Chicken Run, **** four stars

James (age 7!) ***** 5 stars: In the movie the chickens tried to think of ways to get out of the fence. In the end they made an airplane. (I'm asking James to start summarizing movies to work on his skills as a critic.) I liked the farmer and the evil farmer's wife. Every week if they don't lay any eggs the chickens die.

Jupiter (age 5) ****4 stars: I liked it when it was funny when it was the middle of the movie and this friend was going down the pie machine.

Justice (age 3) ***** (sixteen stars) I liked the part when that mean girl wanted to eat them. I liked the chicken part. It was funny when that mean girl just standed there. That was totally funny. I liked when the orange chicken got separated from the mean guy, from the other chickens and I gave it one, two, three, four five, sixteen. I gave it sixteen. (Justice stayed awake to watch the whole movie last night, AND watched the entire movie the next morning.)

Adam: Right around 4 stars ****
It turned out to be a cute movie. It took a while to get moving. The focus was a little far away for the opening. Somehow in the Wererabbit movie you really feel it, the lightening and the rain, the close-ups on Grommit's eyes. The labor involved--there were many scenes where there were 20 dancing chickens, and you just can't concieve of what it takes to make a single second of that, with 24 frames per second.

Mama: **** 4 stars. Though we knew how adorable Aardman's other movies were--Wallace and Grommitt, Flushed Away--Adam and I weren't completely looking forward to Chicken Run. He even brought a pillow for his neck, in case he fell asleep. But the marvel of stop-motion instantly draws you in, the lighting, the gravel of the dirt road. It's just so lush. Also the facial expressions in claymation are so endearing! And finally I get what I wanted, a movie with a female star. Why more animated movies don't do this, I don't know. Thank you, Chicken Run, for giving us Ginger, an indomitable heroine, Steve McQueen in a bonnet, who takes all the risks herself, even though there's a Mel Gibson-voiced rooster around. The Rooster comes to Ginger's aid (I wouldn't quite say rescue) a couple of times, but she's the one to dangle out of an airplane, risking Mrs. Tweedy's ax, to cut the string of Christmas lights and send the evil Mrs. Tweedy to her fate.
I'll bet Ginger even did all of her stunts herself.