Mrs. Tweedy

"They're chickens, you dolt! Apart from you, they're the most stupid creatures on this planet! They don't plot, they don't scheme, and they are not organized!"

- Mrs. Tweedy, yelling at Mr. Tweedy

Melisha Tweedy, better known as Mrs. Tweedy, is the main antagonist of Chicken Run. She is Mr. Tweedy's ex-wife and former leader and boss, and Ginger's arch-nemesis.

Chicken Run
In the 1950s, Ginger the chicken attempts to escape from the Tweedy's farm in Yorkshire, England. However, she is caught by Mr. Tweedy and is put in a coal bin after Mrs. Tweedy tells her husband to take care of Ginger. Mrs. Tweedy discovers that profits are constantly going down due to the small amount of eggs they have and presumably due to the chickens' multiple attempts to escape. She orders a chicken pie making machine after seeing an ad for the machine, believing it would increase her profit tenfold. Mrs. and Mr. Tweedy take Ginger and they try to kill her in their chicken pie machine in order to test the machine, but Rocky rescues her and clogs the gravy sprayer, almost destroying the machine. The chickens and Rocky begin to ready their biggest escape plan while the Tweedys fix the machine. When the chickens try to use an airplane to fly out, Mrs. Tweedy tries to stop them with her axe, but Rocky's bike knocks her unconscious, accidentally throwing the axe in the air. Mrs. Tweedy gets up and sees the axe land right next to her neck, making her pass out again.

Mrs. Tweedy then wakes up and goes off in pursuit of the escaping chickens, now insanely mad, wielding the axe as the chickens are flying in their plane. Ginger tricks Mrs. Tweedy into cutting the rope with her axe, and she lands onto the top of the pie machine, making it explode. At that rate, Mr. Tweedy berates his wife for not coming to the fact that the chickens are organised in the first place. This only enrages Mrs. Tweedy, wanting to lash out, but having enough, Mr. Tweedy pushes the door down on her and flattens her.

Personality
"This is one farmer's wife you don't want to piss off."

- Rebecca Brayton from watchmojo.com on Mrs. Tweedy

Mrs. Tweedy is an extremely greedy, selfish, short-tempered, cruel, cold-hearted woman who only uses the chickens to get money, which she and her husband are very low on. She is always looking for a chance to bully Mr. Tweedy and the chickens, and despite her nastiness, she does show cleverness at times - she is the one who comes up with the idea of buying a pie machine to use to make more profit from the chickens.

She also shows impatience with her husband, shown when she is contemplating buying the Pie Machine, and when the Pie Machine is broken. It is also demonstrated that she and her husband disagree on many things -- when Mr Tweedy is attacked by the chickens he calls to her, "The chickens are revolting!" and she, doing other things at the time, says to herself, "Finally, something we agree on." However, she didn't know he meant revolt in the context she was thinking of. She is also shown to be a very tough woman who is possibly happy with the idea of murdering the chickens, displayed with the evil smile she gave to the chickens she selected for slaughter during Roll Call right before they were killed.

Appearance
Mrs. Tweedy wears a burgundy dress with an upright collar, a black brooch at the throat, black muck boots, (occasionally) red gloves that go up to her forearms, and sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She has long, dark brunette hair pulled back into a tight bun at the top of her head.

Abilities
Being a farmswoman, she carries a hatchet that she uses to behead chickens. She manages to wield it surprisingly well in battle. Additionally, she's a rather cunning and strong woman, being most of the brawn and brains involved at the farm.

Trivia

 * Mrs. Tweedy is similar to Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmations: Both are animal haters who yell a lot. They both also have henchmen who eventually redeem themselves by standing up to their respective leaders after having spent enough time suffering miserably under their respective leaders' abuse.
 * Mrs. Tweedy also resembles Gladys Sharp from Over the Hedge: Both are animal haters, both have one man working for them, and both get annoyed with their henchmen. Both are the main antagonists of their respective DreamWorks films and both want to exterminate the animals in the film to achieve bigger profits.
 * Mrs. Tweedy is considered to be one of Dreamworks' most evil villains (along with General Mandible, Lord Shen, Gallaxhar, Lord Farquaad and Drago Bludvist).
 * Both Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy's management on their chicken farm, as well as chicken farm itself somewhat equivalent with 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 are must laying eggs properly as well as never did any attempt to escape or punished via either locked within coal bin or death penalty via butchering. This somewhat similar with real-life prison where all inmates must obey the rules within the prison or receiving severe punishment.
 * Mr. Tweedy's job, along with his hounds in the movie also comparable with security guards in real-life prison, while Mrs. Tweedy herself on the other hand, comparable with prison wardens.