Chicken Little

Parents have it easy these days. With television and videogames, kids practically raise themselves! Even better, thanks to movies like Shrek, parents don't have to dread getting dragged to the latest animated offering.

Chicken Little is a film in this vein-made for the munchkins, but with subtle humor that will appeal to adults, as well as those of us stuck between the kid and adult stages. Zach Braff (Scrubs, Garden State) stars as the title poultry. While vertically-challenged, the bespectacled Chicken Little demonstrates an admirably adaptive attitude, and confronts challenges to his stature in inventive and adorable ways. For example, to get over an obstacle he uses a bottle of soda as a jetpack; later, folded homework pages serve as makeshift pants.

The story focuses on the tenuous relationship between Little and his single father (Garry Marshall) after the two have a falling-out over Little's embarrassing proclamation that "the sky is falling." Aliens also enter the picture, but the movie really wants us to get the father/son thing as it is continually brought up. Luckily Little is short enough that you won't get annoyed by the Disney-ized rehashing of a cliche plot.

The supporting characters in Chicken Little's community are all taken from childhood fables. Little's friends include Abby the Ugly Duckling (Joan Cusack), the ironically-named Runt, a portly pig (Steve Zahn), and a mostly silent but still hilarious Fish out of Water whose personality can barely be contained in his archaic diving helmet. Unfortunately, the characters aren't given enough screen time to carry the joke past the initial allusion.

By no means is Chicken Little as ground-breaking or memorable as The Incredibles or Shrek, but if you have to entertain some little kids, it's an option that's a whole lot less painful than Chuck E. Cheese's.