by Vicki Tracy
Editor's
Note - 11/18/00: Universal Studios has now closed this attraction.
It's a hard life but someone has to do it... you know, go to Universal Studios in Hollywood and report on their newest attraction based on DreamWork's/Aardman's animated release, Chicken Run. You might be wondering why Universal Studios agreed to promote Chicken Run instead of their own live action/animated feature, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. That's a good question to which we haven't received a satisfactory answer. But whatever the case, this mini adventure is worth the trip - just to see the film's props.
After entering the park, and walking a few hundred feet, you'll find the Universal Chicken Run maze to the left. And as you can see from the sign, even on busy days the wait time is near zero. The sign becons the young and the old to enter the hen house to be a part of the chicken adventure.
When
you first enter the Chicken Run Maze, you walk through a room that encases
many props and puppets from the movie. There are signs explaining how
the props and puppets were created.
In continuing the adventure, the path takes a dark turn as you enter the chicken coop. You'll meet Mac and Ginger as flat wooden cutouts. Mr. Tweedy pokes his huge head into the coop saying, "I know those chickens are organize."
As
you run through the maze, you are given two options: a tunnel on ground
level, where you have to crawl on all fours or continue walking on the
main path. If you don't go through the tunnel you'll miss out on seeing
Ginger who leads the way! After you exit the tunnel and get back on
the main path, you enter the pie machine where you have to make your
way through huge vegetables, survive the oven, and escape out of the
hen house. Once you've exited the hen house, you are introduced to more
props from the film.
The maze part was shorter than I had expected. However, the behind-the-scenes look at this popular movie is well worth the time to stop in at Tweedy's Farm. You'll see puppet skeletons like Fowler and whole sets like the inside barn that housed the chickens doom - the pie making machine. There's even a model of the chicken aircraft.
Just outside as you leave you can get your picture taken with Ginger (when she's there), which of course I did even though I was the only adult in line.
Here is Animation Artist Magazine's scrapbook from the Chicken Run Maze at Universal Studios in Hollywood. Enjoy!
