The manner in which we are introduced the character of Mrs. Tweedy conveys her personality to the audience; the door opens, from the door appears a blaze of light. Ginger gasps, as do the other chickens shown from a long shot. The camera now turns to face the character at the door, however firstly we are shown her feet, slowly the camera move up the character until we are finally shown a low angle shot of Mrs. Tweedy’s face. How is Mrs. Tweedy shown to be evil? As the camera moves up Mrs. Tweedy the dynamics of the music increases with a villainous tone. On screen Mrs. Tweedy presents an intimidating posture; with her hands on her hips, combined with her large eyebrows, furious eyes, pale skin, low tone voice and the greyness of her face creates the crystal clear image of evil. When looking at other characters response towards Mrs. Tweedy, trepidation is clearly displayed on their faces. When Mrs. Tweedy finds Ginger at her doorstep she says to Mr. Tweedy, ‘What is that chicken doing outside the fence,’ in a spine-chilling tone. Mr. Tweedy trembles on his response, ‘oooo, I do apologise.’ Even the dog is frightened, although in the previous scene he was quite the opposite. Mr. Tweedy looks as if he has just seen a ghost. The interaction which Mrs. Tweedy has with other characters shows that they fear her; this reinforces the malice that is trying to be created in the character of Mrs. Tweedy. The instant Mrs. Tweedy slams the door, the way in which Mr. Tweedy acts drastically changes. He passes a grim look towards Ginger (showing he isn’t afraid of Ginger. Close-up of Mr. Tweedy’s expression). A sudden screen change, full shot, shows the chickens watching this from the fence. Mr. Tweedy shouts in disgust, ‘Let that be a lesson to you, no chicken escapes from, Tweedy’s farm!’ A high angle shot gradually zooms away from the chickens accompanied with dramatic music. These techniques have been used to make the chickens look minute and vulnerable.
Abruptly, we hear the clang of a bell. The chickens are in panic to get in an orderly line. We are shown an insert of Mrs. Tweedy’s shoes as she marches towards the coop. She stampedes through the door and pounds down upon every step she takes; the music becomes life- threatening. These are techniques of Mise-en-scene and there effect is to make Mrs. Tweedy seem wicked. This is done by the response from the chickens i.e. they are in panic to get into an orderly line shows that they fear Mrs. Tweedy. Her body language as she comes through the door, she ‘stampedes’ this is a connotation of evil, the moment we are shown a medium- long shot of Ginger the music extensively changes so that it is noble; here contrast is exposed between Good and Evil. We are shown a low angle shot of Mrs. Tweedy, as we all know this is used to make audience feel susceptible from empathy towards the chickens. During this film we see any shots in which we can empathise with the characters through Mrs. Tweedy’s eyes we feel strong and triumphant, although through the chicken’s eyes we feel small this is reinforcing our images of Good and Evil because upon every empathy scene we either feel sorry for the chickens or against Mrs. Tweedy. Ultimately, making the chickens (Ginger in particular) seem intrepid and Mrs. Tweedy evil. As we are once again shown (from a low angle shot), Mrs. Tweedy (unlike in the opening sequence) is wearing dark, insipid clothing this is done to make Mrs. Tweedy look gloomy. The lighting on Mrs. Tweedy’s face is very overcast and the clouds in the background are coloured a dull red representing fire, which I believe is supposed to make us think of the devil. When Mrs. Tweedy discovers Edwina hasn’t laid any eggs, she grabs her by the neck to take her to the ‘chop’ Ginger exclaims ‘Bunty why didn’t you give her any of your eggs, ‘again showing her consideration towards a fellow chicken, reinforcing that Ginger is a ‘Good’ character. The chickens are also shown to be dismal when they are going through difficult times; this reinforces anthropomorphism as the chickens are shown to have the human quality of emotion.
Anthropomorphism is once again demonstrated when the chickens are planning in an organised manor which is something chickens unquestionably wouldn’t do, again the chickens are depicted to have human behaviour.
In this scene Ginger is thinking of more ways to escape and explains, ‘What haven’t we tried,’ she is the only one who is still willing to try and escape even though on innumerable attempts she has been seized. The indication I have to think that she is the only one prepared to escape is from the idea put forward by Bunty, ‘we haven’t tried not trying to escape.’ Ginger’s reaction to this is perfectly normal, even though we would expect her to get angry; she still continues to convince them that they can escape. Her reaction to Bunty’s comment, the fact that she didn’t get annoyed shows that Ginger is geared up to take other peoples views, the total opposite of Mrs. Tweedy showing contrast between Good and Evil. Whenever we see a scene of Ginger she is always in light; this shows her to be bright, however when Mrs. Tweedy is displayed she is always in dark lighting causing her face to look grey and pale. These are the usual characteristics you would find of a hero/ heroine and villain in films, therefore this is evidence to show that the presentational device of lighting is used to create contrast between good and evil. Another presentational device used for us to interpret good and evil is music. When we see Mrs. Tweedy the music is always high in dynamics and like a grisly drone, although when we see Ginger the music is subtle and quite (with the exception of a heroic scene). The music creates the feeling of Good and Evil through Ginger and Mrs. Tweedy.
On the same scene when Ginger is explaining what is outside of the coop; beyond the farm, the music is heavenly showing contrast between the settings (the farm and outside the farm), this ultimately demonstrates that the farm is evil because of Mrs. Tweedy’s presence. Ginger is unmistakably pure as we are presented by her innocent facial features: Big innocent eyes, pleasant smile and charming scarf and hat. A man from the circus appears at Mrs. Tweedy’s door looking for Rocky, the man says that he is valuable, instantaneously Mrs. Tweedy instructs Mr. Tweedy to get the torch in her familiar bitter tone. This once again tells the audience all Mrs. Tweedy cares about is money, reinforcing evil (because all Mrs. Tweedy is interested in is money in exchange for the rooster). Ginger aware of the fact that the man is after Rocky squeals, black mailing Rocky to try and persuade him to teach the chickens how to fly, reinforcing good (once again showing compassion towards chickens).
I think this is the most effective scene to show Mrs. Tweedy’s decadence. Mrs. Tweedy has plotted for a way to making money from the chickens by turning them to pies! Chicken pies! She grabs one of the blades from the pie machine and begins to spin it, upon the blade the audience can see a reflection of her face, grinding her teeth sniggering at the same time at the blade. Mr. Tweedy cries, ‘but we’ve always been farmers my father, his father and all their fathers and they was…..’ Mrs. Tweedy interferes and screeches, ‘POOR, WORTHLESS, NOTHINGS! Mrs. Tweedy will be poor no longer.’ Pointing at Mr. Tweedy as she does this. The lights become dim and she dumps the instruction manual on Mr. Tweedy’s chest, although Mr. Tweedy’s face looks like he has just be stabbed. She closes the doors slowly behind her and grins at the chickens, rubbing her hands. Here the film makers have truly captured the image of evil to precision. They have used: presentational devices, language and interaction between other characters. The presentational devices used are lighting: the lights become darker as she says ‘Mrs. Tweedy will be poor no longer’ to indicate evil upon the phrase. Sound: the sound of the blade as she explains the purpose of wheel creates a sense of misdeed on the her plot the reflection of the wheel on her face reinforces this. The setting: it is dark and cluttered to create a sense of entrapment and also a dark setting is where villainous scenes are usually set. Combined with this the language, Mrs Tweedy calls Mr. Tweedy’s family ‘poor, worthless, nothings’ .This is hurtful towards Mr. Tweedy but it shows she doesn’t care about other feelings while she says all of this her tone is utterly bitter, she dumps the instruction manual upon Mr. Tweedy implying she wants him to assemble the machine and as she exits she closes the doors slowly suggesting that what is inside the garage is something precious; and I don’t mean Mr. Tweedy! When she exits she glares at the chickens rubbing her hands implying that she is going to make money from them. These scenes sums up Mrs. Tweedy’s injustice firstly by presentation, by her outrageous comments and finally at the end when she is rubbing her hands to once again reinforce the concept about her care of money.
How is Ginger shown to be righteous? We never during the course of the film see ginger get angry with the chickens. An example I can give of this is when Babs says, ‘We haven’t tried not escaping’. This completely goes against Gingers beliefs towards escaping and we would expect her to get angry, although see stays calm. Her manner and language towards the chickens is very polite. So her light-hearted personality reinforces her good. Presentational wise, after we are shown a low-angle shot of Mrs. Tweedy where I believe she is depicted as the devil. We see Ginger; there is masses of light on her innocent face, the effect of this is to make her seem heavenly in a sense creating contrast between god and the devil (Ginger and Mrs. Tweedy). Her expressions are always innocent , combined with valiant music makes her seem heroic, a connotation of good. Finally her costume is anthropomorphised, maybe done for a way for the audience to relate to her and relate to her feelings, her costume also reinforces her goodness through the use of bright colours. The response Ginger receives from other characters is friendly to indicate she is an amiable character.
In chicken run the basis of good and evil is used together with presentational devices, language and response from characters. The creation of good and evil is used to end with a fairy tale ending so that good overcomes evil. The film makers have not only been successful to create the settings and characters from scratch, which is an achievement in itself, but have also incredibly managed to create themes along side this which you will really appreciate. Anything you like whether its action, comedy or even romance, I’m sure inter wound amongst this film’s superb plot there is the theme that suits you! So trust me catch a taster of these egg-cellent characters before Mrs. Tweedy gets there first!