Of course, exaggeration is sort of the point when it comes to Chicken Little, who famously mistook a stray acorn for the apocalypse, so we should expect a little creative embellishment. Besides, no one over the age of 4 wants to hear the straightforward story of a crazy little chicken who overreacts right into Foxy Loxy's belly.

That's where the Disney touch comes in. If you take the nursery rhyme scenario and juice it up with zany comedy, gratuitous musical numbers and lots of outrageous voice actors, maybe no one will notice how little there is to the story. Still, no matter how much padding Chicken Little's team of writers cram in, it still feels less like a movie than a kick-off event for the studio's latest merchandising spectacular.

Design-wise, Chicken Little is easily Disney's most endearing animated character in years. He's a bright-eyed, bobble-headed underdog with big green specs, teeny-weeny beak and floppy red comb. Think Tweety without the lisp or Woody Allen without the saggy jowls. He's endearingly misproportioned and instantly loveable. Now if only he had something interesting to do.

As the movie begins, the words ''Once upon a time . . .'' appear on screen. There's a sudden crash, and the narrator rudely interrupts to inform us that this isn't that sort of movie. Cut to the familiar sight of a storybook flipping open. But wait, this isn't that sort of movie either. It's the sort of movie that begins with the title character screaming, ''The sky is falling!'' and all hell breaking loose. This film is clearly not your grandma's Disney movie, but the filmmakers haven't really tackled what they want Chicken Little to be instead.

Gone is the corny sentimentality of Disney's classic endeavors (or their recent Pixar successes). In a desperate attempt to attract a jaded audience, Chicken Little follows more in the vein of The Emperor's New Groove (with its zany sitcom-sharp gags and pop culture references) or Lilo & Stitch (with its decidedly non-Disney plot and characters).

Kids will love it. It feels fresh and original and mildly subversive, but it's all a cover for the filmmakers not having the patience or confidence to put together a real story with a beginning, middle and end. Instead, we get silly skits connected by forgettable pop songs (in one case, a scene of Chicken Little moping to Five for Fighting's "All I Know" leads directly into a baseball season musical montage). It's as if no one bothered to figure out what the story was about. Waiting for Chicken Little to be vindicated gets old fast, and the father-son thing is lame at best, especially since there's no real lesson in it for the kids.

I expect big things from Chicken Little in the future. No doubt, he'll star in several enormously entertaining straight-to-video sequels and the obligatory Toon Disney series, but his big-screen introduction is an enormous disappointment. If anything, it's my confidence in Disney that's falling.

[as featured in The Miami Herald]