CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET: 3 ½ STARS. “mix of charm and craft.”
“Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,” a new stop motion animated film from Aardman Animations and playing in theatres this week before moving to Netflix next week, comes with great eggs-pectations. The original film, 2000s “Chicken Run,” is a beloved classic of British humour, heartwarming and heavy on the charm.
But can a sequel, twenty-three years in the making, be all it’s cracked up to be or will it lay an egg?
The new film picks up years after revolutionary chicken Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and American circus rooster Rocky (Zachary Levi) escape the prisoner-of-war style Tweedy’s Industrial Farm. The happy couple now celebrate their freedom, living on an island bird sanctuary, far from the dangers of humanity, with friends Babs (Jane Horrocks), elderly rooster Fowler (David Bradley), Bunty (Imelda Staunton) their rat BFFs Nick and Fetcher (Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays) and daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey).
“Life doesn’t get better than this,” Ginger says. “We’ve put the past behind us. We have Molly to think about now.”
It’s a wonderful life, but Molly, who has her mother’s rebellious spirit, feels fenced in. “You can’t make me stay here,” she tells Ginger.
Molly flies the coop, eager to check out Fun-Land Farms, a new operation on the mainland. With her feather-brained friend Frizzle (Josie Sedgwick-Davies) they soon discover the new farm is a processing plant for, you guessed it, chicken nuggets.
“Behold the dawn of the nugget,” says evil plant owner Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson).
It’s up to Ginger, Rocky and Company to come to the rescue. “Last time we broke out of a chicken farm,” says Ginger. “This time we’re breaking in.”
Like so many sequels, the story has bloated from the simplicity story of the 2000 film. But despite the food-for-thought subtext involving fast food and heavier plotting, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” is still nimble and action packed.
The original “Chicken Run” was a riff on World War II great escape style films. “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” pays homage to the first movie, but leans into the James Bond and “Mission Impossible” franchises as inspirations for the wild poultry action.
Most of all, there is something welcoming about the Aardman stop motion animation. The house style is bold and beautiful, vivid and uncluttered, but it is the eccentric characters that really appeal. With their large eyes and exaggerated mouths and eyebrows, the Plasticine characters brim with personality and unmistakably come from the same creators that gave us the cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his mute and long-suffering canine side-kick Gromit. Shot one frame-at-a-time, the animation feels handcrafted and organic, and has a warmth most CGI kids flicks don’t have.
“Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” is pretty cluckin’ good. It’s an entertaining, family-friendly mix of charm and craft.
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