This summer’s best children’s movie so far actually doesn’t come from Disney, the long-running ruler of the genre.

“Chicken Run” is the first full-length feature from Aardman, the same British studio that created Wallace and Gromit. The movie, distributed by Dreamworks SKG, shows a lot of pluck, and gives a fresh spin to some tired cinematic cliches.

But that’s not all that brings this clay-animation film to the top of the pecking order. Co-directors Nick Park and Peter Lord make the audience, young and old, care about what happens to a flock of chickens, which, in itself, is a feat.

The star of the film is Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha), whose spirit soars while her body is cooped up at Tweedy’s Farm. Ginger is constantly inventing clever escape plans, a la “Hogan’s Heroes,” which are inadvertently fowled up by her heftier, less graceful cohorts. The loutish Mr. Tweedy frequently informs his boss, Mrs. Tweedy (voiced by Miranda Richardson), that the chickens are plotting something, but she thinks he’s daft.

Then salvation arrives in the form of Rocky (voiced by Mel Gibson), a rooster who, a poster which he carries announces, can fly. He’s on the lam from the circus, and Ginger makes a deal with him: The hens will hide Rocky if he teaches them how to fly. There’s one problem with this, as Mac the Scottish engineer hen points out — how to get enough thrust to get the squatty birds airborne.

This mission takes on increased urgency when the greedy Mrs. Tweedy decides there’s little profit in egg farming, and opts to move into the production of chicken pies.

The film then goes through a series of exciting twists and turns, with Ginger finally proving that, yes, chickens can fly.

Children, especially younger ones, can coast along on the movie’s simple plotline of the oppressed seeking to escape from their oppressors. My junior critic found the film to be at once silly, funny and cute. She did get a little squirmy during the emotional pauses which established the film’s characters, but mostly “Chicken Run” just zipped along for her.

Unlike most of this summer’s children’s films, adults can enjoy “Chicken Run” also for its throwaway references to pop culture (for example, the hens plot their escapes in Hut 17, reckoning back to the P.O.W. classic “Stalag 17”).

So those attending “Chicken Run” will have little to squawk about, as it leaves the summer’s other kids’ movies scratching in the dirt.

Dale McGarrigle is a Style writer who writes about contemporary music, television and pop culture. His 4-year-old daughter Samantha doesn’t like to eat chicken, and isn’t likely to start doing so now.