Chicken Little

With the voices of Zach Braff, Joan Cusack, Fred Willard, Garry Marshall, Steve Zahn

Rated G

            2005 has offered “Madagascar” and “Robots,” among others, as its animated hopefuls, and although there’s nothing wrong with either of the two previous films, they lack the spirit and liveliness that made “The Incredibles” and “Finding Nemo” giant hits. “Chicken Little” may be the best of this year’s bunch, and it might have a chance of getting the Best Animated Film Oscar (however, without a Pixar film, the award could practically go to anything, even “Valiant.”)

            Zach Braff (“Garden State”) provides voice work for Chicken Little, who is shunned upon by his entire town after he wrongly claims that the sky is falling. His father, Buck Cluck (Garry Marshall), doesn’t expect much out of Chicken because of his small size. However, he has friends in the forms of Abby Mallard (Joan Cusack), Runt of the Litter (Steve Zahn) and Fish-Out-of-Water. After a major comeback with an extraordinary (although unlikely) baseball triumph, Chicken Little once again believes the sky is falling, and not only is he right, aliens are ‘attacking’ the earth and only Chicken and his friends can stop a disaster.

            Much like the “Shrek” films, “Chicken Little” has lots of in-jokes and movie parodies, and may be the best Hollywood can muster up until the 2006 release of “Cars.”

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