Originally Posted By Darkbeer The New York Times is not impressed... <a href="http://movies2.nytimes.com/2005/11/04/movies/04chic.html" target="_blank">http://movies2.nytimes.com/200 5/11/04/movies/04chic.html</a> >>Disney, the great pioneer of American family entertainment, has apparently been reduced to turning out knockoffs of well-known products, its own and those of its competitors. Chicken Little's knack for inventions and his posse of misfit friends owes a lot to Jimmy Neutron. There are not one but two cute, antic sidekick types: a fish (whose diver's helmet and incomprehensible chirping is weirdly reminiscent of Kenny on "South Park") and a fuzzy, three-eyed orange alien. Not to be Chicken Littleish about it, but our children deserve better. They will clamor to see this heavily advertised movie and beg for the tie-in merchandise, and the resulting revenue will be taken as an affirmation of quality. But "Chicken Little" joins "Shark Tale," "Robots" and "Madagascar" as the latest evidence that technical novelty is a cheap - or, rather, a very expensive - substitute for good storytelling and memorable characters.<<
Originally Posted By Darkbeer >>Who will Disney blame for this turkey? Eisner won't take the blame because he will say it is out of his hands because he is no longer the CEO. Convenient, huh?<< Yep, Eisner will claim they didn't market the movie enough.... yikes, like how can anyone claim that....
Originally Posted By Imagineer This Yahoo Movies gives Chicken Little the average rating of C+ --------------------------------- "Normally, this would be a great day for the employees at Disney Feature Animation. After all, today's the day when all their hard work finally pays off. The day when the studio's brand-new animated feature finally rolls into theaters. However, given the way that the majority of advance reviews for "Chicken Little" have been running (The New York Times just flat-out called this Mark Dindal film " ... a terrible movie"), I'm imagining that there won't be all that much celebrating at WDFA today." Jim Hill Media (
Originally Posted By guerillagorilla >>Who will Disney blame for this turkey? Eisner won't take the blame because he will say it is out of his hands because he is no longer the CEO. Convenient, huh?<< What an absolute slap in the face to work at Feature Animation and to be told how to make the movie work, by those who don't know the first bloody thing on making a good movie. And unfortunately, the way I see it, this will hold true until upper management realizes there was no such paradigm in the 90's, when nearly everything released on the big screen was a smash hit. Indeed, how convenient for Eisner to have no blame to take now that he is just an ordinary dude looking in from the outside. "Chicken Little" is but another example of the failure of management to allow the animation units to do their job. With catastrophic oversights like this, we can bank on more duds on the big screen that fizzle out of sight after their opening weekends.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 Chicken Little is not going to be a flop, I will guarantee this. This is usually when the studios bring out their big guns. The ads have been endless. Family films and especially cgi films(Valiant excluded) are money makers. It wouldn't surprise me if this was close to or above a 100 million once Harry Potter comes out.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 I don't think the huge drop will occur until the Harry Potter weekend. I would say next weekend the drop might be as low 30%. Then I'd say around 50% when HP arrives. Followed by a bump Thanksgiving weekend. So let's take the mid-range of the 45-50 million opening which is 47.5 -30% 33.2 -50% 16.6 If you add up those three weekends alone that puts it at 97.3 million. Now if you figure the weekdays it will probably be around 120 million around December where after that figure it to have some slow weekdays until the kids get out for Christmas break, but the weekends will still be pretty solid. This film could easily surpass Madagascar's numbers.
Originally Posted By cstephens We saw the film last night at the El Capitan. I liked the movie, but I didn't love it - I think I felt about it what I felt about "Brother Bear" - there were bits that were really good, and there were bits that bored me. And, the moose in "Brother Bear" really got on my nerves. Runt didn't quite have that effect, but it was close. I didn't find his stuff that funny, just annoying. The father/son relationship was a little too "beat you over the head" for me. I was fairly bothered by the dad's reaction to Chicken Little - it wasn't just "I don't know how to handle this", but it just seemed borderline cruel. The technology, though, was very cool. The glasses were more comfortable than regular 3D glasses, though they were still uncomfortable over my own glasses. I liked that the effects of the 3D were just to enhance the overall look rather than being just gimmicky. Stay through the very end of the film though - I'm presuming it's that way no matter whether it's 3D or not, but with the 3D effect, it reminded me of Muppetvision 3D when Kermit and Gonzo (?) notice that the two old men are in the balcony. I thought the look of the film was great too. They did an amazing job with Chicken Little - the expressions on him, especially when he's really sad, were awesome. He's just too cute. I liked Fish, and the little alien kid was cute too. I want that watch with Mickey! /cs
Originally Posted By bigthunderranch I took my son to see it this weekend and we both thought it was great. I am truly amazed at all the mixed reviews that I have seen for this film. Chicken Little is basically a good movie. I would even put it above PIXAR's "A Bug's Life". Whether it's timing or that the film has been over-hyped, will need to be determined. The true measure is whether you want to see it again, and I do. Obviously, a film like "Toy Story 2" is the best outing for computer animation. But does that make "Chicken Little" any lesser of a film. In general, reviewers have been a bit too hard in their criticisms. This is a harmless, funny, little movie that is not going to change the world.
Originally Posted By TheRedhead I hate that most discussions have become Disney vs Pixar vs Dreamworks, but I can understand and appreciate why the comparisons are made. With that said, I'd put Chicken Little above Bug's Life and Monster's Inc, but below the other Pixar films. Chicken Little is also about 40 times better than Shark Tale. That film made me queasy.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 Just got back from seeing the film. I thought it was cute, charming and very entertaining.
