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Directed by: Mark Dindal
Produced by: Randy Fullmer
Music by: John Debney (rumored, previously worked with Mark
Dindal on The Emperor's New Groove)
Budget: $60 million
Production Starts On: Early 2003
Release Date: 2005
The Ugly Duckling... Sean Hayes
Chicken Little's mom... Estelle Harris
The main wolf in sheep's clothing... Penn Jillette
In
a universe completely populated with talking animals, Chicken Little's
wildly active imagination and tendency to overreact have made her an outsider
at home and in her community. When she nearly destroys the town in the
great "sky is falling down" debacle, an angry mob forces Chicken Little
to shape up. She heads off to Camp Yes-U-Can where she meets other animals
with challenges of their own. But when Chicken Little discovers that the
camp counselors have a dastardly plan, she will have to overcome her history
of paranoia and summon her newfound courage in order to thwart the evildoers…
Chicken Little
was already the subject of a 1943 eight-minute short directed by Clyde
Geronimi (Alice in Wonderland,
Peter
Pan, Lady and the Tramp)
for the Walt Disney studios. Produced during World War II, this was one
of a series of four special animated films produced by the Disney Studios
at the request of the U.S. government for the purpose of discrediting totalitarianism
in general and Nazism in particular. In the original version of this cartoon,
Foxey Loxey reads the book "Mein Kampf." In a re-released version, the
title has been changed to read "Psychology"--supposedly at Walt Disney's
request, since he wanted the cartoon to have a more lasting appeal. The
2005 feature-length film is very likely to have a happier ending, since
Foxy Loxy ate all the chickens and ducks at the end of this 1943 short!
Disney discreetly
put together a team in very early 2001 to start work on this project. Actual
production is expected to begin in early 2003.
In September 2001,
Laughing
Place revealed that Disney was very anxious to produce a satire of
fairy tales, in the view of Shrek's success.
The producer and director of The
Emperor's New Groove were given the go-ahead to begin production
on a satirical version of Chicken Little. This new feature film
would be produced using CGI.
A reliable source
at AICN confirmed in October 2001 that "a wildly comic all CGI version
of Chicken Little that's being put together by the same team that did The
Emperor's New Groove."
Chicken Little
had initially been envisioned as a mix of CG and traditional animation
but is now being thought of as strictly computer animated film.
A casting call
sheet was released in February 2002, confirming that Randy Fullmer will
produce, and Mark Dindal will direct: the casting director is looking for
a female, 16-40 years old for the role of Foxy Loxy. "The ultimate school
bully. Even with a mouthful of braces, Foxy knows just how to antagonize
her fellow classmates and campers, much to her own amusement. Foxy Loxy,
Goosey Loosey and Ducky Lucky form a trio of troublemakers whose favorite
target is Chicken Little…" And a male, 16-40 years old, for Runt of the
Litter. "Grew up as the smallest member of his family and still sees himself
as a "wee little helpless pig" -- even though he now weighs in at a formidable
900 pounds. Runt has an undeniably big heart and is selfless in his support
of others, especially Chicken Little upon her arrival at camp…"
Michael Eisner
presented at the February 2002 stockholder's meeting in Hartfor a title
card for the movie, "which showed two CGI chicken feet sticking out from
under a rumpled white theatrical curtain, on which was written -- in lowercase
type -- Disney's Chicken Little."
An insider reports
that "this project is already in deep poo poo. People are running
away from it like it's Anthrax. A lot of people on it that dont know
what they are doing, but are good ass kissers and looking to scratch and
claw their way to the top, crushing everyone else in the process..
politically crap galore.... They are crewing up for it constantly
cause everyone is running from it.. it sounds like a nightmare..
too bad."
Variety announced
in late April 2002 that Emmy winner Sean Hayes would star as the voice
of the Ugly Duckling in Disney's animated Chicken Little.
In May 2002, Thomas
Schumacher, the president of Disney's animation division, confirmed that
Chicken
Little was in production as a 3-D film, being drawn by C.G. artists
and retrained traditional animators. A month later, he announced that Chicken
Little was being readied for 2005, and was targeted at around $60 million.
An insider reported
in April 2003 that "the animation being done is said to be absolutely first
rate. Storywise--apparently there's some difficulty. Well into production,
they decided recently to change the main title character from a girl to
a boy! To me, that's usually a sign that they're still groping for a story
that works. Then again, I know from experience that all productions like
these go through changes, often midway. We'll see how it turns out..."
Disney's chief
of animation David Stainton revealed in an April 2003 interview that he
had put two high-profile projects, Chicken Little and My
Peoples, on hold because he said they needed more focus. "There's
a point in every movie where the whole thing falls apart, that moment where
you look at it and say, 'We have to retrench,' " Stainton said. "It was
that time."
Jim
Hill reported on April 30, 2003 that Disney Animation chief David Stainton
"supposedly ordered that--in order to make the movie's central character
more sympathetic--that the filmmakers change Chicken Little from a boy
to a girl." Disney insiders added that "from the discussions in the hallways,
it is going positively forward, with a crew continuing working on it. This
go and stop process is nothing new. Give me a animated movie title that
hasn't gone through this process of re-working the script during production?"
'Boo' supplied
our first look at the title character on August 11, 2003 and mentioned
that the film would take place in the town of Oakey Oaks.
Mouse
Planet's David Koenig reported on August 14, 2003 that there were only
about 60 traditional 2-D animators left in Burbank's Walt Disney Feature
Animation building. The latest cutback came two weeks ago, after 13 traditional
animators submitted five scenes they had done on computer to vie for six
3-D spots left to cast on Chicken Little. "The real controversy
of this," noted an onlooker, "is that they were pitted against one another
and the playing field wasn't fair. Those who just finished the training
program called 'Boot Camp' were up against those who finished Boot Camp
six months ago and had more time to finesse, complete and present a more
finished test. Also, they purposely entered more people into the training
program, anticipating that the majority would fail at learning the computer.
Well, they were terribly wrong! They all did great. Now they're worried
because they don't know what to do with them because they already hired
animators from The Secret Lab (Kangaroo Jack, the dragons on Reign
of Fire). They hired them on the superficial qualities that they could
do a lot of footage. Forget the fact that they can't do a lot of character
footage!" A week earlier, six of the animators got the openings on Chicken
Little. It looks like the other seven will get the boot. Consider
the loss of talent: Randy Haycock (Tarzan's
Clayton, Atlantis'
Princess Kida); John Pomeroy (The
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The
Rescuers, Atlantis'
Milo); Richard Hoppe (The
Black Cauldron, Beauty
& the Beast); James Lopez (Hercules'
Pain, Emperor's
New Groove's Tipo); as well as Shawn Keller, Mark Pudleiner and
Dougg Williams. Officially, most of the seven were still "working" for
Disney, since their contracts all ended at different times (some extending
into 2004).
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