Disney’s floundering animation arm tried to get hip with Chicken Little, a computer-generated comedy with some of the sharp visuals of Pixar’s pictures, a bit of the deconstructionist wit of the Shrek movies and about an ounce of the fabled charm of the studio’s early classics. The movie is a wannabe, but on those terms it works. Starting
with the famed children’s story and culminating in an alien invasion, Chicken Little feels a
bit harried – it’s desperate to impress, particularly the parents in the audience – yet there are enough inventive details here to make you appreciate the labored effort.
