Chicken Run is a 2000 British-American stop-motion animation family comedy film. The plot centers on a band of chickens who see a smooth-talking Rhode Island Red named Rocky as their only hope to escape from certain death when the owners of their farm decide to move from selling eggs to selling chicken pot pies. The Tweedys are a horrible, middle-aged couple who run a struggling chicken farm somewhere in Yorkshire, England, circa the 1950s. Mrs. Tweedy is the malicious brains of the pair, while Mr. Tweedy is dim-witted but can readily do the farm's manual work. The coop is run in the style of a World War II POW camp, with the chickens accountable for the number of eggs they lay daily.

The character of Foghorn Leghorn was directly inspired by the popular character of Senator Claghorn, a blustering Southern politician played by Kenny Delmar who was a regular character on the Fred Allen radio show. The rooster adopted many of Claghorn's catch phrases, such as "That's a joke, ah say, that's a joke, son." Delmar had based the character of Claghorn upon a Texas rancher who was fond of saying this. Foghorn Leghorn is a large, white adult Leghorn rooster with a stereotypically Southern accent, a "good ol' boy" speaking style, and a penchant for mischief. The first half of his name is a joke about him being loud and obnoxious, while the second half refers to a breed of chicken (a white leghorn).