What is the film about?

Our headless chicken’s story begins in Colorado in 1945. Mike, a male Wyandotte chicken, defied death and continued to live for a further 18 months after having his head chopped off by hungry farmer Lloyd Olsen. Mike had lost his head but, he gained fame and fortune travelling sideshows until he died in 1947. His legacy has hen-dured ever since.

What influenced it?

Tom played the acoustic guitar with a thumb pick. This gave the bass notes and the pace of the chicken walk cycle. The circular theme came from an unwanted pitch. The chicken design was basically Kellogg’s inspired and the farmer is one of the soggy bottom boys from “ oh brother where art thou”. And it was all inspired by real events.

A little background information...

Kong Co-Founder Tom had been aware of the true story of a chicken who lived without his head for some time. Once Kong’s first ‘Long Story Short’ instalment, ‘Two Ton Tony’ written by Bill Elliott, had been released, egg-spectations were high for Tom to come up with his one-minute animation.

How was the film made?

Tom worked around the cluck to nail down the words, melody and animatic in one evening, scared the musical recipe might not be to everyone’s taste. But Tom needn’t be concerned about his chicken coming home to roost. He had created an ear-splitting egg-stravaganza!

The idea of a circular motion was plucked from an earlier concept by designer Matt Oxborrow and reminiscent of an old record being played. Tom asked Matt to join the flock and add his flourishes to the overall style. Matt’s im-peck-able designs lift the story, and the result is poultry in motion. The next test was fine-tuning the animation to include all the visual details of Mike’s gory story.