Is Chicken Little the WORST Disney movie? | Animated 100

[@ModernMouse]

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[@matheusalves9421]

I'll take this 00s quirky little gem any time over some of their other CGI films. I love the satirical tone, the wacky sci-fi twist on the fable, the soundtrack and the overall cartoony vibe with all those old-school visual gags. On top of that, i love the main character and his equally "adorkable" group of friends. In fact, this was the first time i remember finding a Disney protagonist truly relatable. As an outcast kid who grew up being a neglected bullying victm, It brought me strength and hope with its happy ending and its "everyday is a new day" message. It also encouraged me to open up to my parents about how I felt, and it really improved my relationship with them. Só yeah, im glad Disney made this movie and i hope that someday more people will be able to appreciate it.

[@ModernMouse]

I've definitely used Chicken Little as a punchline for a while, but upon revisiting it, in all honesty, it isn't that bad. I'll still poke fun, but I recognize why people do like it, especially those who grew up with it. It wasn't a part of my childhood so I have different feelings about it. I'm also not trying to make the Animated 100 List about me and my personal preference so I'm trying to limit my own bias, although it will definitely seep in, but I want people to know how to critically analyze media and to create a bit more media literacy. I appreciate the comment and your story. It's rad to hear when people connect deeply with movies.

[@techguypaul]

The whole father-son relationship story was done better in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. I only agree with this movie being here if it's #100 and Brother Bear isn't even on the list.

[@ModernMouse]

We will see where everything ends up. I make no promises on what the list ends up looking like. I'm not trying to bring a heavy bias to it and to adhere to the scale I'm using. Personally, I do agree that Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the superior father-son story, but I think there are plenty of father-son stories better than the one in Chicken Little, mostly because they feel dedicated to the theme throughout the entire film rather than forgetting it exists for most of the runtime.

[@scottriddell3514]

The only reason with brother bear was no villain at all in the movie

[@benjaminkellog7311]

First time viewer, love the idea of a list of just 100 random films and hope it stays that way for the next two years it'll take to cover all of them. I was the perfect audience for "Chicken Little" in 2005, and even though I can recognize a ton of its flaws these days (never knew the vehicles are all floating, though; you'd think this was the first months of development of a PS2 game!), I still enjoy the familiar archetypes, quirky soundtrack, and the quality being just good enough to qualify as a "Disney film." I'm a bit torn regarding the "only one suggestion, please" rule, as my mind leaped to several of varying quality and origin that I've always secretly hoped could be covered in a bit more depth on this platform. Regardless, I will limit myself to the one that I personally found most interesting. "Unico in the Island of Magic" is a 1983 anime gem, technically a sequel but perfectly watchable on its own merits, and in my view, a more complete story than its predecessor. Come for the tale of a baby unicorn bringing joy to others' lives wherever he goes, stay for the epic war of magic and love in a gorgeous medieval carnival setting. (Okay, I'll leave you with one more that isn't really a suggestion for the list, but does speak of my animation interests of recent months. "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Dunk for Future," the 2023 basketball movie based on a long-running Chinese franchise that somehow became a better "Space Jam" sequel than the actual "Space Jam" sequel. Feel free to disregard it all you want, but boy, the trailers sure are something.)

[@ModernMouse]

You found the channel at a perfect time. The 100 list is a great entry point. Hope you'll find everything else I do as interesting.

[@chasehedges6775]

The only good thing about this movie was the usage of One Little Slip when the main character is running to school.

[@ModernMouse]

The soundtrack is good, but I feel like it really fails to add anything of value.

[@chasehedges6775]

@@ModernMouse True

[@cliffturbo2146]

And then Stir It Up, That one spice Girl song... Disney was really into Pop music at the time funnily enough.

[@ModernMouse]

They always have been. It's either been contemporary music or the American musical format. A lot of those package films from the 1940s were filled with songs from musicians on the radio. Even more recent films tend to get at least one or two contemporary artists for a song or a remix of a musical number in the film.

[@cliffturbo2146]

@@ModernMouse I see. Maybe the movies and songs too recent and therefore not nostalgic enough for me to notice. 😆 If I have to think of one however, that's Try Everything. You say the music in Chicken Little didn't do much for the story, well the song for Zootopia sticks like a glue.

[@AlanTheOlive]

Oh how bad I want you to go over "Fritz the Cat" one of my faves :) I loved this

[@ModernMouse]

I'll put it into the recommendations!

[@tolstukha]

I have finally watched chicken little recently… and I didn’t think it was that bad! Definitely not top-tier Disney but absolutely watchable and even enjoyable

[@ModernMouse]

I think that's where I landed at the end of my latest viewing for this video. I'll probably always use it as a punchline to a joke, but it's a passable film. It's not great, but it's not something I can sit through. I actually think the end score it got will become pretty similar to tons of animated films that are "passable".

[@robertgrier8943]

The story feels a little Janky. But I actually feel the story is engaging enough for me to overlook it and enjoy the ride . Because of how engaging the story is it will always have a place in my heart.

[@ModernMouse]

I get what you are saying here. On this rewatch, the time flew by. As I sat to critique it though, I felt like the 2nd and 3rd act had little to nothing to do with the 1st and that's why the story as a whole doesn't work for me.

[@WolfX1120]

Just out of curiosity... Don Bluth's Troll in central park and rock a doodle... Are they better or worse than chicken little?

[@ModernMouse]

I'll add those films to the list. I'm not sure. We will see in the future. I haven't seen Troll in Central Park and I haven't seen Rock-A-Doodle since the '90s so I can't give you an answer off the top of my head. I sure hope they are better because I need 100 more movies to knock Chicken Little from the list.

[@WolfX1120]

@@ModernMouse I think Rock-A-Doodle is better... Troll in Central Park, that is a big i don't know... I have seen all 3... Chicken Little, Rock-A-Doodle and Troll in Central Park... Good luck ;3

[@icecreamhero2375]

I always loved Chicken Little. I think the worst Disney films are Ralph Breaks the Internet ( It kept breaking the established rules of the universe, it had character assassination and the plot makes no sense.) and Frozen II ( The plot was weird, contrived, and boring). Everything else for the most part ranges from ok to good in my opinion.

[@ModernMouse]

I'm a fan of Frozen II. Knowing the historical context of the film actually elevates it above the original film for me. I'll give you Ralph Breaks the Internet though. That feels like it was only made to tell jokes and not a really interesting story.

[@icecreamhero2375]

@@ModernMouse I am really looking forward to Frozen III though. Maybe it will be super good. Maybe the plot will be so good it retroactively makes the 2nd film ok because it needed the 2nd one to happen.

[@ModernMouse]

I'm sort of looking forward to it. I'm going in with the same feelings I had for Toy Story 4.

[@r0b0tniik]

The film that buried Disney’s handdrawn animation.

[@ModernMouse]

I wouldn't say it buried hand drawn animation since they still had Princess and the Frog a few years later, but it certainly was a time where the company pivoted and opted to go all in on 3D CGI. At the time, it was a smart move. 2D wasn't making money and CGI was. If I had one wish, it would be that they moved faster on what they established with the Paperman short and expanded that into their feature films.

[@CreditsBean17]

@@ModernMouse What Disney needs is to return Hand-drawn animation.

[@ModernMouse]

A few years ago I would have 100% agreed, but because other studios have popped up and are doing 2D animated films, I'm okay with Disney doing whatever they want. There's so much great 2D out now. In fact, if you are able to, Robot Dreams comes out soon. I got an early copy of it in December and I can't stop gushing about it to people.

[@r0b0tniik]

I guess that is a redeeming quality of Chicken Little: it kept Disney’s doors open! But good point, there’s so much great traditional animation from other studios right now, that we don’t necessarily need Disney to do it again. But my nostalgia wants them to do it.

[@ModernMouse]

I would definitely show up for a hand drawn Disney film, but if I'm being realistic, I don't see it happening anytime soon.

[@AuraLeafstorm]

Watching Chicken Little in theatres as a little kid was a formative experience for me, in the sense that it was the very first time I realized that Disney could make bad movies.

[@ModernMouse]

Wow! This was far more of a roast than I could ever come up with.

[@Sasi-ex5yn]

Pixar and DreamWorks made better movies at the time, even in my opinion as a child.

[@ModernMouse]

I guess we will see how those films from that era end up ranking.

[@AuraLeafstorm]

@@Sasi-ex5yn I actually personally really like about half of the Disney films that came out during the "Post-Renaissance" era. The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, and especially Lilo and Stitch were all great films, and in most cases seriously underrated. Stitch I'd even argue is just as good as the best of the Renaissance-era films. The ones that really drag this era of Disney down are Dinosaur, Home on the Range, Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, and especially Chicken Little. Pixar was pretty consistently great during this era (although I'd argue it never quite reached the same heights as the Disney Renaissance - a controversial take, I know), and from the beginning DreamWorks has always been a mixed bag, with some really great films and some really mediocre films, sometimes back-to-back. But nothing can top Prince of Egypt.

[@joeybaseball7352]

I personally have no issues with Chicken Little. I think it's fine. But I feel that way about practically every animated movie.

[@ModernMouse]

I think the most difficult part of creating the Animated 100 List will be exactly this. A majority of animated films are "fine". There will be incredible stand outs and awful failures, but most will be somewhere in the middle and how do those rank? I think that's both a challenge for me and also a reason to tune in, even for the films that are much more forgettable.

[@jerrelljones9991]

I honestly feel The Black Cauldron is the worst Disney animated film but the 2D animation is fantastic the characters and the story is just lame and underdeveloped and there's not much to The Horned King besides his face looking like Nightmare fuel and him being well voiced by John Hurt

[@ModernMouse]

Just off the top of my head, and going by the scale I'm using to judge each film, I'd say that the Black Cauldron outshines Chicken Little in most categories, but I agree that it does feel underdeveloped. I also think that's because they used only one story out of the many books in that series rather than adapting the entire series of books.

[@jerrelljones9991]

@ModernMouse yea that's all true it's hard trying to combine multiple books from a book series and condense them into 1 film for a film adaptation Disney didn't really try their hardest in those days when it came to story writing and story development

[@scottriddell3514]

The movie wasn’t that bad in my opinion

[@glazdarklee1683]

This is great! I am so lucky that I discovered this channel at such an auspicious time. And now I am off to watch the next movie.

[@ModernMouse]

I'd hope you have. I do feel like the channel, over the last few months, has been on a major upswing.

[@OkayYaraman]

I must be one of the only people who enjoyed this film LOL. I thought the characters and sci-if twist were a lot of fun and the animation pretty good for the time. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on some of Don Bluth’s stuff, including Anastasia, and other Fox features like Titan AE.

[@ModernMouse]

According to some of the comments here, you are not the only one who likes Chicken Little.

[@joeybaseball7352]

This is a rather ambitious endeavor. Having 100 insinuates that this series will go on for at least 2 years. Technically 3 calendar years since you started at the midpoint of 2024. I just hope you're not going in way over your head here, to where it may cause creative burnout. You can always change it to 10, if you feel 100 is too daunting of a task.

[@ModernMouse]

It will have at least 100. It is ambitious and I pondered on this idea for a few months. I kicked around the idea with a few people and workshopped the scale I created with Joe. There are several reasons I wanted to do this list. Hopefully I don't have to back down to a top 10. We will see. I'm approaching this entire thing as openly as possible.

[@Mal-go5dl]

I have a bit of a soft spot for this film, partly because of the soundtrack and how off puttingly funny I find it, but it's definitely in my bottom 5 Disney films. I think you should take a look at Felidae at some point, it's an interesting film worth spotlighting

[@ModernMouse]

It has its merits, and certainly not the worst animated film of the last 25 years, but compared to the other Disney and Pixar output of the time, it's not great

[@Sasi-ex5yn]

What do you think of making a video about 20th Century FOX's History? Or more videos about Touchstone and Miramax...

[@ModernMouse]

I'll be continuing the Disney Live Action series so I will definitely be touching on both Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures in the next installment. (I'm already doing research for that.) In terms of Miramax or 20th Century Fox, it depends on how well the rest of the Live Action Eras series goes. I don't want to spend weeks researching something only for people to not want that. As of right now though, these are ideas I have considered and are part of my "to do" list in the future.

[@Sasi-ex5yn]

@@ModernMouse you should do an entire channel about Mature Disney.

[@ModernMouse]

To be honest, it's been a long road to get this channel to where it is now. I have actually thought about starting a new channel previously, but opted to put all of my effort here. Plus, this isn't the only thing I do and for the sake of having free time, I plan to just stick to running Modern Mouse. The reason that a video like the Touchstone Eras video isn't coming out every week is because I sit down to research, write, record, and edit everything myself and that's typically a couple of weeks worth of work. If you'd like to make a KZbin channel dedicated to that niche, I'd say go ahead. It's not something most people are doing and it's likely not something I'll be doing exclusively. If you see a gap, I say fill it!

[@jerrelljones9991]

I don’t think Chicken Little is the worst Disney animated film per say but it's definitely one of the more average and not so great animated films I definitely agree with you on how the quality doesn't hold up as a CGI film from the early 2000's the textures are not that believable and rendered the realistic looking CGI dinosaurs in Disney's Dinosaur look way better and textured and Disney's Dinosaur is only 24 years old

[@ModernMouse]

I tried to look at it historically. I can't compare Chicken Little to current CGI films, but from that time period, especially when you look at Pixar and Dreamworks output, Chicken Little looks more like a Disney Jr. show than it does a film to contend against movies like Shrek or The Incredibles.

[@jerrelljones9991]

@ModernMouse yea it's funny those early 2000's CGI films The Incredibles and Shrek were considered groundbreaking with the level of detail and believable textures but with Chicken Little you can tell a lot of them were just 2D animators trying to adapt to 3D and it didn't turn out well as they had hoped

[@disneymagiczack]

the opening to this video, i cant agree more lmao

[@ModernMouse]

I put my bias aside for the sake of art.

[@applecoreeater]

Road to El Dorado and/or Prince of Egypt would be interesting to see you talk about

[@ModernMouse]

I was on a podcast talking about Dreamworks and so many people forget about these because the CG look became the studio norm. They are gems for sure. Not sure how they'd stack against Rugrats so it would be interesting to see!

[@applecoreeater]

@ModernMouse agreed! The animation for Prince of Egypt is just gorgeous and it has a killer soundtrack, and just so much heart as well. Would be very interesting to see

[@eatatjoes6751]

I used to watch it over and over as a kid and the only positive thing I can give out of it is that I love the Barenaked Ladies and there was one, *ONE* joke that made me laugh in the whole thing.

[@ModernMouse]

What's the joke that gets you?

[@forrestdupre87]

What about Home on the Range, Strange World?

[@ModernMouse]

I guess we will have to see as those come up to be a part of the list. If I were to toss out an opinion now, without analyzing and scoring them, I'd say that both likely score higher, but I can't say that will happen when the time comes to add them. I will add those two suggestions into my upcoming considerations.

[@forrestdupre87]

@@ModernMouse there’s also THE WiLD and Mars needs Moms. Most people often forget that those are Disney movies.

[@ModernMouse]

Funny enough, neither of those were made by Disney animation. Disney was only the distributor. The same goes for Valiant. They all came at a time when Disney was ending their relationship with Pixar and were looking to establish relationships with other animation studios in a similar fashion.

[@sjmhadsock4586]

Isn't this one of the first cgi movies other than dinosaur that disney done without the help of Pixar

[@ModernMouse]

Yes. I believe I hit that point during the video. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[@sjmhadsock4586]

@@ModernMouse yes you did

[@Monkeyboy1138]

Even Dinosaur isn’t a fully cgi movie, it uses live action plates/shots/scenery. So, Chicken Little has the distinction of being Walt Disney Animation’s first fully cgi movie. What a movie to start that new era on.

[@sjmhadsock4586]

@@Monkeyboy1138 yeah

[@christianaguilera1469]

I didn't think it was that bad

[@ModernMouse]

Do you agree with the score I gave it? What would you give it?

[@christianaguilera1469]

@@ModernMouse The scoring make sense

[@calebbusing6171]

I like Chicken Little

[@calebbusing6171]

The Black Cauldron is my only suggestion for now. It is another underrated Disney movie

[@calebbusing6171]

My only other suggestion for now is Dinosaur. It is one of the most underrated Disney movies. It’s my favorite animated dinosaur movie. I prefer it over The Land before Time and The Good Dinosaur

[@ramashaharris5952]

Chicken Little isn’t that bad!!🤦‍♀️

[@ModernMouse]

I think, as this series rolls on, I will absolutely find a Disney film worse than Chicken Little. For now, because it's the first of the series, it is the worst and also the best by default.

[@ramashaharris5952]

Sounds reasonable.🤷‍♀️

[@ramashaharris5952]

I just get so tired of hearing people say it’s a terrible film. Give me a break, it’s only a cartoon and not real. Get over yourselves!

[@ModernMouse]

@@ramashaharris5952 For me, it's definitely just a joke. I never take things seriously when it comes to entertainment. Sometimes I see the folks crying online about Star Wars and I just wish they'd see that it really isn't impacting their life as much as they think it is. In creating a list like this, I'm approaching it with a critical eye, looking at history, how it was made, and if it works, but ultimately my day isn't ruined because I gave a movie time out of my life. This is fun and should be fun no matter if the movie was subjectively good or bad. I appreciate you taking the time to hear me out and to give your thoughts. More than anything, I just like talking about animation with people.

[@ramashaharris5952]

No problem. Thanks for sharing this information with me.

[@sillybillybear50]

I tried to rewatch this film recently. It’s - VERY difficult to get invested in. The characters have potential (I think Abby and the fish are adorable and I like that Foxy exists as a masculine female character, at least until the end), but the story is odd to me and isn’t fun, not even in a guilty pleasure way. The animation also feels stale compared to a lot of other computer animated films prior to it.

[@CreditsBean17]

How dare you?!

[@ModernMouse]

How dare I give Chicken Little an additional 90 minutes of my time? I agree! For real though, I thought I was going to hate it more on this rewatch than I actually did.

[@CreditsBean17]

@@ModernMouse 😡

[@ModernMouse]

If it helps, it is currently the number one film on the Animated 100 List

[@scottriddell3514]

The movie is indeed quite crap with the animation. Wasn’t too good at all but Disney was really trying to work out cgi at the time. It would seem like the mid 2000s was Disney’s biggest slump. Probably worst than the package era between those of Bambi and Cinderella.

[@faith4disney]

NO 💖

[@ModernMouse]

No, as in you don't think it's the worst?

[@faith4disney]

@@ModernMouse Yeah, I actually love Chicken Little

[@ModernMouse]

The good news for you is that it's currently ranked number one on the Animated 100 List.

[@ramashaharris5952]

Actually now that I think about it, Mickey’s Twice Upon A Christmas seems like Disney’s actual first animated short film they ever made.🤔So maybe we shouldn’t worry about this film being the worst one yet, because Mickey’s Twice Upon A Christmas has more heart humor joy and laughs to it. It was probably a bigger success than this movie ever had, considering this short was released in 2004 and their very first CGI animated film they ever made.

[@ramashaharris5952]

Oh, I really miss Disney Toon Studios and Playhouse Disney. I hope someday soon they’ll forget about the guy who hated the studio and claims not being a huge fan of it and then shuts it down, hopefully soon they’ll bring them back to reality again. I will not stand for him doing this to us!😠

[@NathanMakerProd]

Sorry you didn't enjoy the film. As an older person, 3D animation esthetics can be seen as a STYLE, rather than a STANDARD. The Story basically assumes the audience has been inundated with Chicken Little references, or has NO familiarity with the classic version of the tale. Either way, I think Disney was looking to *blend* nostalgia with *irreverence*. I very much enjoyed the film, through this lens, and it's one of the very few Disney animated films in my DVD collection. 😁

[@theconqueringram5295]

Chicken Little *used* to be Disney's worst animated film. That honor goes to Wish now.

[@ModernMouse]

I guess we will find out in due time. I certainly don't think Wish is Disney's best, but looking at the ranking system, I think it will end up scoring more points than Chicken Little. I'll have to watch it with fresh eyes to add it to the Animated 100 when that times comes.

[@theconqueringram5295]

@@ModernMouse Fair enough, by the way this is the first video of yours I ever watched, so I do look forward to seeing more films on the ranking system!

[@ModernMouse]

Seems like a great time to join the channel! Glad to have you on board!