Chicken Little

1943
7.3| 0h8m| NR| en
Details

It's a peaceful day at the local poultry farm until Foxy Loxy happens along intent on a chicken dinner. He takes the advice of a book on psychology by striking "the least intelligent" first and convinces dim witted Chicken Little the sky is falling. Chicken Little spreads the word but when head man Cocky Locky proves the story to be false, Foxy Loxy spreads rumors that Cocky Locky isn't the smart chicken he appears to be, which leads to the ultimate undoing of the chickens at the hands of Foxy Loxy.

Director

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Walt Disney Productions

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Reviews

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Michael_Elliott Chicken Little (1943) *** 1/2 (out of 4) This famous tale takes a different meaning as Disney used the classic story for a WWII propaganda short. A fox plans to not catch one chicken but instead catch them all so he locates the dumbest one and tells him that the sky is falling. Soon the rest of the chickens are in a panic thinking disaster really is coming. As the war went on, the studios were becoming much darker in some of the films they released and that included Disney and their children programs. This eight minute short has the famous tale that most people are going to know but what makes this version so good is the incredibly dark and sinister ending. I'm certainly not going to spoil the ending but it packs a punch even when seen today and there's no question that the studio had a message to deliver. The fox character was extremely well-written and there's no doubt that the animation was quite good. Fans of these types of animated films will certainly enjoy it.
TheLittleSongbird The Disney shorts have seen a large number of classics and a lot of very good shorts too, there are very few that I didn't care for. Chicken Little(1943) is very different for Disney, who have rarely been more cynical or morbid, but here different equals great results. Chicken Little is terrific, maybe not quite one of the Disney masterpieces or among my personal favourites, but is bold well-made stuff and one of the better Disney shorts of the 40s. The animation is fluid and colourful, the backgrounds moving from frame to frame smoothly and the colours as vibrant and well-textured as you'd hope. The characters are well drawn too. The music is typically lush and energetic if ever so slightly repetitive. The writing can be much enjoyed, the gems being with Foxy Loxy and his psychology book dialogue. It will admittedly most likely go over children's heads but not over adults, who be impressed and amazed by how daring Chicken Little and how much of its content it manages to get away with, considering the time when it was made. The story is very true in detail to the original story but with a unusually twisted(especially for Disney) ending that will shock the viewer as much as it shocked the narrator. It also has a point that is made clearly and not heavy-handedly, and is as relevant now as it was then with stuff that parallelled WW2 and also parallels now(especially from a militaristic viewpoint). The characters carry the narrative very well and their personalities do stand out, the most memorable and entertaining by a mile being Foxy Loxy. While Frank Graham does a superb job voicing almost all the characters(Florence Gill and Clarence Nash do their distinctive hen and duck noises), particularly the narrator- the role of which is well written and doesn't try to explain too much- and Foxy Loxy. To conclude, terrific short that succeeds at doing something different from what Disney usually do. 10/10 Bethany Cox
didi-5 I remember reading the 'Chicken Little' book as a child but this cartoon turns it on its head with one eye on the time it was made, 1943, during the Second World War.The sly and hungry Foxy Loxy reads from a text which describes how to lie and cheat your neighbours - in this case to persuade Chicken Little and others than the sky is falling, and so the world is about to end.It showcases the power of propaganda, panic and persuasion to achieve an aim (Foxy of course wants a hearty supper of chickens and ducks). Cocky Locky is the political leader who gets depicted as a fool, while Henny Penny and her cronies spread gossip and hysteria.A clever cartoon, perhaps too sophisticated for children, but enjoyable on some levels to a younger audience with a bit of forethought, a bit like 'Animal Farm'.
rebeljenn 'Chicken Little' is a Disney short about the story of a chick who thinks that the sky is falling, and no one believes him. I remember watching this when I was very young -- they used to show this on the Disney channel along with their other older cartoons and cartoon shorts. (I'm not sure if they still show it or not, but Disney have seemed to have moved away from showing their older cartoons.) Generally-speaking, this was a typical Disney animated story featuring a cute little chick and a basic storyline. As it has been years since I saw this, I don't remember too much about it other than the little chick running around saying that the sky was falling, over and over again...and no one believed him. I've since read that there were some political motives behind this cartoon, but I didn't know that when I watched it as a child.I just recently discovered that Disney are going to be reviving / remaking Chicken Little. I hope there are no bird flu jokes.

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