Neo-Marxism Within Chicken Run

 Neo-Marxism Within Chicken Run

“A neo-Marxist perspective helps reveal who is empowered and who is disempowered in a popular culture.” In the early 2000s, DreamWorks released the animated film, Chicken Run. The story comes from the perspective of the hens and chickens. Treated as prisoners, one brave hen, Ginger, comes up with the clever idea to escape this farm. As I viewed the movie through a neo-marxist perspective, I noticed the obvious signs of who is empowered vs who is disempowered. Ginger, being part of the disempowered, has to convince some of the others that this isn’t the life they want to live. The chickens are seen as somewhat of a “subclass” in comparison to the owners of the chicken farm. Ginger’s friends had gained a certain ideology that this comfortable camp that they have been in, is actually a death camp that has been using them for resources with no form of payment of any kind. Due to the environment and economic practices around them, a dominant ideology was developed. 

Over the years, people have realized that some of the themes in this movie can be related to the Holocaust. Now, I’m not here to ruin a wonderful childhood movie that we all enjoyed once, but it is just an example of an allegory full of hidden messages that we would have never understood before. In an article written by Shoshana Gottlieb, she discusses how Chicken Run had similar comparisons to the Holocaust. Gottlieb says, “The chicken coops appear to be modeled after a concentration camp, with rows upon rows of identical wooden houses crammed full of chickens. Guard towers stand around the (chicken) wire fence.” 

This furthered her point that from a visualization standpoint, this chicken farm represented Nazi Germany, with the guards representing Nazi soldiers and the Chickens representing their prisoners. Not everyone may feel this way after watching this film, but that may depend on the lens you view the film through. 

Are there any interesting allegory theories that you have come across in any children's films? 

Sources:

https://www.heyalma.com/so-um-is-2000s-chicken-run-an-allegory-for-the-holocaust/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CChicken%20Run%E2%80%9D%20isn't,cats%20and%20Jews%20as%20mice.&text=Throughout%20the%20film%20there%20are,images%20that%20invoke%20the%20Holocaust.

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