Wow -- Chicken Little Getting Savaged

[makinorlando]

Something tells me that this movie will be a hit with the kids, and that is all that matters.

I totally agree. As long as my DD enjoys the movies, I consider them a hit! She is excited to see Chicken Little - we will go tomorrow - she does not care what the critics say - and if it does not impress me - I just close my eyes and take a little rest!!!! Movies I didn't really care for, she continues to enjoy after many viewings on DVD!!!

 

[JDarling]

I'd have to disagree with them giving Brother Bear a 34 percent. Who cares what the pros think? I loved it and it continues to be one of my favorite Disney movies. The year it came out, we got to go to MVMCP and see the christmas parade, which that year had an ice skating version of Kenia and Koda. You should have heard all the kids ooh and ah and scream out their names.

I feel that I'm your "average joe" movie goer. I disliked Home on the Range (Buck and Lucky saved it for me). I enjoyed the Incredibles. From what I've seen, I'll be surprised if I dislike Chicken Little. Movie reveiwers only count for so much. It's kid power that matters. The kids that will beg thier parents to go see this movie probably haven't read the reviews.

 

[CharmedLife]

Chicken Little got 3 of 4 stars in our paper today. DD5 can't wait to see it. She likes pretty much everything and as someone else pointed out we've practically seen it all already anyway (from Disney Channel) so we have a pretty good idea what we're getting into.

The movies that usually win Oscars and are lauded by critics are frequently movies I do NOT care for, so I'm not really going to care too much what they think about a good, basic family movie!! I'm not looking for a Cannes film festival winner here, just something my kids will like and we can actually watch together as a family! (and an opportunity for movie theater popcorn!) Actually, maybe their bad reviews mean it's a good movie...

As for Home on the Range, don't know what it is about that but it's my daughter's favorite movie. When we're driving to Grandma's or flying somewhere, she will watch it over and over again (much to my dismay and even though we have 11 other DVD's in the case...) Who can tell what a 5-year-old will like?

 

[lark]

I'd have to disagree with them giving Brother Bear a 34 percent.

Just to be clear, rottentomatoes is a passive site. That's not their ranking. That's the percentage of reviews that were not negative.

I'm virtually certain that if they polled DIS board members, they'd get a better number! ;0)

I've not seen it myself, so my comment on it being the standard for bad disney movies was more a comment on its reputation than its actual merits.

 

[SeeDisney]

I heard one to many times that it was a very good movie for the family

 

[KCMiller]

We saw it last week at the free preview. It was myself, 44, my DH, 45, my DD, 16, and my DS, 13. We all loved it. Really loved it.

I think sometimes critics just hate to enjoy themselves, particularly in big cities such as NYC or LA. Heaven forbid that something sweet, funny, and not involving anything odd, radical or bizzarre should get a good rating.

That being said, I thought Brother Bear was sappy, smarmy, and all around terrible.


KC

 

[daannzzz]

I like RottenTomatoes but you have to use it properly. The problem with it is that at a glance everything is essentially good or bad, there is no inbetween. Someone at Rottentomatoes has to judge if the review was fresh or rotten and with those two criteria there is no inbetween. If you go through and read the reviews you will often find something judged as fresh but the review is somewhat negative. And the opposite also happens. There are reviews that are in the gray area and a person(s) makes a judgement that it is fresh or rotten. It isn't a reliable way to do it. The need some green and greenish red tomatoes in t here.
That being said, "Chicken Little doesn't interest me much but it seems like the kids will like it.

 

[eleanor]

Our paper gave it three and a half stars, which is quite good for our paper.

 

[CaipiraBob]

There's only so much more water Stitch can carry in the parks for another 2 years.

Yee heavens, how I hate "Stitch"...I've asked them time and time again to spray down the Polynesian but to no avail. Someone call "Terminex"...

That being said, I've checked the Yahoo movie user reviews and they are encouraging. Most people say it's a children's film which is what the market is sorely hurting for. I may take our kids to see this one. There simply aren't enough offerings for children in the theatre today. We more often rely on our own HT system rather than going out. The classics seems to always outdo the latest offerings.

And you're right, nostalgia will only carry Disney so far.

 

[WDWRC]

I saw it twice in previews two weeks ago and I loved it!!! I hope they are showing it when I go on the cruise next week!


Tracy

 

[momof2inPA]

We'll probably skip this one. My kids are old enough to see Zathura and Harry Potter, and movies three weeks in a row would be overkill.

 

[minkydog]

I'll take it with a grain of salt. A lot of critics panned Pirates of the Caribbean, too, went it was released. And for the record I loved "Brother Bear"

 

[FromVatoDisney]

It got a very good review in the Washington Post. We are all looking forward to it.

 

[WaltD4Me]

I rarely pay attention to critic reviews, I can't tell you how many movies they hated that I loved! I read two critic reviews of Chicken Little and one went on and on comparing the feathers in it as compared to how Pixar would have done the feathers. and the other was reviewing it like it was the sequel to Gone With the Wind, never even mentioned kid's or if they would like it.

I like to read the "real people" reviews and so far, most of those have been pretty good. I'm going this afternoon, to see for myself.

 

[lark]

I rarely pay attention to critic reviews, I can't tell you how many movies they hated that I loved! I read two critic reviews of Chicken Little and one went on and on comparing the feathers in it as compared to how Pixar would have done the feathers. and the other was reviewing it like it was the sequel to Gone With the Wind, never even mentioned kid's or if they would like it.

Yeah, I noticed that about the reviews -- they really did seem unduly focused on the Pixar thing, like it makes much of a difference. It also seems as though Shrek set kind of a weird standard for kids' movies -- they all now are judged by the inside jokes for adults, as though that's the key. It's silly.

Still, over time you develop a list of the reviewers you like. I like Ebert very much, for example. He's positive, tries to find things to like in movies instead of things to hate, and we share similar sensibilities about what makes movies good or great (although not always what makes them bad). There are some others out there that I like too, and none of them like Chicken Little very much -- although none of them panned it.

Oh well, no more speculating anyway, I'll have seen it myself in a few hours.

 

[SnackyStacky]

There's a lot of Disney movies that I haven't enjoyed, but still found them to be decent movies.

I saw Chicken Little last night, and apologized to my wife for the hour and twenty minutes she'd never get back.

And I don't have kids, but the theater was obviously packed with them. They all got restless about halfway through.

To each his own, but the plot was ridiculously predictable, the humor was strictly for the kids, and I felt no attachment to ANY of the characters. I definitely think Disney has done REALLY well in the past with striking a balance between the kid humor, and the humor that adults would understand. They didn't do that at ALL in this one.

I really think that Disney has gone down quite a few pegs on the Pixar negotiations front.

 

[elastigirlfan]

I took my girls to see it yesterday. We all really liked it. It was really cute. I never pay attention to the movie critics and ratings. I always seem to like what they don't don't know what that says about me (ha ha)!! I actually can't think of any Disney movie that I did not like. Mulan is the only one we didn't get into.

 

[nativetxn]

I'm going to move this to our community board.

Katholyn

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Are paper is usually pretty brutal when they do bad reviews (or at least publish them) and 4 stars is very uncommon.

Chicken Little got 4-stars and it was well worth it. I thought it was a cute movie and very well made and very worth the $23 we spent to go.

 

[JDarling]

Just to be clear, rottentomatoes is a passive site. That's not their ranking. That's the percentage of reviews that were not negative.

I'm virtually certain that if they polled DIS board members, they'd get a better number! ;0)

I've not seen it myself, so my comment on it being the standard for bad disney movies was more a comment on its reputation than its actual merits.

I guess I should have more accurately said that I disagree whole heartly with all those critics that hated it!