- “Let's make some nuggets.”
- ―Mrs. Tweedy using the remote control to brainwash the chickens including Frizzle to enter the nugget machine.
Mrs. Melisha Tweedy is the main antagonist of the Chicken Run film series. She is the ruthless owner of Tweedy's Farm who wants to turn the Tweedy's egg farm into a chicken pie factory so she can make more money.
Personality[]
During the event of ''Dawn of the Nugget'', it is clearly shown that she has learned from her mistakes of underestimating the chickens, especially Ginger. As the result, she has become more cautious, charismatic and well-thought when dealing with the chickens, judging from extensive security in her nugget factory. She is also shown to treat her new husband Dr. Fry better than her old husband, mostly due to his competency and intelligence compared to Mr. Tweedy, but she still behaves overbearing and dominant as always in the relationship.
Quotes[]
Chicken Run[]
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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget[]
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Trivia[]
- Despite the fact that Mrs. Tweedy is very low on money in the first film, she was able to afford the pie machine. The most probable reason was the fact that the machine was specifically marketed towards chicken farmers suffering from low profits and therefore was likely sold at an affordable price to them or that it was a used machine (which was confirmed in a deleted scene where Ginger and Rocky come across a chicken's carcass while escaping from the pie machine).
- Her being much taller than average can be understood only comparing her with Mr. Tweedy and the circus chief, the only other humans seen in the entire film, which they are both shorter than Mrs. Tweedy and they are also men. In the sequel, she is also shown to be taller than Dr. Fry, Reginald Smith and her security guards.
- Both Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy's management on their chicken farm, as well as the farm itself, is somewhat equivalent with the typical prison (or rather super-maximum-security prison) for humans in real life than normal real-life chicken farms for the following reason: Fences around Tweedy's family are covered with barbed wire in similar manner with real life prisons. It's said that all chickens must lay eggs properly as well as to never did any attempt to escape or punished via either locked within coal bin or death penalty via butchering.
- This is somewhat similar with real-life prison where all inmates must obey the rules within the prison or receive severe punishment. Mr. Tweedy's job, along with his hounds in the movie, are also comparable with security guards in real-life prison, while Mrs. Tweedy herself on the other hand, is comparable with prison wardens.
- The gaunt, sharp angles of the farmhouse were meant to reflect the menace that Mrs. Tweedy imposes.
- It should be noted that even if Mrs. Tweedy managed to kill Ginger and get to the chickens and the rats, she would have crashed the plane and kill both her and the rest of the chickens from falling from great height. She was blinded by her own greed and rage to ever even realize her and the chickens' potential downfall. Along with her idea to turn the entire chicken farm into pies to make short term profits, this is further proven that really, she does not see the big picture.
- Her real given name "Melisha" is a play on the words "militia" and "malicious", two words associated with evil, also it is derived from the Greek word for "queen bee", for her dominant behavior towards to her first husband Mr. Tweedy, as well as her second husband Dr. Fry, and the combination of the three feminine names "Melissa", "Alicia" and "Felisha".
- Original storyboards depicted Mrs. Tweedy attempting to stop Ginger from lifting the plane's ramp by holding her hostage at the barrel of her shotgun until Rocky intervened and knocked her unconscious with his bike, causing Mrs. Tweedy's gun to discharge and knock the weather vane off her house. The reasons for the scene's change was likely due to it being considered too intense for younger audiences.
- When Mrs. Tweedy 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.
- 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.
- There are several deleted scenes showcasing different versions of Mrs. Tweedy's defeat in the first film. One scene featured Ginger failing to cut the rope with a handsaw, but ultimately succeeding with scissors and the aftermath not showing Mrs. Tweedy lashing out at Mr. Tweedy. Another scene involved Mrs. Tweedy being defeated by having a boulder dropped onto her head instead of being crushed by a door.
- The rock can be very briefly seen falling for two frames before it cuts to the new shot of Mrs. Tweedy screaming right before Mr. Tweedy flattens her with the door.
- She's partially inspired by Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hilter as well as the nazi prison wardens of World War II. This is evident in the movie as well, as the chicken farm is frequently portrayed as being a fascist prisoner of war concertation camp due to the fact that Chicken Run is confirmed to be a parody of The Great Escape.
- In contrast to this, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget had Mrs. Tweedy inspired by the 1960s film supervillains like those from the James Bond film series, as the sequel's tone took an inspiration from the spy genre.
- According to the tie-in book Cutting Loose: Behind the Fences at Tweedy's Farm, after the chickens escaped from the farm, Mrs. Tweedy, who did survive being crushed by her barn door, moved to Scotland along with her husband and started a seaweed farm.
- Since release of Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, however, this has been rendered non-canon, as the sequel instead shows Mrs. Tweedy having opened a nugget factory with Mr. Tweedy not around anymore. In-universe, though, it could be considered that the tie-in book's claims were a fake story given to the press to throw them off the trail of Mrs. Tweedy's newest venture.
- Although her fate is once again left ambiguous in the second film, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget director Sam Fell opines that Mrs. Tweedy likely survived the destruction and will definitely return in case they make a threequel.
- Like Cruella de Vil when facing the puppies in 102 Dalmatians, Mrs. Tweedy has learned to never underestimate and belittle the chickens' intelligence, especially not Ginger's.
