British Comedy Guide
Chicken Run
Chicken Run

Chicken Run

  • 2000 film

Award-winning animation telling the story of a band of hens doomed to a life of egg-laying on a Yorkshire chicken farm. Stars Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Tony Haygarth and more.

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Chicken Run

Key details

Genre
Film
Released
2000
Stars
Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Tony Haygarth, Jane Horrocks, Miranda Richardson, Timothy Spall and more
Writers
Karey Kirkpatrick, Mark Burton, John O'Farrell, Peter Lord and Nick Park
Directors
Peter Lord and Nick Park
Producers
Peter Lord, David Sproxton, Nick Park, Jake Eberts, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Michael Rose, Carla Shelley and Lenny Young
Company

For the hens on Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy's farm, life is tough. Egg-layers, they're kept in small hutches with no access to grass, limited open space, and a strict curfew at the hands of Mr. Tweedy and his vicious guard dogs.

Having long dreamt of - and made only semi-serious attempts at - escape, the hens are pushed to breaking point when one of their number is taken and killed by Mrs. Tweedy for a low egg yield: the escape is on.

As plans begin to form, the group is disturbed by the arrival of cockerel Rocky; a brash, American chicken with an ego and an apparent ability to fly. If, resolves leader Ginger, he can teach the hens how to take to the skies, then their freedom is assured. The crucial fact Rocky neglects to share, however, is that he is a runaway circus act, fed up of being shot from a cannon - so much for 'flying'!

Whilst Rocky strings the females along with promises of flight in return for their hiding him from recapture, Tweedy has her own plans: to turn the farm into a lean, ruthless money-making enterprise not through the production of eggs, but intensively feeding and farming their birds for a new range of home made chicken pies!

The race is on between Ginger, Rocky, and the Tweedys. Will the farmers get their all-in-one pie-making machinery installed and working before the birds make their escape? Will Rocky come clean about his 'flying'? Just how will Ginger get her compatriots to safety?

Stream and download

Additional details

Tagline
This Ain't No Chick Flick!; Escape or Die Frying; A Few Good Hen; Feathers will Fly!; The Cluck Stops Here
UK certificate
U
Duration
84 minutes
UK release
Friday 30th June 2000
Distributors

Pathe

Production
Animated
Camera set-up
Single camera
Picture
Colour

Website links

Broadcast details

Most recent repeats
  • Saturday 9th March 2024 at 3:00pm on BBC1
  • Friday 15th December 2023 at 7:00pm on BBC3
  • Sunday 10th December 2023 at 2:00pm on BBC1

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