Melisha Tweedy Fry is the main antagonist of the DreamWorks/Aardman's animated Chicken Run film franchise. Mrs. Tweedy is an exceptionally cruel farmer that will stop at nothing to make money by killing the chickens and making them into pies, running a "farm" that is more akin to a death-camp.
She is voiced by Miranda Richardson.
Appearance[]
Mrs. Tweedy is a tall, lanky middle-aged woman with a pale skin-tone. Her eyes appear half-lidded; giving off a menacing look, while also wearing powder-blue eye shadow. She has long, black hair pulled back into a tight bun at the top of her head.
She wears a long, vintage maroon-coloured dress patterned with white chicken footprints, with a small black brooch on her collar. Her dress sleeves are rolled up to her elbow. She is seen with black muck boots most of the time.
In Dawn of the Nugget, her outfit changes from the original film. She now wears a plum purple long-sleeved dress with a swan-neck collar, short black gloves with small openings, black stockings, and plum purple knee-length boots with small black heels and soles. She also has her hair in a high bun held by a plum purple hairband as well as bright sky blue eyeshadow and thicker eyelashes. Her hair is also darker, so she probably dyed it to hide her grey hairs and maintain her beauty. Despite being involved in the pie explosion, she looks unscarred.
Biography[]
Chicken Run[]
In the United Kingdom in the 1950's, a hen named Ginger makes several unsuccessful attempts for her and her fellow chickens to escape from Mrs. Tweedy's farm in Yorkshire, England. As it turns out, Mrs. Tweedy runs the farm like a concentration camp, forcing the chickens to lay eggs to sell for profit and slaughtering those who fail to lay any eggs for a week. As the year goes by, Mrs. Tweedy notices that the eggs being laid are constantly going down, causing profits to shrink. Her husband Mr. Tweedy correctly suspects the chickens are "up to something" due to their attempts to escape, but Mrs. Tweedy brushes this off, believing that they (apart from Mr. Tweedy) are "the most stupid creatures on the planet". After seeing a magazine showing an ad for a pie machine, Mrs. Tweedy decides to get it to turn all of her chickens into pies in a bid to increase her profits.
After ordering the machine, Mrs. Tweedy and her husband attempt to kill Ginger in their machine in order to test it but are thwarted when a visiting American rooster named Rocky rescues her and clogs the gravy sprayer, sabotaging the machine. The chickens begin to prepare their ultimate escape plan, creating an airplane out of their coops to fly off the farm. In the meantime, Mrs. Tweedy forces Mr. Tweedy to fix the machine. After the repairs are done, Mrs. Tweedy orders Mr. Tweedy to fetch all of the chickens then turns the machine all the way up to "MAX". However, Mr. Tweedy finds out that most of his tools were stolen by the chickens for their plan, realizing that he was right all along, but he's attacked by the chickens and tied up and pinned underneath one of the coops. He tries to warn Mrs. Tweedy about this, but she ignores him, still unaware of what's going on.
Just as Ginger is about to set up the ramp to help the airplane fly off (After Mr. Tweedy knocked it over), Mrs. Tweedy tries to stop her with her axe, finally seeing what's really going on. Fortunately, Rocky (who left until he saw an advertisement for Mrs. Tweedy's Chicken Pies) returns and uses his bike to knock Mrs. Tweedy unconscious, accidentally throwing the axe in the air. Mrs. Tweedy came to and saw the axe land right next to her neck, making her pass out again due to the shock. With that in mind, Rocky and Ginger set the ramp before escaping with the other chickens in their plane.
However, Mrs. Tweedy wakes up and goes off in hot pursuit of the escaping chickens by grabbing onto the dragging rope. Now insanely mad, she climbs herself up to stop the plane, even if it means endangering her own life. Fortunately, Ginger tricks Mrs. Tweedy into cutting the Christmas lights with her axe, and she falls through the barn window and lands headfirst and trapped upside down inside the safety valve of the pie machine's pressure cooking gravy tank triggering all the alarms, as a result causing it to massively explode alongside the pie contraption due to the overwhelming gravy pressure also trapped inside the gravy tank that Mrs. Tweedy was in, destroying much of the barn and coating her farm in gravy.
After the explosion, Mrs. Tweedy finds herself covered in gravy and still stuck in the safety valve, despite having survived the explosion that almost killed her. As the chickens have finally escaped from the farm, Mr. Tweedy (having untied himself and barely escaped by shielding himself from the explosion unscathed) berates his wife for not listening to him about the chickens being organized in the first place. This only enrages Mrs. Tweedy, but before she can lash out at her husband for his incompetence, Mr. Tweedy, who's totally fed up with her pushing him around, tips over the heavy barn door on her, finally getting back at her and releasing himself from her abuse. In the workprint, a brick knocks Mrs. Tweedy out.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget[]
It is revealed that Mrs. Tweedy survived being crushed by the barn door and has managed to build a successful chicken nugget business with her current husband Dr. Fry. The chickens are held in a maximum security facility and brain washed into believing they are in paradise to prevent any escape attempts. In a Fun-Land Farms presentation it also states this makes the chicken nugget meat more tender and delicious. Her success is contributed to her learning from her past mistakes of underestimating the chickens.
After Molly along with her new friend Frizzle are captured and taken to the Fun-Land Farms factory, Ginger, Rocky and their friends break in to rescue her. Molly is able to break out and follow Dr. Fry and Reginald Smith to the main living room and Ginger follows as well. After Dr. Fry shows an add of how Farm-Land Farms handles chickens much to Molly's shock, Reginald asks if they will be able to do it and Mrs. Tweedy appears and confirms it and Ginger is shocked to see her former owner again. After being introduced to Reginald, she reveals that she wasn't attracted to Dr. Fry's wealth but his mind. She along with Dr. Fry take Reginald for a demonstration. Ginger and Molly spy on them where Dr. Fry reveals that he made three remote controls with Mrs. Tweedy accidentally pushing the button of the first one which shuts off the mind control collars of the chickens but Dr. Fry quickly switches it back on and gets the second remote control that picks any chicken and chicken number 314 is chosen and walks into the machine that turns her into nuggets much to Ginger and Molly's shock. After Reginald is impressed, he decides to send a truck over to collect the chicken nuggets the next day and agrees to a partnership with Mrs. Tweedy. Mrs. Tweedy then catches and recognizes Ginger and calls Dr. Fry to return. They chain Ginger down and put a collar on her to brainwash her but Ginger is able to resist the mind control, much to Mrs. Tweedy and Dr. Fry's shock. Mrs. Tweedy orders that it be taken to the max but Dr. Fry protests that it hasn't been tested yet Mrs. Tweedy takes over the controls and puts the collar up the the max. Ginger continues to battle the brainwashing much to Mrs. Tweedy's shock until Rocky bursts through the air vent and knocks everyone down which shuts the brainwashing machine off and allowing Molly to free her mother but the collar kicks in and Ginger is brainwashed like the other chickens. In order to give Molly enough time to escape with Ginger, Rocky dances in front of the humans and his wife and daughter escape through a hatch and Rocky escapes in the elevator and Mrs. Tweedy orders her guards to find the chickens.
Reginald arrives with a truck for to pick up the chicken nuggets and a guard reveals that the chickens are in a corn silo and Mrs. Tweedy sees this as a perfect opportunity to kill Ginger, Rocky, Molly and their friends by turning on the grinder but the chickens are able to escape by turning the corn into popcorn to blast out of the silo. Mrs. Tweedy discovers this but focuses on Reginald who introduces her to his restaurant's new sauce which she accepts. She then orders Dr. Fry to begin the process and he sets the remote that picks all the chickens including Frizzle to march into the nugget machine but Ginger and Rocky prevent him. Mrs. Tweedy arrives shortly and manages to get to the remote that brainwashes the chickens and Frizzle into marching to the nugget machine. Armed with an ax, Mrs. Tweedy chases and fights Ginger and Rocky over the collar remote while Molly, Bunty, Babs, Mac, Nick and Fetcher and the now-freed Frizzle try to prevent the brainwashed chickens from entering the nugget machine's grinder but are unsuccessful. When Mrs. Tweedy has Ginger cornered, Molly goes to get the remote but is caught by Mrs. Tweedy. She then realizes that Molly is Ginger's daughter and sadistically threatens Ginger to either not turn the collars off the chickens to save her daughter or to turn the collars off and have her daughter beheaded. However, Ginger turns it off and Rocky gets the ax out of Mrs. Tweedy's hand while Molly bites Mrs. Tweedy's other hand but is almost thrown into the grinder yet is saved by her mother while their friends lead the now freed chickens away much to Mrs. Tweedy's anger. She is about to attack Ginger and Molly but Rocky prevents her by chopping off a chunk of her prized hair. This stuns her for a few seconds as she mourns the loss of her beauty. Ginger slips off the rail but Rocky grabs and holds them but Mrs. Tweedy is about to kick them into the grinder but Ginger distracts her with the same words she used from their past encounter and the swinging ax's handle knocks Mrs. Tweedy into the grinder along with the ax which causes the machines in the factory to start overloading.
Just as Ginger, Rocky, Molly, their friends and the freed chickens escape into Reginald's pick up truck, Mrs. Tweedy emerges into the outside all covered with oil and crumbs and now going insanely mad once again. She jumps onto the truck and starts to cut at the top of the roof to kill Ginger, Rocky, Molly and Frizzle. They try to shake her off but to no avail and she successfully opens the top and tries to kill them until Fowler slides down a rope and kicks Mrs. Tweedy into the water and the chickens escape the factory. Dr. Fry warns her that the factory is overheating but the robot ducks' lasers blast Mrs. Tweedy-fry and the factory explodes from the over-heating, apparently killing off Mrs. Tweedy-Fry and the other villain workers in the factory. Nevertheless director Sam Fell confirmed twice that she is still alive after the events of the second movie
Personality[]
Mrs. Tweedy-Fry was a selfish, cruel, cold-hearted woman who only used the chickens to get cash, just as she and her husband were poor. She's always looking for a chance to use Mr. Tweedy as a doormat and torment the chickens, and despite her pure evilness, she's also business-smart as she came up with the idea of buying the Pie Machine. She can also show impatience with her husband, shown when she is contemplating buying the Pie Machine, and when the Pie Machine is broken. She is also shown to be a very tough woman who takes sadistic pleasure out of killing chickens - such as when she is looking at Edwina at roll call, she bears an evil smirk on her face; a face similarly seen when Ginger is going into the Pie Machine. Her toughness is especially shown through how violently she handles her axe.
In the sequel her personality largely unchanged after marrying her second husband, due to his usefulness and intelligence, she treats him somewhat better than Mr. Tweedy but still maintaining her overbearing, abusive and dominating personality in the relationship. Her past failure has made her wiser and more cautious as she sets up elaborate security system throughout the complex and putting mind control collars on the chickens to make sure the chickens never escape but most importantly rebel against her. At the same time, she has become incredibly vengeful as shown when she takes sadistic pleasure to mind-control and eventually attempt to kill off her nemesis Ginger and Rocky as well as Molly for foiling her past plan.
Relationships[]
Mr. Tweedy[]
Mrs. Tweedy-Fry, before, was married to Mr. Tweedy, but in a not-so happy manner. She was both physically and emotionally abusive to him, constantly belittling him for her own needs. Due to Mr. Tweedy's passive, submissive nature, this made him an easy target for her to manipulate him into doing whatever she wants; such as forcing him to build the pie machine when clearly he was against the idea. Whenever Mr. Tweedy even tried to stand up for himself he was immediately put down, making Mrs. Tweedy rule the entire farm with an iron fist. However, when the pie machine blows up and the chickens escape in an airplane, Mr. Tweedy called her out for not thinking the chickens were organized, when they clearly were. She was completely furious with him, but Mr. Tweedy wasn't willing to let her lash out at him again, so he pushed the barn door on top of her. They are implied to have divorced by the next film, as Mrs. Tweedy has now married Dr. Fry.
Dr. Fry[]
In Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Mrs. Tweedy-Fry is married to Dr. Fry. She states she did not marry Dr. Fry for his obscene wealth, but his intelligence, although it is implied she married him for both (as they are both insanely beneficial traits for her). Dr. Fry's passive, submissive nature makes him another easy target for Mrs. Tweedy to manipulate and abuse, and in many ways copies her former husband in terms of behavior via bending to her will. However, unlike Mr Tweedy, she treats him somewhat better due to his overall usefulness. Dr. Fry invents high-end security measures for the facility, a chicken brain-washing device and the chicken nugget machine, all to help Mrs. Tweedy reach her goals, but he struggles with gaining her affection as, throughout the film, seeks approval or at least some form or recognition from her, revealing his feelings for her are genuine. Unfortunately for him, Mrs. Tweedy is only concerned with what she can get out of him, and only seems to think of him in the same way she did Willard Tweedy, barely keeping up the pretense that she even likes him, let alone love him. It is also implied she’d rather have potential business partner Reginald Smith as a husband, since she does flirt with him quite a bit and expected a proposal out of the latter.
Reginald Smith[]
In Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Mrs. Tweedy-Fry invites a potential business partner, Reginald Smith, to meet her at the factory in the hopes of securing a business partnership. She seems to have a romantic interest or at least, an admiration for Reginald, despite already being married to Dr. Fry, with her being very passionate about their partnership, with her even describing it as "lucrative". It is also possible however that she is only interested in him because of the opportunities him and his restaurant chain have for her own agenda of getting revenge on the chickens, similar to how she married Dr. Fry for his obscene wealth and intelligence, not for Dr. Fry himself. Either way Reginald is oblivious to all this as when he offers what seems like a ring to her, she immediately gets infatuated, believing it to be an offering of marriage, however Reginald reveals it to be a ketchup dip which Reginald was hoping to pitch to Mrs. Tweedy as a side option to go with her nuggets, much to Mrs. Tweedy's frustration (although when she tries the dip she does enjoy it). Whatever the relationship between the two, their business deal presumably comes to an end with the destruction of Fun-Land Farms and the chickens’ escape, thus ruining Mrs. Tweedy’s entire operation.
Trivia[]
- Mrs. Tweedy-Fry's first name is possibly a pun on the words "militia" or "malicious".
- For a while, the filmmakers considered the idea of having Mrs. Tweedy be the one attacked and tied up by the chickens in the climax instead of Mr. Tweedy.
- Miranda Richardson, Mrs. Tweedy-Fry's voice actress, appears in the Harry Potter film franchise as the character "Rita Skeeter".
- The gaunt, sharp angles of the farmhouse were meant to reflect Mrs. Tweedy's menace.
- When Mrs. Tweedy-Fry measures Babs for the pie machine, she was on elevated rigging, so she would appear to tower over the assembled chickens. She was given different walks to intimidate them.
- When she was crushed by the barn door in the first film, she was first speculated to be dead, but that was debunked when the sequel came to Netflix, she has been confirmed as alive.
- Mrs. Tweedy-Fry is the tallest character in Chicken Run.
- In a deleted shot, she was going to be hit by a big rock after the pie machine explosion. The rock can be very briefly seen falling for two frames before it cuts to the new shot of Mrs. Tweedy-Fry screaming right before Mr. Tweedy flattens her with the door.
- Mrs. Tweedy-Fry probably married Mr. Tweedy and Dr. Fry for money.
- Glenn Close, Cathy Moriarty, Debbie Harry, Kathleen Turner and Sybil Danning were all considered to voice Mrs. Tweedy before Miranda Richardson was officially casted.
Gallery[]
