In the grand modern tradition of decades-later sequels, Aardman animation has decided to franchise their greatest success, twenty-three years down the line. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget can’t reach the heights of the original film, but it’s a fun, engaging story with plenty of claymation magic. Aardman’s commitment to non-verbal storytelling is one of its greatest assets, and this homage to Mission: Impossible and Bond movies has plenty of clever visual moments. Produced as part of the Netflix era when they were actually supporting animation, it could be one of the last artistically ambitious projects we see on the streamer.

Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi), having escaped the farm in the original film and established an island chicken paradise, settle down and have an extremely nonbinary chick named Molly (Bella Ramsey). Molly is a very curious child, but her parents refuse to tell her about the outside world, hoping to protect her from its dangers. Molly, of course, cannot be stopped, and escapes the island to investigate some mysterious chicken-themed trucks on the mainland. The trucks advertise a place called “Fun-Land Farms,” so naturally Molly and her new friend Frizzle (Josie Sedgwick-Davies, with an accent nearly impenetrable) hop aboard to see what all the fuss is about. Ginger, Rocky, and the other chickens are in hot pursuit, only to discover Fun-Land is a chicken prison beyond their wildest imagination. And of course, a familiar face lurks within…

The return of Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) feels like a retread, but her new Megan Draper-esque getup and husband Dr. Fry (Nick Mohammed) are enough to keep things interesting. Mr. Tweedy is nowhere to be seen, and Dr. Fry is head over heels for this woman whose one goal is the extermination of chicken-kind. Fry has invented mind control collars, keeping the chickens docile before they are sent to their deaths, turned into Mrs. Tweedy’s stunning new concept: nuggets. The idea that one woman hates chickens so much that she invented chicken nuggets is pretty funny. Of course, this is an alternate universe where chickens have teeth, so anything can happen. 

Dawn of the Nugget is bigger but still feels small scale, never sacrificing the charm. We still get fingerprints on every character, and I love when stop motion incorporates real objects (we get a big set piece with real corn kernels and popcorn). While the climax comes close to triggering my Toy Story 3 trauma, the danger never feels as real as the original film. It’s fun watching the chickens break into this retro-futuristic farm, but the tension is mostly flat. I enjoyed myself, but is “cute enough” enough for a 23-years-later sequel? Perhaps it’s best not to think of how long it took, and just be happy that Aardman can still make movies. I’ll be interested to see what their new Wallace and Gromit film entails next year as well. A world with a Chicken Run sequel is better than one without.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
2023
Dir. Sam Fell
98 min

Now streaming on Netflix