When the future denizens of Planet Earth leaf through the annals of history and arrive at the year 2000, which artifact of UK culture will be hailed the most significant? The first series of Big Brother? Kevin & Perry Go Large? S Club 7’s ‘Reach’? It’s hard to pick a favourite, but the new millennium also brought us a plucky animated film from a small British studio then best known for their zany plasticine shorts featuring a man with a penchant for cheese and his long-suffering dog.
Chicken Run was the first attempt by Aardman Animations to make a feature film, at a time when the industry was turning largely towards computer animation in the post-Toy Story world. Even with Aardman veterans Nick Park and Peter Lord on directing duties, few could have predicted that a film best summarised as Dambusters in a chicken coop would leave such a lasting legacy. Chicken Run is still the highest grossing stop-motion animated film of all time, beating out stiff competition from Henry Selick’s Coraline and Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox…
