Presentational Devices in Chicken Run

Presentational Devices in Chicken Run

Chicken Run is an animated film about a group of chickens trying to

escape from a chicken farm. The film is a spoof of the film 'The Great

Escape' and as with that film there are characters, who represent good

and characters who represent evil. In Chicken Run, the character that

represents good is the chicken, Ginger. The chicken farm owner, Mrs.

Tweedie, portrays evil.

The film makers of Chicken Run have used presentational devices to

give us clues about each character. They use camera angles, setting,

costume, lighting, music, sound effects, body language and facial

expressions to portray a character as good or evil. I will personally

concentrate on Ginger and Mrs. Tweedie, and how the film makers depict

them as good and evil.

Before delving into answering the question, it is important to give

some more information about Chicken Run. In the movie, the film makers

have adapted many aspects of war films, to make the movie suitable for

children of younger ages, while at the same time, keeping it

entertaining for older adults and teenagers. For example, as with many

war films there are prisoner of war camps. In Chicken Run, this has

been adapted into the Chicken Farm. Another example is the character

who plays the hero. Ginger plays that role in the movie. Another

character that is usually present in war films is the 'brains'. By

this I mean the smartest character among the prisoners. The chicken,

Mac plays this part in Chicken Run. Villains are also always present

in war films. Mrs. Tweedie and Mr. Tweedie are the two who play them

in Chicken Run. However, Mrs. Tweedie is the more dominan...

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...er her, which means she is evil.

In conclusion I would like to say that I have learned, from Chicken

Run, that movies are not just about action and the different

characters of a movie. There are many different techniques which film

makers use to subtly tell us about a character's personality. Also as

you would have noticed, instead of saying how the film makers

projected Ginger as good, I answered how they projected Ginger and the

rest of the chickens as good. I did this because I noticed that they

used the same techniques on Ginger as with the other chickens.

Hopefully now, after learning about film language and different

presentational devices, I will now find it easier to recognize whether

a character is good or evil in other movies, and maybe even enjoy the

film more because I can recognize the different methods.