While major Hollywood studios have all but completely abandoned the pursuit of traditional 2D animation in the last decade, the method is still thriving in Europe. Nothing exemplifies the growth of this cinematic language like the French feature Chicken For Linda!, a gorgeous romp that uses its one of a kind 2D art style to meditate on the nature of memory.
Written and directed by Chiara Malta (Simple Women) and Sébastian Laudenbach (The Girl Without Hands), Chicken For Linda! has become a festival darling over the past year, notably winning the top prizes at the Annecy Festival, Manchester Animation Festival, and Animation Is Film Festival, as well as picking up a Lumiére award. After heaps of praise from Europe, it has finally arrived on American soil to announce itself as one of the best animated films of the past decade.
The concept of a general strike may seem alien to some American viewers, but when the French want something done, they take action. The day of such a strike is when Chicken For Linda! takes place. Paulette (Clotilde Hesme), after wrongfully punishing her daughter Linda (Mélinée Leclerc), looks to make it up to her by cooking her favorite dish, chicken with peppers. This recipe is one of the few things that reminds Linda of her late father. However, due to the general strike closing stores, it’s impossible to buy food from a supermarket.
After promising Linda her favorite meal of chicken, Paulette decides to fulfill her daughter’s innocent request by stealing a live one from a local farm. The ensuing outrageous series of events brings in a blunt-headed police officer, a passionate watermelon salesman, and more than a handful of Linda’s eccentric friends whose actions intertwine in a satisfying domino effect.
Equally satisfying are the almost formless, hand-drawn character models. Animated by Miyu Productions, the character designs shift and constantly stretch, always sticking to the approximate shape of a human body merely through a few thick black outlines cradling a blob of color. Each character also has a single color to themselves, existing in their own little worlds with their aura and energy reflected in a specific hue. In moments of overflowing emotion, we see color spill from the edges of a character’s outline, evoking a child’s drawing, as if they were recalling events through crayon. In other moments, close-ups of the characters’ surprisingly realistic eyes bring a solidity and intensity that grounds them as people.
Chicken For Linda! isn’t an animated movie that’s trying to make you forget that it’s animated. It embraces the absence of boundaries afforded to you with a pencil and paper. Exemplifying this is a scene where Linda is lying in the backseat of a car in the middle of the night. In the darkness, her characteristic bright yellow is swapped with her black outlines, until the car races past a streetlight, temporarily inverting the colors back to what we expect from them. It’s a stunning feat of animation that hammers home the heartfelt familial themes of the story.
The film’s hazy and abstract art style is an expression of the fuzziness of our memories from days long gone. In that same car ride scene, Linda and Paulette are discussing her late father, how he must feel while “in the dark,” and the splatterings of memory she still holds of him. The streetlights whizzing past represent flashes of these memories, sudden moments where Linda remembers the contours of his face, the sound of his voice, or the taste of his food, all of which slip from her mind just as quickly as they arrived.
These emotions accumulate in a third-act musical number performed by Linda’s father, taking place as the taste of chicken with peppers hits her tongue, unlocking deep memories and bringing them to the surface. The animation during this sequence is simply phenomenal, playing with darkness and color unique to a film where both of those things carry supreme thematic weight. A spoonful of chicken with peppers causes the present and past to clash in Linda’s mind.
There’s a difference between making a film for children and making a great film that children can enjoy. Chicken For Linda! is hilarious, with broad, physical comedy executed to a high level. Its pacing is perfect, getting you accustomed to the quirks of this version of France before accelerating through beautifully crafted set pieces. It’s a movie that takes time to be silly with its fair share of slapstick humor, specifically during another musical sequence centered around Linda’s aunt, but is still able to tackle such a powerful theme that many can instantly relate to.
More than often in Western animation, it feels like we can’t have both. Big studios are so often preoccupied with making something kid-friendly to the point of numbing its commentary — even the heights of Pixar and Disney can feel over-explained and blunt at times. The trend of live-action remakes of animated classics is further proof that American studios don’t seem to trust their audience with anything that isn’t cold, hard, and literal. As much as Sony’s Spider-Verse movies are visually stunning and experimental in their own right, they still carry a completely different artistic sensibility than what rising animation houses — such as Miyu Productions, Cartoon Saloon, and Nexus Studios — are currently offering across the globe.
Chicken For Linda! makes no sacrifices. It’s a family tale that’s entertaining but not hollow. It’s easily understandable without having to spoon-feed the audience. With beloved distributor GKIDS continuing to bring worldwide animation to the States, they’re exposing American audiences to films that fully embrace the limitless possibilities of animation.
Chicken for Linda! premieres in select US theaters starting on April 5!
Domestic Release Date: April 5, 2024.
French Title: Linda veut du poulet!
Directed by Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach.
Written by Chiara Malta Sébastien Laudenbach.
Produced by Marc Irmer, Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, Pierre Baussaron, & Flaminio Zadra.
Main Voice Cast: Melinée Leclerc, Clotilde Hesme, Lætitia Dosch, Estéban, Patrick Pineau, Claudine Acs, Jean-Marie Fonbonne, Antoine Momey, Pietro Sermonti, Scarlett Cholleton, Alenza Dus, Anaïs Weller, Milan Cerisier, Nahil Mostefa, & Anna Parent.
Composer: Clément Ducol.
Production Companies: Dolce Vita Films, Miyu Productions, Palosanto Films, & France 3 Cinéma.
Distributor: Gebeka Films (France) & GKIDS (North America).
Runtime: 76 minutes.