Twenty years ago, theater-goers were entertained by a bunch of chickens in a Dreamworks Animation movie called Chicken Run. According to Wikipedia, it was the studio’s first full-length film. Since then they have come out with such hits as Shrek, Madagascar, and How to Train Your Dragon.

Chicken Run was created in stop-motion animation, which means that the images were moved piece by piece to show motion. Voices behind the chickens include those of Mel Gibson and Miranda Richardson.

The story is about a band of chickens who see a rooster as their only escape from the farm. Why would these chickens be in a rush to leave? The farmer is threatening to turn them into pies and has a machine that is used to do just that.

Critics actually enjoyed the movie, which earned a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and three out of four stars from Robert Ebert. It earned nearly $225 million dollars in box office sales, earning the position as the “highest grossing stop motion animated movie,” according to https://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/worldwide/all-movies/production-methods/stop-motion-animation. More than half of that was through international sales.