Chicken in the Rough (1951)

I love this movie so much

A Major Disappointment

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is another Chip 'n Dale cartoon I saw that was part of The Adventures of Chip N Dale home video my mom used to rent for me. Here, the chipmunks are gathering nuts, with some falling into a chicken pen. When Dale is playing around with some eggs, one hatches, and the chick leaves, causing Dale to pose as the missing chick to trick the aggressive rooster.It was kind of funny seeing the rooster chase Dale around; it sort of frighten me when I was a kid. Seeing Dale hide himself in the egg shell while Chip does all the work picking up acorns was somewhat neat to watch.While a little adorable, the cartoon was also a little forgettable and wasn't very humorous - doesn't quite match the fun stuff as the Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoons.Grade C+

When I was a kid, I saw this on a compilation video with a whole group of Chip and Dale cartoons (with hosted breaks by the chipmunks - many of these were and remain classics), and it stayed with me in the strangest-smallest ways. In short, Chip and Dale get caught up at a farm with an over-bearing rooster running rough-shod over things with the other hens, and one of them can't seem to get the eggs she has under her to finally hatch. The boys lose their nuts, try to gather them up, one thing leads to another and Chip (or was it Dale, probably it was Dale) interacts with a newly hatched egg. Something about the way that the new chick chirps, and the chipmunk chirps in imitation, well, that's stayed with me for my entire life.OK, weird admission out of the way: this is a sheerly fun little short that can appeal to little kids, though adults may find some humor in the way that these hens have this passive-aggressive conflict with the rooster, and how the boys end up kind of getting mixed-up in the goings-on of chickens on a farm. It's cute, it's harmless, and it has the message to not be a, well, the other word for 'rooster' can come to mind. It's hard not to smile at least, if not laugh consistently.

When it comes to Chip 'n' Dale cartoons, Chicken in the Rough is not one of my all-time favourites but it is one of their funnier ones. The basic set up of the story is somewhat routine, Chip 'n' Dale and nuts is not unfamiliar territory, but what is also different here is that the chipmunks this time do not battle Mickey, Pluto or Donald but chickens instead, which was an interesting change. Chip 'n' Dale themselves are cute and less antagonistic than they are with Donald or in cartoons such as Squatters Right, if anything like Two Chips and a Miss this is probably them at their most likable here. The chickens and rooster are good amusing characters also, though I find Pluto and Donald more interesting in how their personalities contrast with Chip 'n' Dale. The gags are imaginatively timed and very funny, enhanced by the use of sound effects, the inspired physical comedy and facial expressions and of course the ever characterful music. The animation is wonderful, very colourful and crisp, with all the characters well-drawn. Some people may nit-pick and start saying that roosters don't have teeth, but I try and let that not spoil the fun that was displayed here in Chicken in the Rough. In conclusion, hardly rough, if anything a lot of fun though I can think of better overall Chip 'n' Dale cartoons like Working For Peanuts, All in a Nutshell and Trailer Horn. 9/10 Bethany Cox

A Walt Disney CHIP 'N' DALE Cartoon.Confusion abounds when Dale is mistaken for a newly hatched chick in the poultry yard.CHICKEN IN THE ROUGH is another typical Chipmunks cartoon - amusing, but unremarkable.Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.