So there's the chicken, and her name is Ginger. Not really a chicken, she's actually a fun grown and very smart hen. So smart that she understands the world outside the coop. She knows that just beyond the barbed wire fence and the life of egg production, lies decapitation, and it ain't pretty. So Ginger spends her days working out an escape plan, not just for herself but for the whole darn brood.

If you've seen the delightful short feature films starring Wallace and Gromit, then you know what to expect of Aardman Studios, from Bristol, England. If not, you're in for a real treat. Aardman Studios create creatures out of placticine, a type of modeling clay. Each character is created with various mouths, to achieve the required consonants and vowels. Filming is a precise and arduous task, a character speaking one sentence takes days of work.

So Chicken Run, the new feature film from Aardman, is tremendous on every level. It's a really good story, and it's really astonishingly impressive craftsmanship.

The story, based on the great escape, is set in a Chicken coop. The evil owner is Mrs. Tweedy, and she just wants to make money. Toting the voice of Miranda Richardson, Mrs. Tweedy is wonderfully evil, and the snap of her rubber gloves--indicating a hen about to meet its maker--is more chilling than you can imagine.

So the hero, Ginger, who is voiced by Julie Sawalha, decides to rescue the whole bunch. If you're a fan of British television, you might recognize Julie's voice as that of Saffie from "Absolutely Fabulous." Also from Ab Fab is Jane Horrocks, who provides the voice of Babs, the dopey chicken, who claims that she just saw her life flash before her eyes, and it was really boring.

Mr. Tweedy is onto Ginger's plans, though, and keeps turfing her into the coal shovel for punishment. Then she meets the great American know it all, a circus chicken named Rocky the Rooster who can actually fly! He's voiced by Mel Gibson, and the scenes between Ginger and Mel are really great. Who am I kidding, all the scenes are really great, culminating in a great discussion about which came first, the chicken or the egg.

Don't miss Chicken Run. It is one adorable movie. The claymation is impressive, the story is sweet, and the wit is intense. In fact, this movie is a rare find, something you know right off, since all the hens have teeth.


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