By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * * * )
"Chicken," wrote Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, one of the world's first food critics, "is the blank canvas upon which the chef paints his masterpiece."
Ginger, a resident of the Tweedy Chicken Farm, has no desire to be a model. Either she escapes or has
a John Hopoate-style encounter with a lemon.
While most of the other chickens are happy to swap captivity for free meals, Ginger (voiced by Julie Sawalha) tries one bid for freedom after another.
When Mrs Tweedy (voiced by Miranda Richardson) decides the egg business is scrambled and it's time to turn her chickens into pies, Ginger realises it's now or dinner.
Hope arrives in the form of Rocky the Flying Rooster (voiced by Mel Gibson), an American bird on the run from a circus, who might be able to teach the chickens to fly so they can escape that way.
Cue some great adventures and spot the affectionate ripoffs: The Great Escape, Indiana Jones, those 50s British comedies.
Made by Peter Lord and Nick Park, the Englishmen who created the Claymation puppets Wallace and Gromit, it's funny, clever, brilliant. The best kids' movie since Toy Story and one of the better adults' movies, too.
Running time: 85 mins
Rental: Now
