49 Fun Facts About Chicken Little

Who voices Chicken Little?

Zach Braff, then starring in Scrubs, got the part after the title chicken, first developed as a girl, was rewritten as a boy.

In Disney's Chicken Little, what is the name of the hero's hometown?

Oakey Oaks panicked when Chicken Little cried that the sky was falling, and a year later the townsfolk still call him the crazy chicken.

What does Buck Cluck assume fell on Chicken Little's head?

An acorn, Buck insisted, but the 'piece of the sky' was really a camouflage panel from an invisible alien spaceship.

Which sport does Chicken Little take up to restore his reputation?

Baseball was Buck's old glory sport, and his son, benched all season, finally got to bat in the big game and won it.

In Chicken Little, what is Abby Mallard's nickname?

The Ugly Duckling is Abby's nickname, and she is the friend who keeps urging Chicken Little to have an honest talk with his dad.

In Chicken Little, what does Fish Out of Water wear to breathe on land?

A helmet full of tap water keeps Fish going, and when he is carried off into the sky, his friends race to rescue him.

Who voices Runt of the Litter in Chicken Little?

Steve Zahn voices Runt of the Litter, whom animators gave tiny, careful steps, so the timid pig moves delicately for all his bulk.

Who voices Chicken Little's father, Buck Cluck?

Garry Marshall got Buck Cluck after Disney had dropped him from an earlier animated role, in the film that became The Emperor's New Groove.

Who voices Foxy Loxy in Chicken Little?

Amy Sedaris voices Foxy Loxy, a star-athlete bully here; in Disney's 1943 wartime short, a male Foxy tricks the gullible flock and eats them.

In Chicken Little, what office does Turkey Lurkey hold in town?

Mayor Turkey Lurkey shares his name with a turkey in the old folk tale who joins the march to tell the king the sky is falling.

In Chicken Little, what is the name of the orange alien child left behind on Earth?

Kirby was left behind by accident, so the alien 'invasion' was really his frantic parents, Melvin and Tina, coming back to find him.

In Chicken Little, what are the aliens really doing to the townsfolk they seem to vaporize?

Teleporting them aboard the UFO was all the ray did, so once the mix-up was sorted out, everyone came back unharmed and the town was put right.

Who voices Ace, the Hollywood movie-star version of Chicken Little?

Adam West voices Ace, and that heroic chicken from the film-within-the-film later got his own video game, Chicken Little: Ace in Action.

Which Star Trek captain voices the teacher Mr. Woolensworth in Chicken Little?

Patrick Stewart voices Mr. Woolensworth, a sheep who has his class translate words into 'Mutton', where every answer comes out 'Baa'.

Which director of The Emperor's New Groove went on to direct Chicken Little?

Mark Dindal had helped turn a troubled epic, Kingdom of the Sun, into the comedy The Emperor's New Groove before making Chicken Little.

Disney's Chicken Little was loosely inspired by which European folk tale?

Henny Penny's panicky chick gave English the term 'a Chicken Little', for someone who keeps warning that a calamity is imminent.

What milestone did the film mark for Disney Animation?

It was animated in-house at the studio's Burbank headquarters.

Chicken Little was the first mainstream release in which format?

Digital 3-D was meant to feel like a View-Master, the director said, so the screen became a window you could step into rather than a wall.

Chicken Little grossed over $300 million worldwide, but which 2005 animated film earned more?

Madagascar out-earned it and launched a DreamWorks franchise with sequels and a penguin spin-off film.

Which actress voiced the original female Chicken Little for eight months?

The early story had her going to summer camp to reduce her anxiety.

Which Disney chief demanded that Chicken Little be rewritten as a boy?

Michael Eisner's demand turned what the director had built as a father-daughter story into a tale of a father and his son.

Which magician was cast as the villainous camp counselor in Chicken Little's scrapped early version?

Penn Jillette was to voice the counselor, secretly a wolf in sheep's clothing, before the camp story was scrapped for a new plot.

Which Queen song does Chicken Little belt out after the big game?

We Are the Champions is his celebration after winning the big game, the night the town finally hails its old laughingstock as a hero.

In Chicken Little, which gym-class game does the coach split into 'popular versus unpopular' teams?

Dodgeball it is, and the coach cheerfully tells the kids to 'hit the pig', so the whole class pelts poor Runt.

Which This Is Spinal Tap star voices the dog announcer at Chicken Little's big game?

Harry Shearer's canine announcer tells the crowd the fun of the game isn't in the playing but in the gloating that comes with winning.

Which Toy Story 2 star, the voice of Jessie, voices Abby Mallard in Chicken Little?

Joan Cusack got the part after a rewrite: Sean Hayes had been announced in 2002 to voice the character before it was made a girl.

When designing Chicken Little's hometown, artists largely banned what?

Straight lines were almost banned so the town would share the round, cartoony look the director wanted for his characters.

Chicken Little's alien-invasion finale spoofs which classic sci-fi story?

The War of the Worlds got a Spielberg remake that same year, and one critic said he preferred Chicken Little's version.

What nickname did Disney's training courses for Chicken Little's animators go by?

Boot camp was the nickname: animators rolled off other films, learned new software from scratch and went straight onto Chicken Little.

In its second weekend, Chicken Little stayed No. 1 ahead of which new Jon Favreau film?

Zathura's director Jon Favreau favoured practical effects, filming model spaceships and a real robot on set instead of relying on CGI.

In Chicken Little, what did the hero say the 'piece of the sky' looked like?

A stop sign, he said, and when the same panel hit him again a year later, he kept it from his dad.

Almost half of Abby Mallard's computer-model polygons went into which part of her?

Her hair took almost half of Abby's 12,781 polygons, giving the little duck nearly twice as many as the huge pig Runt.

Which film originally held Chicken Little's November 4, 2005 release date?

Cars moved to summer 2006 to catch kids on school break, so Chicken Little jumped from its summer date into the November slot.

Chicken Little's box office was watched as a test of Disney's future without which studio?

Pixar's partnership with Disney was ending, yet Disney bought Pixar outright in January 2006, less than three months after the film opened.

Where did Chicken Little premiere on October 30, 2005?

El Capitan Theatre is the Hollywood movie palace Disney owns, so Chicken Little premiered on the studio's home turf.

In Chicken Little, what does the hero sound to warn the town that the sky is falling?

The school bell is his alarm again when the aliens arrive, and once more nobody believes him.

Five for Fighting's John Ondrasik covers which Art Garfunkel hit in Chicken Little?

All I Know plays right after Buck tells his son not to get his hopes up, as Chicken Little struggles to earn his dad's respect.

Which Elton John duet does the cast sing at the end of Chicken Little?

Don't Go Breaking My Heart becomes a duet for Runt and Foxy Loxy, the tough fox now transformed into a girly girl.

Chicken Little's No. 1 opening weekend beat which new Jake Gyllenhaal film?

Jarhead's Marine sniper hero goes through the whole Gulf War without ever firing his rifle.

Chicken Little's lead voice actors, who play son and father, both graduated from which university?

Northwestern University alumni with an old connection, the pair got on so well that Disney recorded them together, unusual for animation.

Which band performed Chicken Little's one original song, "One Little Slip"?

Barenaked Ladies wrote One Little Slip as Chicken Little's anthem, playing early in the film as he tries to live down his notorious past.

Which film beat Chicken Little in all four of its categories at the 33rd Annie Awards?

Wallace & Gromit's makers lost over 30 years of props and models in an October 2005 warehouse fire, though their current work was spared.

In which video game can Chicken Little be summoned to help in battle?

Kingdom Hearts II came out in Japan before the film did there, so Chicken Little's summon is seen as a way of promoting the movie.

Which 2002 hand-drawn Disney space adventure flopped at the box office three years before Chicken Little?

Treasure Planet's flop showed quickly: within days of its release, Disney took $47 million off its quarterly earnings.

Which Spice Girls hit do Abby and Runt sing together in Chicken Little?

Wannabe is their sing-along, and family film reviewers flagged one of its lyrics for parents.

Who cancelled a Chicken Little sequel after becoming Disney Animation's chief creative officer?

John Lasseter shut down Disney's run of cheap direct-to-video sequels, scrapping several planned follow-ups, this one included.

Which Princess Bride actor voices Chicken Little's principal?

Wallace Shawn voices Principal Fetchit, who tells Buck that his son has been nothing but trouble since the 'sky falling' incident.

Chicken Little's eyes have no pupils, so how did animators show where he was looking?

By turning his head: with no pupils to glance with, he had to swing his whole head to show what he was thinking, too.

Which It's a Small World designer's 1950s film art inspired Chicken Little's staging and lighting?

Mary Blair's theatrical pools of light, studied in films like Peter Pan, showed the artists how to guide the viewer's eye.