Chicken Little (1943)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Release Date:

17 December 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Family | Animation | Short

Plot:

It's a peaceful day at the local poultry farm until Foxy Loxy happens along intent on a chicken dinner...

Plot Keywords:

Chicken | Chicken Little | Farm | Psychology | Sky

Cast

Florence Gill	...	Hens - clucking sounds only (voice) (uncredited)
Frank Graham	...	Narrator / Foxy Loxy / Chicken Little / Cocky Locky / Turkey Lurkey / Additional characters (voice) (uncredited)
Clarence Nash	...	Ducks - quacking sounds only (voice) (uncredited)

Runtime:

8 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #9322) | UK:U | Argentina:Atp

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

Produced as a propaganda short during WWII, warning audiences not to believe anti-American propaganda. Originally the film was to have had more direct references to the war: Foxy Loxy would have read from "Mein Kampf"; and the chicken's graves would have been marked by swastikas. But Walt Disney decided to keep the film generic so that it would not become dated after the war.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: After Cocky Locky announces "The sky isn't really falling," Chicken Little responds by shouting "I tell you it is too falling!" When he says this, his speech doesn't match his beak movement.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: Our story takes place in a nice, cozy little farmyard.

Movie Connections:

Version of Chicken Little (2005)

Old Folk Tale Gets Serious Update

A Walt Disney Cartoon.

Wily Foxy Loxey uses psychological chicanery to confuse dimwitted CHICKEN LITTLE - Step 1 in his plot to plunder the poultry yard.

This unusual little film eschews a happy ending for a not-so-subtle warning against evil manipulators and gullible citizenry. Foxy Loxey could be the personification of either Hitler or Stalin and the quotes from his psychology book ('To influence the masses, aim first at the least intelligent,' 'If you tell a lie, don't tell a little one - tell a big one,' 'Undermine the faith of the masses in their leaders,' 'By the use of flattery, insignificant people can be made to look upon themselves as born leaders') are pure Marxism. As for Cocky Locky, Henny Penny, Goosey Poosey, Ducky Lucky & Turkey Lurkey - their human counterparts are only too easy to find everyday.

Veteran Disney voice artists Florence Gill & Clarence Nash can be heard making various hen & duck noises.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work will always pay off.