where she digs the dirt with the spoon was my favourite scene XD
I literally watched that movie many times because of the dirt. Well just the whole animation. Didn't care for the story as I was too young to even understand what's going on lol
This movie is a true classic, and meant a lot to me as a child. I heard that there will be a sequel, and i really hope they don’t taint the movies legacy.
It comes out on December 15 from Netflix.
I don't know. It's coming out later this year but they've replaced Rocky's voice because of Mel Gibson's questionable past (with someone with a questionable future). And they replaced Ginger's voice because Julia Sawalha's voice has supposedly aged too much. Only thing is she did a video as Ginger and her voice is still great and the person replacing her is only 4 years younger but a bigger name. Some scummy stuff from Aardman if you ask me replacing a lot of the voice actors with bigger name actors
@@joevictor53 Things like this really annoy me. Like in the Lion King 2019 remake, instead of getting the original voice actors to play the roles, (all who were available by the way), or just voice actors in general, they chose the biggest stars in the music industry like Donald Glover and Beyonce. The only voice actor they called back was James Earl Jones, and his voice just doesn’t sound as good as it did before.
It's good!
It didn't go well.
I'll never forget when my mom and aunt took my cousin and me to see this when it first came out. I was so young and fell asleep during the whole thing🤣🤣 years later, it's one of my fave films! Glad you reacted to it!
Would love to see you guys look through Wallace & Gromit from the early works as you'll see the improvement of Claymation over the years
Claymation is just stop-motion with clay figures. Robot Chicken uses stop-motion but they are toy dolls and sticker mouths so they could focus on humor on a TV budget and a TV release time. Aardman Studios made thousands of custom mouths and expressions and it took tens of thousands of hours on manual labor switching out each component and moving it slightly frame by frame with no reliance on tweens or other computer generated movement shortcuts. Each clay piece, in itself, probably took an hour or so to make. It is a real dedication to the craft in in any case regarding consecutive picture animation. (Rendering 3D animation on the computer, of course, basically simplifies that and allows algorithmic and now complex AI to streamline some of the work but it still basically takes high definition pictures every 24-60 frames a second depending on the medium.)
Something I always found very, very dark about the ending: Mrs Tweedy ends up being crushed under the farm door at the end, after the explosion. But if you look closely, it seems that it was Mr Tweedy that pushed the door down onto her.
A door like that is very heavy. Also, Mrs Tweedy was already injured from the explosion. So Mr Tweedy probably killed her, likely being fed up with her incessant bullying.
I think that's very dark.
That’s incredible
I thought about it, and this was a scam ad in the magazine for suckers. Mrs Tweedy is the sucker who bought the machine. First the machine will need to be maintained, they may need new parts, and so forth as time goes on. Then once all the chickens are turned into pies, they would then need to be sold. Advertisement costs money, the pies also have a shelf life, unless she intended to sell those pies frozen, (which also costs money). Then they need to keep a supply of chickens to make more pies, I am not sure how expensive a single chicken costs at the time of this film. I would guess, much more than fertilized eggs. There is also no guarantee that people would even buy those pies at all. So yeah, they are worse off because of that machine. They could have expanded their farm to grow other things to sell. It seems however that the Tweedeys put all their eggs in one basket.
She's alive
Ginger is a great friend to all of the other chickens. Also the movie Chicken Run is very fantastic.
Yeah
For stop motion, Jason and the Argonauts @13:00 Rocky the flying chicken is voiced by Mel Gibson, he also starred in Braveheart with its classic line of "Freedom!". BTW, Mell was born in NY state, so he is a real American. @40:00 ^$$ Squadron was involved with Paratroop drops and glider towing during WWII
9:26 - with stop-motion animation films having talking characters, they have a separate piece for each sound. So they'll have one for "S" sounds, one for "Ch" sounds, one for "ah" sounds, and so on. When the character pronounces a word, they swap out mouths as it goes in the right order so it appears the puppet is making the right movements for the right sounds. The "a" sound in "that" would have to be an open mouth, while one for an "ee" sound would have to show the teeth (or some equivalent).
LOL, it was the Valentine's Day Couples event after this movie was released at theaters... and EVERYONE brought chicken to eat! I loudly said for everyone to hear, "Did NO ONE see that movie???"
Makes me so proud to be British, Nick Parks and Peter Lord are literally one of the greatest innovators when it came to films/short films. there earliest of works was a tv series called 'Morph' there most notable works are my favourite Wallace and Gromit. Other amazing works are pirates, shaun the sheep, Pirates!
This movie absolutely freaked me & my sister out as young kids!!! We still talk about how frightened we were. I had pet chickens that I loved when I was younger so that definitely made me steer clear of this movie after watching it once. Now years later, I’m watching your reaction and y’all helped me appreciate how much of this movie is actually funny and well-done! Thanks for bringing some healing to this childhood nightmare!😆
I've watched some behind the scenes from this movie, and one thing I found interesting is that all of the character models were the same size, but they had smaller versions of the chickens whenever they were with the humans. It's one of those things that is quite obvious in hindsight, but I thought it was pretty interesting.
This has to be the darkest movie ever to come out of Aardman Studios:
the protagonists living in a P.O.W. camp, each knowing every day could be their last.
I wish Aardman was still making movies like this one: life or death stakes, and a sinister, vile, intimidating villain.
I absolutely loved this movie when I got to see it AT A DRIVE-IN THEATER, and when my parents surprised my sister and I with the VHS tape at Christmas, we watched it over and over again. Great movie!
You guys HAVE to watch the animation short, “The Wrong Trousers,” one of the brilliant Wallace & Grommit films! You guys would have an absolute BLAST with it!😄
Greatest movie of all time This movie never lets me down when I was a kid. I didn’t understand it at first but as I got older, I kind of understand what the meaning of this movie meant. I love it.❤❤😂😂😂
Me too.
For early 2000s, the stop motion animation is AWESOME!
I grew up with this movie. I freaking love stop motion.
I love Aardman (Nick Park who created Wallace and Gromit is from just down the road from me, there’s even a statue of them in front of the market). W&G will always be my favourite, but this is great. My grandma did work with Jane Horrocks (the voice of Babs).
Rocky's line "Look at the size of that thing!" is what Wedge Antilles say in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope when the Rebel Squadron approaches The Death Star. In the audio commentary Nick Park refers the pie machine as The Death Star for chickens.
There's a few films like this. "Creature Comforts" is adorably funny. Animals in zoos and habitats discuss all kinds of stuff, all British. FUNNY😄👍
*“Easy Pops! Cockfightings illegal where I come from!”*
There’s so many jokes like this that went way over my head when I was little! Now I know why my parents were laughing at certain times in the film and I didn’t understand why! 😂
Julia Sawalha, who voices Ginger, played Lydia Bennet in the BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries.
So fun to see you guys react to this one! I remember getting to see this at a drive-in theater when I was a kid and just having a blast. 😂 Here"s a fun bit of casting trivia: Nick the rat was voiced by Timothy Spall, who went on to play the rat-themed antagonist Wormtail in the Harry Potter movies! Gotta love those wacky coincidences!
"This is our way to get out."
"We'll make posters?"
😆
I have a lot of nostalgia for this one too, I used to watch it all the time before I grew old enough to realize how horrfying it is. The scenes with the pie machine specially were such an 180 for me, one day it just dawned on me that the fun slapstick scenes I laughed so much at were the smae scenes of the two main characters fighting for their lives in a death trap, ahhh the joys of growing up. Haven't watched in a while but I still love this movie to pieces.
Claymation is a type of stop-motion done with plastacine figurines, so the animation is done pretty much the same way as with stop-motion puppets.
Watching chicken run in theaters and still watch chicken run today is one of the funniest claymation oof all time. Chicken run is made from the same creators who made Wallace and Gromit who are also the best claymation animation studio and Wallace and Gromit are funny to watch for all!!!
Fact: a scene was planned where Rocky found a chicken skeleton in the pie machine and said something like "Geez, how old is that thing?", meaning that it was used and Mrs. Tweedy bought it cheap, but then it was removed from the scenario. I mean, duh, the movie is pretty dark without it as well if you think about it
Damn that's dark as hell
After hearing they are rebooting this movìe, I really hope they bring back the "MAYBE SHE WENT ON HOLIDAY" Character. She made me laugh as a kid when this first came out. I am 33 now and this is an underrated classic! I am glad I got to re-watch it again with you guys!
You guys should watch James and The Giant Peach next!
The characters name is Babs
"This is our way to get out."
"We'll make posters?"
😆
Not so much rebooting more along the lines of finally giving a much desired sequel
Good news!
Babs returns!
13:38: This was a reference to Braveheart, where Mel Gibson played a Scotsman who fought to liberate Scotland from English rule.
I cant believe. This is one of the first animations I watched as a kid and one of my favourites. I never expected you to react to this. thanks a lot❤
This movie is so addicting to watch 😂
This is such a classic and I hear there is a sequel in the works. It's amazing how its not until you are an adult you finally get the darker parts and adult jokes hidden in the movie. Flushed away and Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-rabbit are also good Claymation movies
Flushed Away is a compuer animated film
The problem with the sequel is that they have a new voice cast so it won't be the same
15:37 *LOL😂* Ginger’s only line
*BRAAAAWK🤣🤣😂*
I loved seeing your reaction. This movie is one of my favorites. While a good portion of the references are from The Great Escape, about half of the other references are from an old black and white WW2 movie called Stalag 17. I highly recommend you watch it. It's an excellent movie with a more ambiguously happy ending than The Great Escape. If you watch it, I'm sure you'll notice how much of it is referenced in Chicken Run.
Flashback, Christmas day 2000. I look under the tree and there's a box that's quite large with my name on it. I open it, and inside is my first DVD player (it was about the size of a VCR) and my first DVD, Chicken Run
Rocky yelling "Freeedddooom ! ! !" when he arrives is a reference to Mel Gibson in "Braveheart" (1995)
The chickens are revolting!!!!
At last something we agree on. Comedy gold
This movie is SO much darker than I remember. I was like seven years old when I first saw this, how did it not scree me up forever?
The Pie Making machine was less darker and threatening than I was a kid.
The company that made chicken run also does Wallace and Gromit. That was my first introduction to them about 30 years ago.
Same here, both _Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit_ and the Serta Counting Sheep Commercials were my introduction to Aardman.
This movie aged very well, love it!
25:57 i never noticed that as a kid oh my lord, no Babs!!🫢😭
Me during 2020
I'm actually begging you to do The Great Escape after this. It's one of my favourite older movies and genuinely amazing, but it's also basically what Chicken Run is based on. We watched both movies for a film unit in high school and please imagine a bunch of fourteen year olds realising a movie they watched growing up was pretty much a somewhat child-friendly version of a POW camp!
Also, fun fact, all the chickens have things around their necks (necklaces/scarves etc) to hide the joining of the clay!
After years I got 2 things.
1- How much references the movie made.
2- And a question with no anwsers... How in the WORLD this chick held a HUMAN with one hand 44:10
3 How do chickens talk ,wear clothes,and build aircraft?
@@davehoward22 4 Fair point
The best part about this, is that we are about to have a second movie of this franchise.
Yeaaaaaaaah!
41:59 Doing the gesture Rocky is doing, a "peace sign" but with your plan facing in/towards you and the back of your hand facing the person, is the equivalent of flipping someone off in New Zealand, Australia... and in England. In other words, Rocky flipped Mrs Tweedy the bird. lolll (The gesture was done to archers who had their index and middle fingers cut off so they couldn't shoot, by people who still had all their fingers.)
There's an extra scene at the end of the credits, where the rats are still arguing about the chicken and egg question, and Rocky tells him to pipe down.
Im so glad youre doing this movie! I grew up next to Aardman's studio on Spike Island in Bristol, it was right around the corner from the block of flats I lived in 😭 unfortunately their old warehouse burned down and so many of the original claymation pieces (particularly a lot of the Wallace and Gromit ones) were lost forever. Aardman have such a special place in my heart and remind me so much of home and Bristol ❤ they have come so far and even did an episode for Star Wars Visions season 2! Im so proud of my old neighbours and look forward to everything they do.
Mel Gibson did two very different movies that year: The Patriot and Chicken Run. My family and I had a barrel of laughs with that movie!
Super underrated film. Also have you seen The Great Escape? The whole locked up in a camp and trying to escape is loosely based on that.
28:15 I think they special order a specific kind of clay, the company that manufactured clay is actually shut down but they have a load of supply and worked on the room
This movie was done by the same people who did Wallace and Gromit, and claymation was absolutely where they got their start, but Chicken Run was using a lot of silicon for the parts that didn't have to be moulded and needed to stay basically the same (like the basic body shape and the feathers), and the beaks and mouths were hot-swappable (though still sculptable, to give a base shape for each sound), so it was a lot less 'clay'mation than some of their previous works, but the style was still heavily inspired by the style that they built up with their claymation start, and the faces and arms (the most expressive parts) are all plasticine.
Fun fact, the eyes in a lot of claymation movies are beads, so that you can adjust the direction that they're looking with a toothpick in the pupil.
Love this movie so much. Another one that goes over everyones head though. This is how i imagine what might go through animals heads on their way to slaughter. So glad i dont pay for it. We definitely need more movies like this
I'm glad the algorithm recommended me your channel, you two are amazing and I've been binge watching many videos.
I remember being a kid and having these neighbours who would sneak out of their house because their parents wouldn't let them stay up and outside till late in the night and we would call them the chicken run kids in reference to this movie xD
I remember going to see this with my best friend when we were 6 and 7 years old.
Okay so im british and ive been to a wallace and gromit exhibition that the company did where they were showing how they did it and had the models on show for us to look at and it is stop motion with sets and things also yeah they use hand made faces mouth hands and every expression that they switch out for every take they do which i imagine they did the same for this aswell. For this movie i know they used the accessories like the necklasses clothes ect to hide their seems cause its handmade models. claymation takes years to complete on this scale for a full feature length movie theyre both classics that i loved growing up, they never get old "i dont like gravy" is by far the best line for me in this whole movie tickles me everytime
I quote: “I don’t want to be a pie I don’t like gravy” all the time 😂
same!
Everything Babs says is a great quote.
Chicken hut #17 at 4:19 was a reference to the prisoner of war camp Stalag 17-B in Austria. The 1953 movie Stalag 17, was based on the prisoners' experiences. A light hearted version of those experiences was aired in the 1965-1971 television show Hogan's Heros.
You know what's funny is at 42:54, when I was watching this film myself earlier today, I didn't hear the part about the "cling-on" (Klingon) and just heard the part about the engines, and was like, "Hm... I wonder if that's a Scotty reference..." lol, I need to pay more attention!
19:31 *Oh no Ginger fell on the hens🤣🤣😂😂*
I have fond memories of watching Chicken Run in theaters, and I still have the DVD I kept for decades, especially for 2 video games (GBC and PC).
Oh this movie scared me as a kid. On the other hand, this is what my mom used to convince my brother to eat chicken pot pie. Lol excited to watch this with you guys I haven't seen it in over a decade
This was such a fun reaction, you gotta love the ingenuity and hard work they put into this!
The gravy explosion at the end is CGI because it would have been impossible to do in claymation. Comfirmed by Nick Park in the audio commentary.
"WALLACE AND GROMMET" STARTED IT ALL😄😄
My favourite fact is that they made hundreds of chicken models, all at different sizes for different shots. Sadly after the Premier of Were Rabbit there was a fire and Aardman's entire collection of sets, props and models from years of movies were destroyed.
29:20 this part is one of my favorites
It surely is a childhood classic, had it on VHS tape ❤ it's very clever how they do the claymation I always found it fascinating, the patience is unreal. The scene where the hen gets taken out back and dies is so traumatic 😢
This movie is hilarious. The British humour is what makes it! Love it! 😂❤
Same I had it on vhs as well.
I also had the VHS! That scene made me not eat chicken for a week as a kid 😨😂
This is my favorite animated movie of all time. The writing is amazing.
One of my favorites your reactions was great thanks so much!