A film review by Craig J. Koban December 29, 2023

CHICKEN RUN:  DAWN OF THE NUGGET

2023, PG, 97 mins.

Thandiwe Newton as Ginger (voice)  /  Zachary Levi as Rocky (voice)  /  Bella Ramsey as Molly (voice)  /  Jane Horrocks as Babs (voice)  /  Imelda Staunton as Bunty (voice)  /  Lynn Ferguson as Mac (voice)  /  Josie Sedgwick-Davies as Frizzle (voice)  /  David Bradley as Fowler (voice)  /  Romesh Ranganathan as Nick (voice)  /  Daniel Mays as Fetcher (voice)  /  Nick Mohammed as Dr. Fry (voice)  /  Peter Serafinowicz as Reginald Smith (voice)  /  Miranda Richardson as Mrs. Tweedy (voice)

ORIGINAL FILM

You may - or may not - remember the original CHICKEN RUN from the artistic geniuses at Aardman Animation Studios, which came out way, way back in 2000 and represented that company's very first feature length animated film (after years of superlative WALLACE & GROMIT shorts).  

Set in a Yorkshire farm, that film featured - yes - a colony of British chickens lead by a lone American named Rocky that plotted to escape from the vile clutches of farm owner Mrs. Tweedy, who wanted to turn all of them into - gasp! - chicken pot pies.  It was clear that CHICKEN RUN was smartly inspired by THE GREAT ESCAPE in its overall plot, and combined with some sly and subversive scripting was the always stupendous stop-motion work by Aardman.  CHICKEN RUN went on to earn a cool $200 million at the box office (the biggest animated smash for Dreamworks until SHREK was released a few years later) and put Aardman effectively on the map.

Now - 23 years later - comes CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET, which flips the script, so to speak, on its predecessor's story.  In this one, the chickens that fled from Mrs. Tweedy and secured their freedom must now fight their way back into an even larger chicken farm to save one of their own.  Whereas CHICKEN RUN 1 was a GREAT ESCAPE spoof, this sequel is more directly mining the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE series playbook (granted, with far more poultry).  Thankfully (and rather predictably), the artists of Aardman have once again outdone themselves, and it's kind of amazing how they still manage to ambitiously push the envelope of their hands-on approach to animation with each new effort.  That, and it can be argued that CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET is perhaps a faster, looser, and zanier caper than what has come before as well.  What does hurt it a bit, though, is that some of the principal voice cast of the 2000 film have not returned, leaving us with some pinch hitters that are somewhat a step down.  I also don't think that this sequel scores as many laughs as before either, but as far as its chickens on a mission plot and visual splendor, this is a genuinely enjoyable follow-up entry.  

The story takes place a few years after the aforementioned events of the first film, with Rocky and Ginger saving their chicken clan from Tweedy Farm and now having set up their own Valhalla-like island paradise where they live freely away from Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson). Ginger (voiced now by Thandiwe Newton, previously by Julia Sawalha) and Rocky (voiced now by Zachary Levi and previously by Mel Gibson) are content with their lives and now have parental responsibilities with the introduction of their daughter, Molly (Bella Ramsey), who's a bit of a handful as far as curious and rebellious minded kids go.  All Ginger and Rocky want to do is keep her well shielded from the dangers of the human outside world, but she's always drawn to what lurks outside their tightly guarded sanctuary.  She decides to run away from home to explore what outwardly looks like a pleasurable chicken safe haven called Fun-Land, joined by a new pal in Frizzle (Josie Sedgewick-Davis) along the way.  On the outside, Fun-Land looks as inviting to young chickens as Disneyland does to human kids.

But, alas, not everything is as it seems there, seeing as most of the chickens there are fitted with special hypnotizing collars that put them all into Stepford Wives-esque submission.  In essence, it's one big death trap that lures in naive chickens, makes them docile against their wills, and then serves them up for the slaughter.  Not only do Molly and Frizzle find themselves trapped within Fun-Land, but it's soon revealed that that damn Mrs. Tweedy runs the whole show alongside her mad scientist husband, Dr. Fry (Nick Mohammend), and they both conspire to make chicken nuggets out of their prey for a restaurateur named Smith (Peter Serafinowicz).  When Ginger and Rocky get wind of this and realize that their own nemesis has reared her ugly head again, they swing into action and hatch (sorry) a plan to break into Fun-Land and save their kid.  "Last time we broke out of a chicken farm," she deadpans, "This time we're breaking in!"  The proverbial game is afoot to stop this insane couple from making their kin into fast food.  Mrs. Tweedy, on the other hand, is still smarting from the events of the last film and has a lust for revenge in her eyes.    

The ethereal charm of Aardman is on full display in CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET, and much of the humor (beyond the satirical variety) is derived from sight gags, physical comedy, sharp character beats, and that ultra dry British wit.  I would say that this sequel is as full-bodied in its direct aims to please audiences as any of the previous Aardman productions, and director Sam Fell (FLUSHED AWAY) and writers Karey Kirkpatrick, John O'Farrell and Rachel Tunnard go for broke when it comes to its action set pieces and levels of feather plucking suspense.  Again, CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET isn't as consistently hilarious as its prequel (I found myself chuckling more than laughing uproariously at the shenanigans here), but the mischievous spirit and charm most definitely remains.  There's something to be said as well about how this film is just the last one inversed and is perhaps a bit more straightforward in overall narrative execution.  Still, when Ginger, Rocky and company do manage to infiltrate Fun-land it sets up one inspired slapstick action sequence after another that makes the film more infectious by the minute in its later stages.

And - my word - the handcrafted animation here is such a sight to behold.  I always find myself - with every review of these kind of films - running out of proper superlatives for just how immersive and wondrously designed these stop-motion animated worlds are.  Aardman's films don't have a pristine sheen of other CG animated films out there, which is precisely why they have so much aesthetic personality and flair.  That's not to say that CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET isn't state of the art as far as this animation form goes, but rather that it preserves the imperfect tactile quality of this art form while drastically widening the scope and grandeur of what's on display here.  The opening shots of the chicken sanctuary - done with one fluid shot and with meticulous levels of background and foreground detail - are pretty extraordinary to behold, not to mention the later scenes set inside the brainwashing factory that is Fun-Land, which fully shows the makers here letting their imaginations run deliriously wild.  Aardman's films have always been so visually generous; there's something to look at and drink in at every corner of the frame.  I've seen live action films that cower on a level of world building compared to what we get here. 

Having said all of that, I sure would have preferred it if both Gibson and Sawalha reprised their voice roles of Rocky and Ginger respectively.  It was reported that Gibson was simply not asked to return and that both he and Sawalha were considered too old sounding for their roles two decades earlier.  I guess that sort of makes sense, but I simply didn't find Newton and Levi to be the most inspired replacements here.  It could be said that Newton is essentially fine as Ginger, but Levi doesn't have the gravely and bassy register of Gibson and, to be frank, is pretty bland and uninspired as Rocky.  It's all too bad, but the voice recasting doesn't capsize this sequel and the new performers eventually find a grove that becomes easier to digest as the film progresses.  By the time CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET hurtles towards its bonkers final action-packed climax, I was mostly strapped in and fully submitted myself to the silly chaos on full display.  And the masterminds of Aardman sure know how to put on a madcap show and deliver a thoroughly entertaining sequel all these years later.  It may not attain the upper qualitative echelon of the 2000 film, but it's a far cry better and more deeply satisfying than most legacy sequels these days.  I'd have no problem experiencing a CHICKEN RUN 3 in twenty years...but...wait a tick...isn't the average life expectancy of a chicken like 5–10 years?  Will Rocky and Ginger still be around in the third film?