Trivia for
Chicken Run (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• The chickens assemble in front of coop #17 - a reference to Stalag 17 (1953), an archetype of prison escape movies.
  
  
• As Rocky (Mel Gibson) flies into the chicken coop for the first time, he screams "Freedom!", an allusion to Gibson's role in Braveheart (1995).
  
  
• In one of the scenes showing Ginger in solitary confinement after trying to escape, she is shown bouncing a Brussels sprout against the wall of her cell, a reference to Steve McQueen in The Great Escape (1963).
  
  
• During the scene where Rocky is using a pair of braces to help the chickens fly, Nick and Fetcher sit watching and eating from a bag of dog biscuits. The brand name printed on the dog biscuit bag is Chuffy - the same fictional brand of dog food repeatedly referred to in "Rex the Runt" (1998), an animated TV series made by Aardman Animation, the same studio as Chicken Run.
  
  
• After Rocky leaves, there is another joke at Mel Gibson's expense. Bunty says, I don't even think he was American, a reference to the common misconception that Gibson is actually Australian. (Although he was born in the USA and didn't move to Australia until he was 12, the belief persists, especially in the UK, that he's Australian.)
  
  
• In the scene where Rocky is tuning in the radio, one of the short bursts of music heard is from the opening theme to The Archers, a long-running British drama series on BBC Radio 4 (An everyday story of country folk). The Archers began in 1950, and is still broadcast regularly to this day (2006).
  
  
• The signpost recycled as a propeller reads Halifax 32; Lancaster 40; Sunderland 59. This narrows down the location of Tweedy's Farm to the Yorkshire Moors, probably somewhere in Upper Wharfedale or Littondale. A short way north of Upper Wharfdale is a place called Wensleydale, which is Wallace and Gromits', another Aardman creation, favorite cheese. Those town names were also all names of British WWII warplanes.
  
  
• According to the pattern of the scarf she is wearing, the Scottish chicken Mac belongs to clan MacLeod of Lewis.
  
  
• The original script featured an additional character: Ginger's little brother Nobby. Dreamworks suggested that Nobby was left out, in order to make the film less cute.
  
  
• In the opening scene, the penguin from Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers (1993) makes a very short cameo appearance (minus the rubber glove).
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Nick Park] Voice of the clucking chicken below the disguised tea-pot.
  
  
• There was a major push to get the film nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The failure to get the nomination, and the popularity of the film among Academy members led to the inclusion of Best Animated Feature for the next Academy Awards (2002), which was won by fellow Dreamworks film Shrek (2001).
  
  
• Mel Gibson's kids played a major part in convincing Gibson to take the part because they were very impressed with the Wallace and Gromit shorts.
  
  
• Mel Gibson recorded all of his lines separately in the United States, while the rest of the crew recorded together at Aardman (in the UK).
  
  
• John Sharian's part was a lot longer, but cut to the point that only a single line of his was left: "Sure". It was a costly cut, since Nick Park arranged for him to be flown from America just to do the part.
  
  
• During the screwball teaching the hens to fly sequence, Mac, the Scottish chicken is tossed into the air exactly like a caber in the Highland Games. And, in fact, when she lands on her head and falls facing exactly away from her tosser, this would achieve the maximum possible score for that event.
  
  
• Early in development, Mac's name was supposed to be short for MacNugget.
  
  
• Almost the entire sequence inside the pie-making machine is a direct spoof of the Indiana Jones films: - In the oven, they have to avoid stepping on the pies (Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)) - Leaving the oven, they slide under the door just before it closes and Ginger grabs her hat just in time (Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)) - Running out of the pie making machine, cogwheels fly across their path and a great mass of cogwheels roll after them (both Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981))
  
  
• While the normal frame rate for a motion picture is twenty-four frames per second, and all the Aardman Animations shorts had been shot accordingly, this film was shot at only twenty frames a second to save on time and money.
  
  
• Originally, the filmmakers had planned to have sparrows ridicule the chickens' attempts at flight. Rather than spend time and money on characters that would be on screen for only a brief time, they used Nick and Fetcher instead.
  
  
• One reference to Indiana Jones in the pie machine sequence that was never used had Rocky come face to face with a chicken skeleton inside the machine, as Indy does in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Rocky would then have said, "They bought a used machine. How cheap is that?"
  
  
• In Russian the title of this movie is, "Escape from the Hen House".
  
  
• The filmmakers were nervous about showing Rocky and Ginger kissing, fearing the sight of two chickens touching beaks would look too awkward. This led to the running gag of their being interrupted every time they are about to kiss (by the sound of the pie machine, by Ginger slapping Rocky, by the gravy explosion, etc.). When the kiss finally comes, it is staged so that the actual contact of "lips" is hidden.
  
  
• During the exercise scene, Bunty is doing her push-ups on one wing only.
  
  
• The characters' bodies were made of silicone with latex covering, while the heads and hands (or wings) were plasticene. All the chicken characters have collars and ruffles to hide the disparity between the modeling clay heads and wings and the latex-covered bodies.
  
  
• The chickens were built on two scales: full-size "A" models for the main scenes, and smaller "B" models for scenes with the Tweedys and for forced perspective shots.
  
  
• Babs's knitting is real, done with toothpicks as needles.
  
  
• When Rocky throws a party and the chickens are dancing, the two rats appear wearing Ray Ban Butterfly sunglasses, the same model and brand used by 'The Blues Brothers'. They also do a little dance impersonating Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues. The song they dance to, Chuck Callhoun's "Flip, Flop and Fly", was a standard on the band's set, and they released it in four of their albums.
  
  
• When the plane is about to take off, Fowler calls, "chocks away!" The chocks are actually triangular bars of chocolate, modeled on the Toblerone brand.
  
  
• The movie was shot using converted 1950s 35mm Mitchell BNC cameras.
  
  
• The theme music playing in the very opening of the movie is deliberately reminiscent and a reference to the theme from The Great Escape (1963).
  
  
• During the film Mrs Tweedy removes a chicken named Edwina for not laying enough eggs. This is a reference to the Conservative former Health Minister, Edwina Currie, whose political career foundered over an egg-related farming crisis in the UK.
  
  
• A song originally intended for the end credits was "Don't Fence Me In", sung by The Andrews Sisters.
  
  
• During the exercise scene, the chickens are seen to perform taekwondo patterns at one point, as one of the animators was also a taekwondo instructor
  
  
• 644 Squadron RAF, which Fowler used to be the mascot of, really existed. It was formed in 1944 and used Halifax bombers to tow gliders across the channel during the D Day landings.
  
  
• Ginger and Rocky were named after two of Nick Park's childhood pet chickens.
  
  

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