Mel Gibson’s strangest film has just arrived on Netflix

Mel Gibson was one of the largest stars on the planet in the 80s and 90s, helping to transform the fatal weapon into a massive franchise, transforming vintage pieces into blockbusters with Brave heart And The Patriotand change forever the way we think of post-apocalypse with Mad. But the strangest role of Aussia came in 2000, when he expressed a flying rooster named Rocky ChickenA stop-motion parody of The great escape of the team behind Wallace and Gromit. Now available on Netflix, twenty-five years later, it’s still the most profitable stop-motion animated film.

Chicken Apply the very British sense of humor of Wallace and grooves to a chicken farm that looks like a prisoner camp of war in the Second World War. Peter Lord and Nick Park, geniuses behind the hitchhiking successes of Aardman, manage to transform the absurd setting into a question of life and death when the owners, the tweedys, decide that it is more profitable to transform the chickens into pies than to try to sell their eggs. Enter Rocky The Flying Rooster, expressed by Mel Gibson, who, according to the hens, can teach them to fly and lead them to freedom.

The problem, of course, is that chickens, such as turkeys, cannot fly, even if you place them with a helicopter hovering on a shopping center in the city center of Cincinnati. We all know that Rocky is lying between his teeth to the hens, but thanks to the fantastic performance of Gibson and the clear writing of Lord and Park, you cannot prevent yourself from being charmed by him. Chicken One of his best performances is surprisingly, and another reason why it was a shame that his career took a decade later.

It is not only the excellent writing that makes Chicken amusing; It is a visually magnificent film. The stop motion animation is an art form that takes time that requires incredible levels of patience, every minute of the film requiring a full week of work in the massive studio of Aardman, housing 30 sets and a team of 80 dedicated animators. A 30-minute short film was published alongside the film on DVD, highlighting the extended process and entering the details of different types of chicken spouts, animating feathers and the precision required to ensure that the 30 sets seem consistent, whatever their scale.

All the hard work paid with a final escape that pushes the stop-motion to the very limits of what is possible and at the box office. Chicken Cost $ 45 million to win and earned $ 225 million, making it a huge success for Aardman and this success continued when he became a best -selling DVD. It is a shame that there was never a follow -up. There is a film called Run 2 chicken: Dawn of the Nugget Available on Netflix, but it should never be watched.

On rotten tomatoes, Chicken Always sit in a 97%fresh note, and with its re -emergence on Netflix, a whole new generation can appreciate the subtle British humor which passes from word games to slapstick to the drop of an egg. Mel Gibson has played in movies since Chickenincluding Signs And Papa 2 houseBut none can match the strangeness of hearing him express an American rooster teaching chickens to fly.

Chicken is now on Netflix.