I cringed when I saw trailers for, "Chicken Run," and thought of how it would attempt to spin humorous plot twists from the confinement and slaughter of chickens. When I think of chicken slaughterhouses, adorable claymation characters never spring to mind -- I think of blood and fear, shackles and feathers. Watching the trailers made me sure Chicken Run would trivialize the issue of animal abuse.

I needn't have worried. Burger King may now be promoting the film to pitch hamburgers, but I bet that's only because the advertising deals were signed before the Burger King honchos could screen the film. At its core, Chicken Run is an unsurpassed animal rights film, and it is sure to have enormous impact on young children. Chicken Run does for chickens today what Babe did for pigs in 1995. Both films expose the food animal industries in a way that is appropriate for children. Few parents would deliberately show slaughterhouse footage to their children. So perhaps the only way to teach young children about the fate of farm animals is to weave this disturbing concept into an otherwise entertaining film.

On the surface, Chicken Run resembles nothing so much as that dreadful late1960s television program Hogan's Heroes. Hogan's Heroes was set in a POW camp, and detailed the escapades of a bunch of American soldiers who were continually outwitting their lovable Nazi captors. In Chicken Run, the heroic hen Ginger leads the flock on the ultimate escape mission.

While resembling Hogan's Heroes in structure, the film's impact and design is similar to 1997's "Life is Beautiful." Life is Beautiful caught some heat from the Jewish community because it set the concentration camps against an absurd premise. In Life is Beautiful, a devoted father doesn't want his son to realize the horror they have entered together. The father stitches together lie after lie in a successful effort to convince his son that everything, gas chambers included, is just a game. The absurdity of the situation intensifies rather than diminishes the movie's horror. Life is Beautiful touched me in a way that an excellent and realistically presented film like Schindler's List never could.

Hogan's Heroes, on the other hand, was arguably evil because it turned Nazis into bungling, sympathetic characters. By contrast, there's no ignoring the menace that hangs over films like Life is Beautiful, and now, Chicken Run. Early in the film, chicken farm owner Mrs. Tweedy learns that Edwina the hen has stopped producing eggs. And Edwina, just like 200 million "spent" hens each year in the US, gets the ax. Edwina's final moments are unforgettable, yet entirely appropriate for small children.

Edwina's fate hangs over every other hen at Mrs. Tweedy's farm. At one point, Ginger must argue for her life, and she puts her case as well as any victim ever could. She says that the hens lay eggs night and day all their lives, until the day comes when the eggs no longer come, "and then they kill us." She later says, "Let's face it, the only way we're getting out of here is wrapped in pastry."

Chicken Run appears to be set in 1950s England, which explains why there are no battery cages in sight. Yet the film touches on the key trends that have driven the poultry industry to its present state, and many of the details are spot on. The main villain of the film is, of course, Mrs. Tweedy and her insatiable craving for profits. And when the truck comes bearing equipment from the poultry supply company, the chickens realize that big trouble is ahead. The truck's contents: chicken pot pie machinery. When Ginger gets shackled and suspended upside down, en route to becoming a pot-pie, the level of detail is horrifying and absolutely convincing. Details such as shackle conveyors and Edwina's fate drive home the point that innocent-looking grocery items like pot pies and eggs have terrifying origins in real life.

What's astonishing is that such stark truth could be delivered in a movie that is so much fun and packed with so many laughs. Each of the characters in Chicken Run is memorable and well crafted, especially Mrs. Tweedy, whose dour features make her a claymation Margaret Hamilton. With such sharp and funny writing combined with wonderful animation, Chicken Run proves it's possible to show children the truth about farm animal treatment without resorting to gore or to preaching. Chicken Run is sure to become a classic children's film of the animal rights movement, and is easily on par with Babe and Charlotte's Web. Although marketed as a children's movie, adults will likely find Chicken Run to be the funniest animal rights oriented film ever produced.

Erik Marcus is the publisher of Vegan.com and the author of Vegan: the New Ethics of Eating.