I love Aardman Animations and this stop-motion animated adventure comedy produced by Pathé and Aardman in partnership with DreamWorks Animation expanded the universe to include chickens on an egg farm. Based on an original story by Peter Lord and Nick Park, it Aardman Animations first feature-length film. Lord and Park directed off a script by Karen Kirkpatrick (“James and the Giant Peach,” 1996; “Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves,” 1997). This film grossed over $220 million to be the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film in history and paved the way for feature-length films about Wallace and Gromit who had already been the subject of award-winning animated shorts.

Park’s 1990 short, “Creature Comforts” won an Academy Award as did the Wallace and Gromit shorts “The Wrong Trousers” (1993) and “A Close Shave” (1995). The 1991 Wallace and Gromit adventure, “A Grand Day Out,” was nominated for Best Animated Short Film but lost to “Creature Comforts.”  “Chicken Run” was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes.

“Chicken Run” is set in Yorkshire and starts on a full moon night with the camera slowly revealing barbed wire fences and grey huts with a dog and man patrolling the outer fences. A hen, Ginger (voiced bun Julia Sawalha) digs under the fence with a spoon. She has a group of friends following her, but one is too fat to make it under the fence. Only Ginger escapes, but the guard dogs who pursue the escaped hen to the home of the Tweedys and Mr. Tweedy (Tony Haygarth) puts her in solitary confinement (a coal bin). The next day, she is allowed to rejoin the others and makes yet another escape attempt.

The hens are imprisoned on a chicken farm that isn’t unlike a prisoner-of-war camp. Run by the tall steam Mrs. Tweedy and her meek husband, Mr. Tweedy, the egg-laying farm only keeps the hens that can still produce eggs. Those who don’t are killed.  Mrs. Tweedy is depicted taking an old hen by the neck and entering an old shed which has a stump serving as a chopping block.  The actual act happens off screen with Ginger witnessing it. The audience only hears the  clang of the axe falling.

This makes Ginger more determined; escape is a matter of life and death. Only Mr. Tweedy suspects the chickens are organized, but Mrs. Tweedy thinks he’s daft.

Ginger’s escape plans are aided by her best friend, eyeglass-wearing Scottish hen Mac (Lynn Ferguson). Her faithful team includes the chubby Babbs who is always knitting and the egg-laying queen Bunty (Imelda Staunton).  The only non-hen chicken is the old rooster Fowler (Benjamin Whitrow) who is always blathering on about his experiences during World War II.

Into the hen house concentration camp falls the American rooster Rocky Rhodes (voiced by Mel Gibson), but the fall breaks his wing.  From a partial flyer, Ginger believes the rooster can fly. She coerces him to teach all the hens to fly as he is hiding from his circus owners, but the problem is: He doesn’t really know how to fly. Things become more desperate when the Tweedys decide to increase their profit margin by purchasing a chicken pie machine. The farm will become a pie-making factory. Chickens get increased food rations but Ginger figures out what the new plan is.

During a morale-boosting dance party, the hens learn that Rocky’s injured wing is broken.  Ginger wants him to demonstrate his flying abilities but before this can be done, Ginger is chosen for the test run of the pie-making machine. Rocky saves her but leaves before the hens can discover he’s just a chicken shot out of a cannon and not a flying fowl.  Finally listening to Fowler, Ginger decides the chickens must build an airplane. With the help of rats Nick (Timothy Spall) and Fetcher (Phil Daniels), they are able to do so, but the Tweedy’s are ready to put the pie-making machine to work.

When it looks like the Tweedys will have pies, Rocky returns to help save Ginger and the hens are able to escape.

This is a clever spoof of the 1963 “The Great Escape.” While the live-action film focused on the actions of US soldiers (Steve McQueen (1930-1980) and James Garner (1928-2014) starred) and the US military officers were portrayed as having the main roles in the planning and escape, the real escape was mostly a British operation, with the exception of a US-born British officer, Johnnie Dodge. Canadians were crucial to the building of the tunnels. In this respect, the stop-motion “Chicken Run” helps the British reclaim this wartime mass escape.

Julia Sawalha (Ginger), Mel Gibson (Rocky), Tony Haygarth (1945-2017) who voiced Mr. Tweedy, and Benjamin Whitrow (1937-2017) do not return for the sequel “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.”

Stay for the credits for the mid-credits scene and the rats have a discussion heard mostly in voice over as the credits role.

“Chicken Run” premiered at Universal City on 17 June 2000. It was released in the US on 21 June 2000. It is currently available to stream on Netflix and Peacock (with subscription). Rental and purchase options are available on Amazon Prime Video.