Chicken for Linda! (2023) Review: Grief in Primary Colours

Is Chicken for Linda! worth watching?

Yes, with reservations. Chicken for Linda! is one of the freshest animated films of recent years, a riotous comic chase that hides a surprisingly delicate story about grief. Its hand-painted, colour-coded style is unlike anything in mainstream animation, and its 76 minutes fly by. The reservations are that the sketchy look takes some adjusting to, and the escalating farce can tip from exhilarating into exhausting.

What is Chicken for Linda! about?

Chicken for Linda! begins with a small injustice. A harried single mother, voiced by Clotilde Hesme, wrongly punishes her young daughter, Linda (Mélinée Leclerc), and, stricken with guilt, promises to make it up to her. Linda asks for one thing: the chicken with peppers her late father used to cook.

It should be simple. But the town is paralysed by a general strike, the shops are shut, and getting hold of a chicken turns into a chaotic, multi-character caper involving relatives, neighbours, police and a growing crowd of bystanders. Laetitia Dosch voices one of the more exasperating members of the family.

Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach co-directed this French-language animated film, a French production that runs 76 minutes. It won the Cristal for a Feature Film, the top prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, in 2023.

Colour that tells you who everyone is

The film’s style is its signature. Characters are drawn as loose, fluid shapes, each rendered in a single bold colour, while backgrounds are suggested with a few quick washes. It sounds minimal, but it is ingeniously practical: as the cast grows and the chase becomes chaotic, you always know who is who at a glance. The effect is of a child’s painting set in motion, and the animation has a spontaneity that makes even simple actions feel alive.

That looseness is also expressive. Figures stretch, blur and lose their outlines at moments of panic or emotion, and the directors use the freedom of the style for gags that would be impossible in more polished animation. Laudenbach’s background in hand-drawn, painterly work is evident in every frame.

A farce with grief at its centre

What elevates the film is how neatly it folds sorrow into slapstick. The whole escalating misadventure is, underneath, a mother trying to reconnect with a daughter who misses her father, and a daughter trying to hold on to a memory through taste. The film never pauses to spell this out; it lets the feeling surface in brief, quiet moments between the mayhem.

It is also a musical of sorts. Characters break into song at unexpected moments, and the numbers are playful and unpolished in a way that matches the visual style. The strike setting adds a very French layer of comedy, as a whole town’s routines collapse around one family’s culinary emergency.

Where the chaos gets crowded

The film’s momentum is both its thrill and its limit. The second half piles on characters and complications at such speed that some gags land while others are simply swept along, and the emotional thread risks being drowned by the noise. Viewers used to the smooth, detailed look of studio animation may also find the sketchy style off-putting at first, though most will adjust quickly.

Who should watch Chicken for Linda!?

It suits adults who love inventive, handmade animation and children old enough to follow a busy story with subtitles or dubbing. The short running time makes it an easy family pick. Themes include the death of a parent and some mild peril and slapstick, handled lightly and without anything frightening.

Two animated companions:

• Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, another French animated film that sees the world through a small girl’s senses and emotions.
• Jumbo, an Indonesian animated family film that also approaches a child’s grief with warmth and humour.

The verdict

Chicken for Linda! is a small, exuberant and genuinely original film that turns a simple promise into a comic odyssey with a tender heart. Its frenetic pace and unconventional style will not charm everyone, but few animated films of its era are this inventive or this quietly moving.

Rating: 4/5