Scraping the original girl lead because 'girl movies don't sell' is so funny to me, since so many of Disney's most important, successful and loved movies are girl movies.

“Because he was our boss he won that argument” wow that one hurt.

"Make the chicken a boy because being easily frightened and paranoid is a bigger struggle for a boy" "No, make him less scaredy and paranoid, that's weird for a boy character!!" Hmm...

Wait. So the idea was “this personality would be more interesting on a male character” and then on reworking “as a male character, we think this personality is weird for a boy and so we want to change the personality to be more acceptable.” Like…how does that happen??

Thing is Shrek may have been influential on 2000's animation, but Shrek was not to blame for the 2000's being arguably the most hated decade for the medium. Shrek was at least good. Society was to blame cause they took the wrong lessons from "Shrek" when it came to making successful 3D animation.

They ruined what could have been a good heartfelt movie into a bad Dreamworks cash grab. Seriously, the original vision just makes me want to cuddle up Henny and just want to protect her from the world and executives are stupid.

Ever since I found the deleted scenes on dvd as a kid… I was eternally disappointed that we didn’t get the paranoid Henny Penny story…

You know a movie's bad when some of the people who made it, including it's own director, admitted that they HATED working on it.

Damn, they not only erased a female protagonist, but also potential anxiety and ADHD representation... that's sad to be honest...

Just a correction here: the version of Disney's Chicken Little as a female character was also named Chicken Little, not Henny Penny. The main character from the Chicken Little fable can be either male or female.

I really liked this movie as a kid, but watching it as an adult is strange. Chicken Little's dad is an awful father. And honestly, I feel like nobody talks about it but I hate that the movie acted like it was okay for the pig to keep Foxy Loxy essentially brain damaged. That seems like a nonconsensual relationship vibe to me. IDk that bit bugs me a lot. I also love that original idea with the little girl chicken, it seems like that would've been a super cute movie :(

"boys wont watch movies with a female lead" *Me at every age booting up cinderella to watch it*

There's many ideas/lessons people learned from Shrek being the watershed film it was. Executives always thought it was the star power, crude humor, and pop culture references. They thought that using those things they would have the perfect formula for profit. The lesson they should've learned however was that you need quality, dynamic characters; As well as a decent story to tie it all together with. You need the latter to tie together with the former otherwise you just have, well not much I guess.

What a shame, that sounds like it could have been a cute movie! I'll admit, I thought the alien idea worth the sky falling was clever, as a kid, and in a vacuum I still think it could be done well. Like, boy who cried wolf thing, except instead of a moral about not being attention seeing or shit stirring for the fuck of it, it's more a tragedy about how it can be difficult to separate irrational anxiety from clear and present danger. Maybe it's been long enough since this movie that someone could get away with doing it now, but I think another 10y would be better.

I'd personally interpret the original films main character as having severe ADHD because I have severe ADHD and when I was younger I used to think that there were things hiding under the tables and couches and stuff. So atelly bad case of ADHD makes more sense to me. Edit: Also, ADHD gets diagnosed much less for girls and so it being labeled/mistaken for an over active imagination (Ps: I know that there's no point to this comment I'm just rambling (　-̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥᷄◞ω◟-̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥᷅ )

What happened to Chicken little was just tragic. And as much as I love Shrek, it unfortunately set a dangerous precedent for animated films that came after.

The fall of Disney animation in the early 2000s always fascinates me. Filled with betrayal, tragedy and even revenge. it sounds like a work of fiction except it was real. You’re becoming one of my favorite new KZfaqrs. Stay safe and keep up the good work!

I've always seen people rant about the failings of Chicken Little. But this is one of the better videos explaining its failings in a holistic fashion.

Our favorite (and only) individual who had a childhood crush on that farmer lady from Chicken Run is back again. Let’s-a fudging go.

I wish they could remake the original movie idea with the original characters and story elements and stuff, it could have been such a cute and inspiring movie

I think the answer's pretty simple. Disney wanted to be edgy like Shrek, but failed to realize that movie only succeeded because of its underlying heart.

Jesus I knew Disney’s management fell off a cliff by the end of the Eisner era but this explains so much more and why Disney is the way it is today This just reinforces my beliefs not to support Disney at all

Man Henny Penny sounded like it would’ve been a pretty good movie. It sucks that it had to be slaughtered down to just a low tier “meh” movie that most forget till someone brings it up. I wonder if we could petition to get a finished/remake of the original Henny Penny movie, because I would be rather excited to see it.

Why can't executives learn that they aren't the creative ones and every time they meddle, they ruin what could be an amazing project.

Honest to God, I don't know anyone in America who ever interpreted the original Henny Penny story as a "stick to your guns" story.

I really don't get the "feeling small is more of a boy problem than a girl one" thing. That's literally a struggle both genders go through all the time.

Real ones remember that 'Treasure Planet's failure was an inside job on Disney's part.

How crazy would it be if Disney right now decided to remake Henny Penny to make it the sweet simple movie it originally was? I'd love that.

God damn, this mover started out sounding “pretty alright”, now it’s one of the ugliest stains on disneys history. Only a tier or two below their worst actions,

"Hollywood not Messing with a good story" is the biggest lie I have ever heard.

It's funny, the Henny Penny I read as a little one was about a chicken who tries to get the other animals to help her through the process of baking bread, but they don't wanna help her pick and grind grain or mix ingredients. She leaves said and says "I'll just do it myself ". So when the bread is ready and the other animals suddenly wanna help her eat the bread, she ignores them and says "I guess I'll have to eat it myself" with the lesson of the fable being about reciprocity and not feeling entitled to the labor of others, especially if you're mean to them

The reason I was screwed up as a kid was because of my constant watching of Chicken Little. My lack of a girlfriend stems from Chicken Little. The worst aspects of my life all started with my first viewing of Chicken Little.

God can someone go back in time and make us get Henny Penny?

Having a vivid imagination isn't inherently ADHD. Henny Penny was anxious due to her imagination and creativity making her imagine things that aren't true. Which is very common in little kids since they don't know how the world works yet

Eisner really hammered in the final nail in the coffin that was his time at Disney with how badly he botched Mark Dindal’s original vision for the film.

Damn, I knew production behind this movie was rough, but I didn’t know it was this bad. Sounds like we missed out on a really good movie, thanks Disney.

Mad points for reawakening ancient childhood memories of Henny Penny and her fellow fowls.

As someone in the US I think another possible reason Henny Penny was replaced with Chicken Little was probably that of the 2 variants of the classical fable character Chicken Little even before this movie released was more well known here (Albeit still probably not very well known compared to more popular fables) and since Disney is a US based company and was at the time still focused on the US as their main demographic it made sense but as for everything else about the movie I guess those things can just be chalked up to trying to copy the success of Shrek to very mixed results. It's definitely not a good movie but as a kid I enjoyed it and as an adult I'm now able to look at these things more critically.

I am gonna be honest. I loved this movie as a kid, and I still think that it is good. But yeah the moral aspects are... there. edit: I have finished watching... WHY. It had so much potential! W H Y.

The plot thickens, the lore deepens, with every entry things get ever more _interesting._ I've been looking forward to this 'cause I have a love/hate relationship with Chicken Little. I found the film absolutely fascinating as a child so I'm still nostalgic for it, but on the other hand I kinda despise everything it represents lol. One thing I don't think ever sat well with me even as a kid was what happened to Foxy Loxy. I didn't fully get its horrifying implications back then like I do now, but it still came off as wrong. Interestingly, as a kid I didn't understand that Foxy Loxy's personality swap was an accident, but instead I figured that the aliens purposely brainwashed their prisoners in their darkroom space limbo, frying their brains and changing their personalities. I partially drew this conclusion from the fact that the other prisoners shown in the movie didn't seem to have their wits about them like Chicken Little and Buck Cluck did, meaning that _something_ had happened to them off-screen. Either the aliens did something to them directly, or it was a purposeful intended consequence of extended time in the darkroom space limbo. Either way this made the aliens seem even more horrifying, and consequently I never saw them as good because good people don't casually _brainwash_ other people. This was the cherry on top of the rest of their heinous acts that couldn't be waved away with a simple "it was a misunderstanding". Assuming these aliens were purposely brainwashing people, it actually makes sense for them to brainwash prisoners the way they brainwashed Foxy Loxy, because Foxy Loxy was changed from being aggressive to passive. They could simply brainwash the aggression away from anyone they deemed an enemy. That's messed up. (Younger me had interpreted her thumb-sucking in the space limbo as part of her personality swap because it seemed out of character for her, which helped solidify the whole "the aliens brainwash people in the dark limbo place" idea, but IIRC the film might've implied that her personality swap happened when they teleported her back). Of course in the film it's stated that Foxy Loxy's predicament was unintentional, but that just changes the circumstances from "aliens committing human rights violations" to "aliens complacent with human rights violations", which isn't much better at all lol.

8:32 yeahhhhh I dont think people knew at the time just how bad an idea that was to instill such a moral. this "my truth" "your truth" nonsense, and leaving reality behind is a big issue. Like, its good to be confident if your faith, and stick to your guns in a lot of situations, but to say that reality itself is dependent on how you feel is insane.

You have NO IDEA how happy I was to see Camp Camp used as a stand-in for the summer camp.

If there's any lesson to be learned here, it's that you never show your in-development film to Michael Eisner.

I honestly kind of liked Chicken Little when it first came out because mainstream children's media depicting nerds like me and their nerdy, unpopular friends was in woefully-short supply at the time. In retrospect, it feels like a mean-spirited, cynical Dreamworks clone with broken morals, a homophobic subtext, and (credit where it's due) a bangin' soundtrack, and awkward nerds have ample and better representation now.

Fun fact: This was the last Disney movie to be printed on VHS and it was only available through the Disney Movie Club making it one of the rarest Disney VHS tapes. Right up there with Song of the South.

A year later... Still no part 2.

As a Chicken little historian. I'm glad someone is looking over the history.

I'm surprised that you mentioned "Happily Ever After: A Story For Every Child". People barely talk about it which is ashamed as it was a good show. Even if it makes DreamWorks blush with all the pop culture references and guest stars. Seriously, making a drinking game out of who's starring in an episode will kill you in an hour. Ironically, many of the actors were or would be Disney alumni like the voices of Rafiki and Nani. Same with DreamWorks alumni too with Will Smith and Chris Rock being in the Pinocchio episode...and I just made myself sad.

I’ll admit while I don’t really hate the Chicken Little we got, this early version from everything I’ve seen so far honestly looks amazing and really seems like something that’s right up my ally in terms of storytelling, as this early version honestly just looks like the type of movie that was made for me, along with the kinda story I would probably write, it has a society of animals as our main characters, it’s down to earth and relatable, it has very likable characters, it’s very warm, and wholesome, and it overall actually feels more like a Disney movie than the final version does, and I’m not gonna lie if this early version had actually been made there’s a chance it possibly could have been possibly one of my top 10 personal favorite movies from the Disney animated canon, and I guess I have something else to add on my list on cancelled Disney movies I wish would have been made, up there with My Peoples, Kingdom of the Sun, Musicana, Where the Wild Things Are, Chanticleer, Mort, Peter Rabbit, and a couple of others, I would just like to say that Michael Eisner and David Stainton really did done Mark Dindal dirty when scrapping this early version I really love this version of the main character of Chicken Little as I find her quirky flawed personality a lot more interesting and relatable then the Chicken Little in the final version (though he is definitely one of the things I like the movie we got) as her paranoia of everything and her high maintenance personality honestly just speaks to me more than the final version and really just seems like the type of character that’s right up my alley and a lot like the type of characters I would usually write, I also really love the father in this version as despite being clearly very flawed in his parental abilities you can tell in this that he’s trying his best to help take care of his special child and their relationship is just really sweet and wholesome and is easily way better then the in the version we got who was just neglectful and ashamed of if his special child, I also like how this version actually has an alive mother which honestly helps add more to the down to earth relatability to this family Now I don’t hate the final version of Chicken Little as much as everyone else does but when you compare that movie to the type of movie we could have gotten it’s a little upsetting and really does sting a little bit seeing how really incredible this original version was and how much potential for an even better movie was completely lost by corporate meddling, and it’s very clear with this early version along with a recent article that director Mark Dindal had far more love and more passion put into this version than he did with the final draft, and I’ve heard that when Mark Dindal was developing this early version he took a lot of heavily inspiration from being a father with his own daughters which I feel just further adds to warm relatability of this version, though not to say that there was no love or passion put into the final draft of the film since I’m pretty sure there clearly was, but it’s very clear that the final draft was mostly the result of executive meddling and was a bunch of random ideas that kept being thrown against the wall until the Disney execs were satisfied with something, and I’ve heard a rumor somewhere that Mark Dindal himself looks back very fondly on this original version and wished he had it things his way with making this version, and it’s a real darn that this was never made as I feel like this early version could have been Mark Dindal’s magnum opus Though who knows maybe in the future we can have this original version be brought in someway, it be turned into an illustrated storybook, we could have everything involving the early development of this version and stitched together into one coherent narrative and released somewhere, or the original version can be just remade whether in 3D animation or better yet have it be remade in hand drawn animation (I know that will likely never happen but a guy can dream can’t he) and just say that that Holly Hunter’s Chicken Little is the cousin of Zach Braff’s Chicken Little and that Buck Cluck has twin brother or something named Chuck Cluck (which I heard is what they were originally gonna name him), I don’t know just give us this original version in some form somehow.

Bruh the original version would have been so much better

I say we have the Henny Penny movie now. The film we got is such a completely different product, it wouldn't even have to retread that . much ground.

0:36 I never knew that everyone copied Shrek’s homework for the entire decade my childhood was in…

Of course it all started with Michael Eisner.

This is often why an executive shouldn't have a say in it, similar to how Miyamoto ended up changing what people wanted from Paper Mario into Sticker Star. History has shown the opinions of one don't out weight the opinions of the many often times. We haven't learned that lesson. Don't get me wrong outside opinions are important... but in what reality is someone like Miyamoto right? They won't allow F-Zero because there is no new gimmick. A game many people want to come back and be many kids first experience with F-Zero. People literally want it as is. Mario Kart didn't become "Para-Mario's Underground" (Tony Hawk's Underground) it stayed Mario Kart. Don't chase trends just make good things. Don't fix what isn't broken and use new things to branch out. Why do you think Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing, and Crash Team Racing were popular and beloved games? It didn't replace anything.

I'm glad to see more from your channel, I absolutely love the mix of genuine movie analysis mixed with original characters and a whole storyline mixed in with them. And how they blend together in some parts. It's just amazing

Off topic but I love the little segments where you're some kind of prisoner, the channel lore or whatever you want to call it.

Got an ad for Burger King’s Chicken Fries before the video started. Seems appropriate enough

It’s literally hot garbage but chicken little is a special type of hot garbage

Honestly, I really loved the original draft. Wished they had kept it instead of adding in the 'improvements'.

So if mentioning the 2000s sends him into a trance, does that mean we’re the voices in his head?

where part 2?

I am now every invested in the background plot of the videos so far, I feel like the wait is half worth it for the plot alone. That's even without mentioning how enjoyable the videos are without it, but I feel hooked on the mystery of what this strange place is

11:00 art imitates life sometimes, you have a mom and a dad, things are good enough, you have counter balance. Mom dies, and while life continues, its far from the ideal environment for a child.

My favorite part in all of your videos is your slow burning original story about a man gripped with insanity talking about children’s TV shows and movies seemingly trying to avoid the subject of why they see and hear things with his ADHD brain. All of your characters are so interesting and funny even though we barely get to see any of them. (Which helps with their overall development) You guys are doing a great job and this channel is highly underrated.

17:32 That's the thing that confuses me. If Chicken Little isn't a scardy cat, then why did he freak, the hell, out when he was hit with an acorn?

Something really bugs me about the whole "its more difficult to be smaller if you're a boy" thing- im 17 and 4'9" and was born female and my ENTIRE life ive felt something was wrong with me and have even gotten tested for disabilities like dwarfism and such so i promise you Disney there is no real difference =_=

I've never seen the story of chicken little (Henny Penny) twisted into bravery. It was always more of a "calm the fuck down and think" kind of story

I have said this before and will continue when I feel appropriate: The way they did Foxy Loxy dirty in that film makes me snort with indignation. They gave her a serviceable charecter in the film, but was brushed aside till about the end and then the fate they leave her on is just twisted, and I'm someone who enjoys charecter hypnosis and brainwashing plots. Add that to the FL lineage from the original short where that Loxy is just about the only Disney villain to succeed in thier goal with zero caveats and this particular villain lover just sighs.

Broooo, we were ROBBED. I'm so mad. The original sounded great.

Huh… interesting to know that Chicken Little got Screwed over similarly if not worse than The Black Cauldron… only difference is The Black Cauldron is at least watchable and has over time gained a large cult following… aint nobody callin for Chicken Little to have a second chance!

5:30 The family guy death pose is ever present as always~

Honestly I wish that the Henny Penny fable (or even the old plot before chicken little got botched) would get its own film, not a Disney film but like any other animation that’ll respect and appreciate the simple yet beautiful fable into filmography. Maybe Laika, Don Bluth, or even Sony, because those studios while they hit or Miss their movies they aren’t afraid of taking creative liberties and adapting a simple idea to a beautiful creation!

There is an alternate universe where Henny Penny was made and got critical acclaim

I need more from this world! What happened to the axolotl? What experiments went down? I'm so intrigued!

I love how the lore is intertwined with the reviews on these videos! The story and the reviews are very great.

I gotta say, aside from yet another wonderful video- I am absolutely eating up the animatic art you have there💗

This sounds like it would have been a really good movie. What a shame.

Man you must be up there as one of the most criminally underrated youtubers. Your flim critique is sublime, your accent just makes everything you say engaging and entertaining, and you have a very interesting story unfolding in the background that I can't wait to see more of.

In my opinion, if the wolf plot was kept, we would have ended up with a well-executed unofficial installment of The Jim Henson Company's Unstable Fables movies (yet another Shrek-wannabe that consisted on the movies 3 Pigs and a Baby, Tortoise vs Hare and The Goldilocks and the Three Bears Show). The final Chicken Little movie feels like a scrapped Unstable Fables movie that got an alien subplot forcefully added on its already convoluted plot.

On the one hand i can actually see where eisner is coming from. It is a common experiance i had growing up as a boy to want to be taller, more masculine, have facial hair etc even if i didnt really know why. Its pretty deeply engrained in boys. All im really saying is i think that angle could have worked if it came about moreso from a creative direction then just marketing strategies with little storytelling concerns.

Buried Entertainment is that type of channel where I NEVER skip on a video. When I see something of them in my notification box, I instantly click it

Now I imagine Chicken Little and his father going to a special summer camp so that the latter can learn how to be a better father.

In my childhood fables, Chicken Little was the 'Shy is Falling' character, and Henny Penny was baking bread in a different story. She'd ask other animals for help getting ingredients and such, but all were too busy, so when the bread was finished, and they wanted some, they all got rejected.

If any movie deserves a remake, it’s this! Seriously, if they just stuck with the original idea I would have watched the crap out of that movie!

Ah yes, the movie where the bully character is basically lobotomised out of fear at the end of the movie and instead of healing her they left her as a brain dead simpleton because the other brain dead simpleton friend asked for her to be left that way so he could date her

I mean, the short boy idea is not 100% wrong. May be messed by executive interruption, but as a concept it’s interesting as it pans to the fact that a boy, even in a very early development age on school, would want to be on the same height (no pun intended) of attention as his friends or every other boy meant to grow tall, so he tries to compensate by being an alarmist to get that attention and recognition he desires.

6:39 The cartoon you show there is literally from America. It was made by Disney in 1943 as a fable warning people about fascism, and it doesn't pull any punches. The entire village of chickens gets eaten after getting tricked and you see Foxy Loxy sucking on their bones.

I just want to say that Chicken Little was the first movie I ever saw in theatres where I was cognizant that I was watching a bad film. I had seen a lot of trash aimed at children beforehand, but being a 7-year-old watching the movie in 2005 just after it was released was the first time in my life where I distinctly remember thinking "this movie is a mess" in reaction to any film. I was so genuinely confused by the choices Disney made and why aliens were suddenly involved, and that original version with the female lead does sound like it would have made a lot more sense.

Great video analyzing Disney's emo faze! I never liked this movie as a kid, probably due to the tonal and plot whiplashes I was receiving time and time again. Above all else I would kill for more lore behind the characters producing this. I like the questions that pop up whenever I see them, give them more screen time please!

8:10 I gotta say, as an American myself, I've honestly never heard of this take away from the fabel. It sounds more like just a moral on its own about sticking to your guns, and the reference to chicken little at the end is just that. Merely a reference and not an out and out interpretation of the story.

There are 2 reasons why I enjoy this movie. Nostalgia, and 2 one of my friends in high school could word for word reenact the film, and it was hilarious.

“Hey, I think feeling weak is an issue for boys, so it’d be interesting to see the mc as a boy.” “Hey, boys can’t be weak, so don’t write him as a weak child.” Interesting ideas the man cultivated in his career

I aspire to be like your nanny when I'm old. She sounds amazing!

My friends mom worked on chicken little. She said she enjoyed working on the project at least.

The henny penny concept would have worked so much better. sigh

I've never understood and still don't understand what the problem of chicken little's father was, but given I barely talk to my family and my sole concept of a good parent is the one that fed and educated me until I could get a job, might have sth to do with it all.

Honestly the original script would've been better!

Wait wait wait, don't think that bit about Muchkin just went over peoples heads, what went on with that? Edgar is clearly still running around and is strong as ever evidently, but all three of you are in the end credits. So is there some kind of change going around with some changing/growing pains, or is there some kind of more story that is going on that I'm no aware of?

So basically the American message is "My source is that I made it the Fuck up"

Honestly, simplifying and changing characters like this made no sense. I liked the idea of a timid character full of superstitions growing out of her shell and characters becoming a better family as a result. So what if the first idea was scary for kids? It's SUPPOSED to; to allow the audience to better connect with the MC's, to root for them when things get tough and relate it to real life situations as they grow up. All these excuses the 'bosses' made is completely ludicrous at best and horrendous at worst. Simplify a movie too much and a child loses interest, plus they'd lose brain cells as a result! I remember loving certain cartoons/movies because of the life lessons they show, regardless if it's a hormonal teen whose parents are going through a divorce, facing one's fears and overcoming them out of determination or sheer courage hidden beneath the surface, or just simply a person trying to live his day-to-day life while hiding the secret of being a super-hero! It doesn't have to be reality TV, but some realism in a fictional story makes it more appealing to audiences, that the most powerful being, ex: The Hulk, also has real-life problems like us. It makes a character more human.