Those who were watching CGI animated films around fifteen years ago may remember a charming little film called Chicken Little. That film was, in fact, Disney’s first ever feature-length computer-animated movie and it released to a middling reception. It didn’t make a huge splash, and Disney went on to produce computer-animated films like Frozen and Zootopia which have long since overshadowed it. While Chicken Little may seem like an un-assuming little project, it was, in reality, the survivor of multiple leadership changes and serious creative interference. On reflection, director Mark Dindal admits, ““The early days on that are a little cloudy.”
Folks who’ve seen the movie may remember that it was a story about a little chicken boy who realized that the sky was literally falling. Of course no one believes him, including his father, until it is revealed that the town is being visited by camouflaged aliens who besiege the town. Then Chicken Little regains the trust of his father and the town, and together they discover that it was all a misunderstanding. Dindal’s original version however, would have been quite different.
This version would have seen Chicken Little, a girl in this story, joining a summer camp to impress her father. While there she would have discovered that the counselors were literal wolves in sheep’s clothing trying to fatten the kids up to eat. She would have stopped them of course, saving the day and winning her dad’s approval. That was the plan, until CEO Michael Eisner stepped in: “I don’t want it to be a girl, I want it to be a boy,” he allegedly remarked. Dindal remembers this as being the result of market research, with common belief being boys simply wouldn’t turn up for a movie starring a girl, something eventually proven wrong by the massive success of films like Frozen.
Then the current head of Disney Animation, Thomas Schumacher, left, to be replaced with David Stainton, a decision that Schumacher later admitted could have sunk the movie. Stainton reportedly referred to the early version of the movie as a “train wreck.” Against all odds, the team hunkered down to re-work the movie for Stainton. Now the element of the alien invasion found its way in, along with Zach Braff as the voice of Chicken Little. Not even this was the final version of course, the concept having been cobbled together in a very brief window with almost no room to breathe. Stainton eventually declared that the studio would be shifting to computer animation, a field in which they had limited experience.
At the time, relationships were also souring with then-partner Pixar, whose own efforts in computer animation were far outstripping Disney’s with films like The Incredibles. This widening gap was not helped by then CEO Steve Jobs publicly dunking on Disney whenever he could, arguing their direct-to-video sequels were simply inferior to Pixar’s own output. Disney was also facing pressure from Dreamworks who had just released Shrek, which would go on to be considered one of the best computer-animated films of the era, and perhaps of all time. All this put a huge amount of pressure on Chicken Little, which was now being pulled in a dozen different directions and expected to outperform some of the medium’s all time greats.
There was still time for more curveballs though. Just 11 months before the film released, the decision was made to add 3D to the project, a technology that hadn’t even existed when the film was conceived. Industrial Light and Magic was contracted to make it happen, making it the first film released in a digital 3D format. By the time the film was actually nearing theater release, they had managed to convince some other companies to invest in merchandise for the movie as well, which put them on a solid path to a successful release.
By the time the film actually hit theaters, Bob Iger was the CEO at Disney, and the company was in talks to continue its relationship with Pixar. Some analysts even suggested that its success could prove that Disney could move away from its dependency on Pixar’s output. In a way, Chicken Little became less of a movie, and more of a barometer: a test to see if Disney’s CG Animation teams would sink or swim in this brave new world of film development.
And release it did: to a respectable opening weekend of $40 million, on par with The Lion King, and terrible reviews. As the New York Times critic wrote: “It has the distinction of being a terrible movie — a hectic, uninspired pastiche of catchphrases and clichés, with very little wit, inspiration or originality to bring its frantically moving images to genuine life.” So the film came and went, garnering a fair profit, but vanishing quickly from the public zeitgeist. Soon after Disney pulled the trigger and purchased Pixar outright, a quiet admission of defeat. Stainton was out and David Dindal eventually left the company as well, moving to Paramount for some projects that never came to be.
While Dindal still wonders about what could have been, he admits that if he had pushed much harder, the project could easily have been killed. Still, it’s hard to think about: “With this, I wish I could see an alternate reality, what that would have been like. That’s mostly it.” Though audiences will never see Dindal’s original vision, perhaps there is something to be said for a film that beats all the odds and makes it to theaters despite hitting a thousand hurdles along the way. In that way, Chicken Little is much more than a footnote in Disney history, it’s a testament to the determination and creativity of everyone behind it, and a reminder that the films seen on screen are often very different from the visions that once inspired them.
Source: Collider
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