Chicken Run....?

Chicken Run is quite an amusing, well made children's movie, whose main attraction in my opinion is that Mel Gibson stars in it. But the idea was quite wierd for me when I first watched... I mean, chicken planning to escape from their farm to be free, and not have to lay eggs... and God forbid... be eaten in the end.

I mean, is that not what chickens are for? in the movie, We are obviously supposed to cheer the chicken on ... hope for their escape from the tyrant oppressor bad guys in the movie (the Farmer and his wife). But It would be really conrtradicting when I tend to eat chicken and eggs day in and day out. but I watched to appreciate the movie in itself, trying not to relate it to real life.... and that went on fine...

till my nephew watched it with me last night that is. there was this scene where the farmer found that one particular chicken hadn't laid an egg for a while, and so he took it out to slaughter. and Ibra (my nephew) was horrified. Did the chicken die? did the guy kill her? why? couldn't he have given her a chance? why did he have to kill her?

didn't really know what to tell him... that this is what we actually do? kill the chickens, and it is ok really. chicken is good for you.

they made it seem so cruel and inhumane... so I went out with : I guess he killed her to save on feeding her, but I guess he could have just let her go...

don't know, the balance between keeping the guy "bad" , and not relating it to eating chicken was a tough one. for a minite there I was scared he would go all vegetarian on me... but then he asked me to fix him a sausage sandwich. :)