Big Stakes for Chicken Little

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Is the sky falling on Disney (NYSE: DIS)? What may be the most important Disney animated feature in years -- if not decades -- makes its big-screen debut today, as Chicken Little opens at a multiplex near you.

What's that you say? It's only a cartoon? I'm the one running around with cockamamie theories about the world coming to an end?

Read on.

See, Disney needs a hit. Over the past few years, Disney has produced a series of animated flops; its only certifiable hit was Lilo& Stitch. Its partnership with Pixar (Nasdaq: PIXR) has helped it masquerade as a company that still matters in feature animation, but those coattails will get snipped after Pixar delivers Cars in the spring and moves on to its likely role as a stand-alone studio.

Disney has hacked away at its animation studio in recent years, outsourcing production and relying on poorly constructed sequels to keep its inked heritage running on fumes. Chicken Little has a chance to change that. It will be Disney's first animated release under new CEO Bob Iger. The company's hype machine has turned the flick's lead character into everything from an inflatable parade float to the cover chick on the entertainment giant's annual report earlier this year.

This will also be the company's second computer-rendered full-length feature, after Dinosaur. Yes, it should always be story over platform, but Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations DreamWorks (NYSE: DWA) and Pixar have spoiled the masses with quality computer animation. Meanwhile, Disney has blasphemed ink and paint with unoriginal releases, eroding movie audiences' trust in traditional animation.

That's a shame. It was a strategic blunder for Disney to devalue its once enviable fortress with coats of crude graffiti. The House of Mouse's dubious straight-to-video sequels helped to catapult the medium toward the high-tech fare of Pixar and DreamWorks. Then again, after distributing the computer-rendered flop Valiant over the summer, maybe Disney is smarter than we think -- it might be sabotaging all formats of theatrical animation.

I'm just kidding on that last point. At least, I hope I'm kidding. Chicken Little is Disney's best shot at helping to repair its freefalling reputation in the field it had once pioneered. Sure, even after Pixar is gone, Disney will be able to bleed the original Pixar properties dry with sequels, the way it has for many of its own classics. However, it would be far more constructive in the near-term -- and less self-destructive in the long-term -- if Disney's new film were a bonafide hit. That way, Disney could tell its critics that the sky isn't really falling. It's just drawn that way.

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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz even saw a Chicken Little character walking around, taking pictures, at Walt Disney World last week. He owns shares in Disney and Pixar. The Fool has a disclosure policy. Rick is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.