From the creators of Wallace and Gromit comes this animated box office smash.

Tweedy farm is not unlike a Prisoner of War camp and the already miserable conditions take a more sinister turn when the evil Mrs Tweedy (Richardson) decides to use her egg-laying hens to make another sort of food altogether.

Faced with certain death 'By Chicken Pie', Rocky the rooster (Gibson) and Ginger the chicken (Sawalha) decide to rebel against the farm's evil owners.

They lead their fellow fowl in a parody of The Great Escape - attempting to fly away from the murderous farmers and their farmyard of doom.

In classic escape movies, 'rat' is a common term for a spy or informant; in Chicken Run, the rats are Nick (Timothy Spall) and Fetcher (Phil Daniels), two profiteering rodents whose scavenging skills prove invaluable to the chickens' escape plans.

An animated comedy drama set on a sinister Yorkshire chicken farm in 1950's England, the film follows the turbulent romance between two farmyard chickens.

Laughs come from the culture clash between the two lovebirds, for Rocky is the American 'Lone Free Ranger' in an otherwise all-British coop.

Their characters are deep and endearing enough for you to care about what happens to them and the supporting cast provide humour in abundance.

While the animation is great, delighting the kids, the sophisticated humour in this comic adventure is clearly aimed at adults.

In short, this is a film the whole family can truly enjoy.

Dominic Bloch