“The sky is falling!”
That’s the popular line from the classic fable that drew Disney Animation Studios to this charming story of a little chicken who causes widespread panic when he mistakes a fallen acorn for a piece of the sky. Chicken Little marked Walt Disney Animation Studios’ first fully computer-animated feature film—it was also in 3D—from the studio. The film included an A-list cast including, Zach Braff as Chicken Little, Patrick Stewart as Mr. Woolensworth, Joan Cusack as Abby Mallard, Amy Sedaris as Foxy Loxy, Don Knotts as Mayor Turkey Lurkey, and Garry Marshall as Buck Cluck. The Studios looked to classic Disney animation for inspiration and used “squash and stretch” techniques—first developed by animators in the 1930s—to bring the film’s characters to life on screen. “It was really important for us to keep that 2D sensibility because it’s part of our legacy,” Eamonn Butler, supervising animator, said during the making of the film. “The animators at Disney look back first at the standards that have been set. I think the style of animation in Chicken Little is a cartoony style. One of the things I like about that is that when a character walks across the stage, it is done with gusto and attitude.”
