DreamWorks and Aardman’s Chicken Run at 25

Copyright DreamWorks

    At the 1989 Academy Awards, the winner for Best Animated Short film was a clay animated short called Creature Comforts. The creator behind the short was a small stop motion studio in Bristal, U.K. called Aardman Animation. The studio was founded in 1972 by animators Peter Lord and David Sproxton. The pair first met in school and started the studio at first as a hobby, but it went on to produce stop motion content for children and adult for British television. It wasn’t until animator Nick Park was hired in 1985 that the studio truly took off to new heights. Alongside Creature Comforts, another Aardman short, A Grand Day Out, was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. The short would also be the debut of the studio’s most famous characters, Wallace and Gromit. When Creature Comforts won, studios in Hollywood were eager to work with Aardman on producing a feature film. But the studio declined because they wanted to wait until the perfect time and concept was hatched. One of the Hollywood executives who tried to collaborate with the studio was Jeffrey Katzenberg. At the time, Jeffrey was the chairman at Disney but Aardman didn’t wish to work with the Mouse because they rather hold on to their own identity.

 

     But, in 1995, Nick Park drew a sketch of a chicken digging under a fence. To Nick, chickens are a funny animal that people wouldn’t think much of. It was then he thought perhaps this would be the perfect concept for the studio’s first feature film. With that, the story became a prison escape film about chickens. After two years of development, the Hollywood that picked up the film was the recently founded DreamWorks SKG, which Jeffrey Katzenberg co-founded with David Geffin and Steven Speilberg. Aardman was convinced that a collaborative feature project with this new studio would help them retain their special identity. As with the other projects, their first feature, Chicken Run, was done in stop motion using a special material called Plasticine, which is like clay, but it never hardens. A few new tricks were thought of for the different chicken puppets, such as each one wearing scarves to hide the seams that connect the head with the body. A particular challenge in planning the different scenes with chickens. In the scenes where Mr. and Mrs. Tweety interacted with the chickens, the chicken puppets had to be smaller for scale and when the chickens were alone, they were normal sized. The sets for the film were also the largest ones built at the studio. As for the creative direction, neither directors Nick Park nor Peter Lord faced any interference with the DreamWorks executives. All that co-executive producer, Jeffrey Katzenberg, did was visit the British studio a few times to check the progress of the film and make one suggestion for the scene with Rocky and Ginger on the roof before the third act. This would be a stark contrast to the follow-up collaborative projects which is a different story.

 

    After five years of production and 15 months of animation, Aardman Animation’s feature film debut, Chicken Run, was released on June 23^rd, 2000, to critical acclaim with praise toward the charm, the story, and comedy. The film was also a box-office hit. With a worldwide gross of over $200 million, Chicken Run is still the most successful stop motion movie. The film would also receive a sequel, albeit without DreamWorks or the two lead voice actors, in 2023 on Netflix called Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. The film was mostly well received but was considered not as good as the first. So, even after 25 years and more feature films after, DreamWorks and Aardman’s Chicken Run is and will be considered one of the best.