Cut to the chase: Fans of the first “Chicken Run” film will delight in the nostalgia with a new installment that features the same beloved characters, a fearsome foe and another mission worth crowing over.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. A grand plan for world domination! Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
Hard conversation, averted?
I certainly remember the original “Chicken Run” from 2000. We had it on VHS, and it was a staple in our movie line-up for road trips or rainy days. Though that movie was quite dark with a lead villainess whose evil plan was the murder of any chicken who could no longer lay eggs, my immature mind never pondered too long or too deeply on what Tweedy was trying to accomplish or, even more generally, for what reason society would need to farm chickens in the first place.
Fowler (David Bradley) tells his stories to a not so captivated audience. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
Life came full circle when I watched “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” with my five- and three-year-olds. I was bracing for the moment when realization would dawn on them, and they’d ask the existential questions that certainly colored my viewing thirty years later. But neither one seemed too concerned with the “why”. As in, why does the evil Mrs. Tweedy want to imprison and brainwash a bunch of chickens? Why are the bad guys so concerned with fattening up the mindless chickens? And, most ominously, where do chicken nuggets come from?
Incredibly, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” does an immaculate job of telling a horribly traumatic story without letting on to young, impressionable viewers. They were entertained throughout the 101-minute runtime and found the animation style – claymation, stop motion and a dash of incorporated CGI – to be as magical as I did as a child.
A new brood
Though a few big-name actors have returned to reprise their roles some twenty-three years later, like Imelda Staunton as Bunty and Miranda Richardson as Mrs. Tweedy, many of the leads have been replaced by fresh voices. Thandiwe Newton stars as Ginger, the de facto leader of the chickens who have escaped from Tweedy’s farm and established a new life on an idyllic island far from humans and manufactured death. She’s married Rocky, once Mel Gibson, now voiced by Zachary Levi, a strutting circus rooster. The two of them have hatched an inquisitive, anti-establishment chick of their own, Molly (Bella Ramsey).
While the old-timers are content with their little slice of cage-free paradise, Molly is antsy and feels confined by the island. She wants to see the world from which her parents are attempting to shelter her. On the next boat out with Nick and Fetcher, a pair of cynical, bartering rats, Molly makes her escape. Reeled in by adverts of happy-looking chickens giving thumbs up while sitting in buckets, Molly thinks all of her problems will be solved if she makes it to Fun-Land Farms.
Like the chicken pie empire, Ginger once overthrew, the reality is far grimmer. The Tweedy’s have returned to terrorizing chickens. Still, this time, they’ve hoodwinked the creatures with fancy collars that placate and pacify their every worry before sending them up the stairway to heaven. Once they pass through the sun-imitation curtain, they transform into a sizzling bucket of crispy golden nuggets within seconds.
Aardman/NETFLIX © 2022
Good plight and good cluck
We know no chicken is left behind for Ginger, Rocky and Molly. The plot, while straightforward, is multi-faceted enough to leave even grown viewers intrigued as to how the troop of hens will avoid the fryer. More amazingly, the art of claymation is mesmerizing; many older viewers will spend the runtime marveling at the patience and meticulousness required to make such films.
(It is estimated that, on a good day, animators will film just four seconds of footage. That doesn’t account for the intricate set design and character creation that takes months to develop before principal photography can commence.)
Now was the right time for a sequel, given the advancements in digital effects that have aided in telling this wholly new and innovative story. There are many sequels made to cash in on older, well-loved properties, but “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” has all the ingredients to make a flavorful film in its own right: poultry, personality, and pluck.
Aardman/NETFLIX © 2023
Know before you go
MPAA rating: PG for peril, action and some thematic elements
Recommended age: 5+
Runtime: 101 minutes
Nightmare inducers: Mrs. Tweedy, gray-faced and menacing as ever, is fearsome, though she is watered down by her bumbling scientist husband who acts as comic relief. The chickens turning into zombies when the collars are activated may frighten some viewers, while parents will chuckle at the title’s witty reference to “Dawn of the Dead”. There is some light physical danger, but there is no explicit plucking, chopping, beheading or killing of any chicken on screen.
Difficult concepts or emotions: As previously discussed, an existential crisis may be triggered in some cognizant young viewers who understand the reality of what “Dawn of the Nugget” vaguely implies. This is the only threat facing viewers in terms of complex concepts. Molly is separated from her parents, and her fear upon realizing she’s trapped and all alone may induce some concern. The characters’ emotions are relatively tempered throughout the film, so those highly sensitive to other’s emotions should not be overwhelmed at any point.
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