A Fuga das Galinhas

Apart from looking like no other type of animated film, Chicken Run stands alone in its unwavering determination not to play down to the kiddies.

Run to Chicken Run. This clay-animation comedy is the most entertaining animal story since Babe.

Chicken Run boasts the most delicious collection of desperately funny Brits since The Full Monty. Poultry has never been so stuffed with personality.

May not maintain quite the same frantic level of invention as the Wallace and Gromit shorts, but it has more heart.

Fab animation from Wallace and Gromit creator.

Chicken Run isn't just chock-full of references to classic prison-break movies and some witty inside Hollywood jokes, but is filled with a secret ingredient sadly missing from its super-digitized, merchandise-driven counterparts: heart.

Chicken Run, if anything, offers an alternative to a desolate world that many of us are increasingly afraid of.

Even without Wallace and Gromit, most of the trademark joys are here: the compound of squashy creatures and heavy machinery, the wide, open-ended rictus of a toothy smile, and the great Parkian gulp.

It coaxes you to laugh and cry, flatters your intelligence, and practically guarantees a cheap night out: at dinner afterward, no one's going to be ordering anything but salad.

Most of the time Chicken Run entertains, instructs, involves and enchants.

This first feature by Nick Park and Peter Lord, the team that brought you Wallace and Gromit, is a diabolically witty piece of work, a haymaker.

It is not only an amazing technical accomplishment, it's also the wittiest and best-voiced animated movie to come along in years.

The finale and a scene set inside the pie-making machinery prove that the Rube Goldberg formula is infallible, and the puns -- another staple of crossover animation -- range from "fowl" to "poultry in motion."

The level of invention on display, from the vividly detailed models and figurines to the gallery of memorable supporting characters, is astonishing at any length.

Exactly the picker-upper this macho-movie summer needs.

Before our disbelieving eyes, a pageant of jeopardy, romance and rescue unfolds.

I was ready to fly the coop long before the 82 minutes were up, but if you're in the mood for something offbeat and wacky, Chicken Run may be just your kind of amiably birdbrained entertainment.

It is observant about human (or chicken) nature.

A witty, action-packed story.

A delightfully clever feature.