Chicken Little

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The visuals are irrepressibly witty and so is the script, which morphs from the classic fable into a spoof on "War of the Worlds." I prefer this version to Spielberg's.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

A consistently amusing, often inspired family romp.

USA Today Mike Clark

With one of the year's busiest scripts, Little launches 76 zippy minutes.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

This wild and unexpected ride should delight younger children with its bright colors and constant chaos, while adults are likely to be charmed by the witty banter, subtle one-liners and a sweet father-son relationship that highlights the need for good communication.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

When the picture hits high gear, your qualms vanish one by one, and the script, credited to four writers, grows into its own.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

As cluttered as the movie gets before the ending, it's funny throughout, with some 1970s and '80s music thrown in to keep adults happy.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Animation fans will find this worth the wait.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie did make me smile. It didn't make me laugh, and it didn't involve my emotions, or the higher regions of my intellect, for that matter. It's a perfectly acceptable feature cartoon for kids up to a certain age, but it doesn't have the universal appeal of some of the best recent animation.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Bogged down by many of the problems that have plagued Disney's recent traditional animated features: anonymous voice work, poor plot structure, and the mistaken belief that the Disney brand will elevate anything to a "must see" level for viewers starved for family friendly fare. If there's a bright side to Chicken Little, it's that kids will love it.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

For all the whiz-bang visuals, however, "Little" could use a little consistency in tone.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The problem is that Chicken Little settles for what's expedient and safe and, over all, lives down to its title.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Shiny and peppy, with some solid laughs and dandy vocal performances, but even a small child may sense how forced this movie is -- how hard it tries to be all things to all audiences.

Empire Olly Richards

There's more here for the under-tens than over-, but it's still charming, amusing and energetic enough to win you over.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's often funny but it flails around like a chicken with its head cut off, flapping and squawking and making a spectacle, but never really going anywhere.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Chicken Little is relentlessly cute. That's the good news, and those who consider the word cute anathema may want to look for entertainment elsewhere.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Chicken Little, though it has its moments, mostly just feels anxious and overreaching. It tries to be all things to all people and fails to be anything to anyone.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The studio's fresh corps of CG animators may get up to speed before the current four-picture cycle is completed, but if they don't get better material to work with, the sky will be falling along Dopey Drive.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Takes the story one more crank toward the literal. When the thing hits the bird, it turns out, guess what, it is a piece of the sky, the sky is falling. It's like saying: McCarthy was right! Sheesh, revisionist history: It's everywhere!

Variety Todd McCarthy

Lives up to its name by serving up a fraction of what audiences are used to getting in this department from PixarPixar and DreamWorks -- little originality, little humor and little ingratiating characterization.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

Turning brief fairy tales into sweeping mini-epics has long been Disney's hallmark, but even for a fable, Chicken Little is thin stuff; it's a brief cautionary tale against alarmism, essentially "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" without any of the poetic irony.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

What falls in Chicken Little are hopes.

LA Weekly Robert Abele

Chicken Little is a clunky, arbitrarily plotted, over-caffeinated spritz that, despite colorfully visualizing a world of suburbanized animals, shifts from social-outcast comedy to underdog clichés to War of the Worlds mayhem as if the filmmakers were an improv troupe slamming through genre requests.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

If Chicken Little were in 3-D, shown in a theme park as you sit in motion simulators, the lame gags might not be so much of a problem.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Heavy on celebrity voices, pop culture references and rock tunes and low on memorable characters or imagination, Chicken Little is on a par with such mediocre but popular CGI films as "Madagascar" and "Shark Tale."

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Chicken Little is entirely lacking in anything "Disneyesque."

Premiere Ryan Devlin

In the film, the cleverness just isn't there. There's still a lot to like about Chicken Little - the animation is top notch, and the characters, if somewhat recycled, still generate the requisite sympathy and chuckles.

Village Voice Ben Kenigsberg

The usual pop-culture jokes, disco tunes, and sarcastic narrator are on hand to prevent atrophy, but by the time the sky really does start "falling"--courtesy of an alien invasion-- Chicken Little's frantic efforts to stay farm fresh have started to wear on the nerves.

Miami Herald Peter Debruge

Kids will love it. It feels fresh and original and mildly subversive, but it's all a cover for the filmmakers not having the patience or confidence to put together a real story with a beginning, middle and end.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

It is funny at times – the teams for dodgeball break down into "popular" and "unpopular" – but Chicken Little is painful to watch for all ages.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

A hectic, uninspired pastiche of catchphrases and clichés, with very little wit, inspiration or originality to bring its frantically moving images to genuine life.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

If I could find some facet to praise, I'd be glad to do so, but the production's mediocrity is all-pervasive -- story, character, graphic design, even music -- and it all points to a failure of corporate imagination, or maybe just nerve.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Seriously, it's a bad sign for your "kids movie" when the kids in question are asking their parents, "When is something going to happen?"