CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET - Mark Reviews Movies

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Netflix

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 7, 2023

With their expertise in the art and craft of stop-motion animation, it might be too easy to take for granted how skilled the filmmakers and animators at Aardman are at comedy. That talent is on full display in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, which takes one clever idea—a turnaround of the original film's premise—and uses it as a jumping-off point for a string of imaginative—and very funny—setpieces, featuring feathered friends we probably didn't realize we missed so much.

The concern of a belated sequel such as this, coming 23 years after the release of the first film, is that some or a lot of the old magic could be lost. There was plenty of magic in Chicken Run, which was the animation studio's first feature-length endeavor and showed that the team possessed the creative, as well as the physical (as in a lot of clay), resources to fill a longer story with the types of loveable characters and smart humor that defined their previous output of short-form films. That one still holds up, with its satirical take on World War II-era POW escape movies, its variously eccentric cast of fowl characters, and the spirited heart of its tale of survival against the odds.

One imagines this one, with its appropriately more-polished look, will hold up, too, because the characters remain as odd and entertaining as before, while the story and the animation technique take a leap forward. The story jumps ahead in terms of time, essentially bypassing the 1950s to give us a tale akin to a spy thriller from the '60s, and the advances in technique, well, are simply self-evident in the intricate amount of detail in the clay figures and the locations on display in the film.

If the look of the first film was dark and grainy, that was both appropriate to genre and the tone of the story, while it also probably helped to cover up any potential shortcomings in the design and animation of the characters and the sets. There's none of that dim hiding in director Sam Fell's follow-up. It's bright, colorful, and clearly captured with the unforgiving sheen of digital cinematography.

That's also appropriate for this entry's genre, which is all about futuristic technology as a series of barriers and obstacles and threats, and its tone, which is a bit cheerier. Yes, it's still about the characters trying to escape inevitable death and becoming food, but we already know they've done it once before (in addition to avoiding the natural life expectancy of a typical chicken by living long enough for a two-decades-later sequel). Surely, they can and will do it again with little issue.

Initially, the biggest problem for Ginger (voice of Thandiwe Newton, who questionably takes over the role from Julia Sawalha—but does so perfectly in terms of her vocal performance) and Rocky (voice of Zachary Levi, who understandably replace Mel Gibson—but does a less-convincing job than his co-star) is becoming parents. A brief recap of the first film reminds us of the chicken gang's great escape from a farm and relocation to an island. It has become a utopia of a chicken sanctuary, but Ginger and Rocky's daughter Molly (voice of Bella Ramsey), who doesn't know the terrors and horrors awaiting a chicken in the human world, sees it a different way.

It's its own prison for the adolescent hen, and drawn by delivery van with a picture of a chicken sitting happily in a bucket, Molly leaves the island one night. Ginger, Rocky, and their friends head out to find her, only to discover she's in the clutches of Dr. Fry (voice of Nick Mohammed) and an old foe in a high-tech farm. This one looks like the evil fortress and lair of a super-spy's archnemesis, so instead of breaking out, the gang has to break into this diabolical farm, which is planning to revolutionize the restaurant industry with the concept of "fast food."

It's a simple but smart reversal. Where it matters, though, the screenplay—written by Karey Kirkpatrick (who wrote the first film), John O'Farrell, and Rachel Tunnard—sticks to the familiar.

Mostly, that has to do with the characters, who remain as engaging, quirky, and funny as they were in the original. Ginger's still the plucky—pun somewhat intended—hero, whose adventurous attitude has softened a bit after becoming a mother—but becomes amplified when her chick is in danger. Rocky is still foolishly brave, making a valiant but ineffectual effort to leap over the fortress-farm's electrical fence, scale its outer wall, and cross its robot-duck infested moat—only to find himself sucked into a garbage chute. The design of the massive compound is filled with equally imposing and silly pieces of detail, with a retinal scanner that has an irrationally old-fashioned way of verifying the eye being a prime example of the kind of gags we get here.

Then, there's the supporting cast. Ramsey's Molly is a fun new addition, but it's surprising how nice it is to be reunited with the likes of the muscular Bunty (voice of Imelda Staunton), the Scottish tech whiz Mac (voice of Lynn Ferguson), knitting expert Babs (voice of Jane Horrocks), and the stuck-in-the-past Fowler (voice of David Bradley, taking over the role from the late Benjamin Whitrow), whose stories quickly bore a snail—too slow to get away. Resourceful rats Nick and Fetcher are back, too, with Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays (replacing, respectively, Timothy Spall and Phil Daniels).

The plot is primarily an excuse to spend more time with these characters, see the imagination of the execution of this retro villain lair, and delight in all of the clever wordplay, ingenious sight gags, and pratfall-filled action the filmmakers have in store. Whatever skepticism one might have about the lateness of Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget washes away almost immediately. The filmmakers have a good, sincere reason to return to the foundation of the studio's first feature-length project, and the result is their best one since, well, that one.

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