Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget review: A sequel that’s worth the wait
After more than 20 years, Aardman delivers a rollicking animated followup that's even more fun than the original
Film Reviews Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
On paper, the original Chicken Run sounded more like the sort of film a character in a comedy movie might pitch: “It’s The Great Escape ... starring chickens!” For better or worse, Chicken Run committed to the bit, and as a result felt more hamstrung at times than more original Aardman Studios animated films. Where a Wallace And Gromit adventure would usually feel imaginative and made up on the fly, in the best way possible, Chicken Run had a template to stick to. The company’s love of elaborate contraptions, sight gags, and rural English accents kept things reasonably entertaining, but a prison break movie as a kiddie adventure felt at odds tonally with the whimsical performances.
Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget instead uses Mission: Impossible as its template, and manages to be more fun than both the original Chicken Run and most of the Mission: Impossible movies. Some significant recasting has taken place in the 23 years—yes, it has been that long—between films. Mel Gibson is completely unhireable for a family film nowadays, Julia Sawalha was told she sounded too old now, and most of the remaining cast have switched out, save for Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, and Lynn Ferguson. It’s not likely to be a jarring switch for kids too young to identify voice actors: Zachary Levi, for one, specifically imitates Gibson’s Aussie-American accent to great effect, while Thandiwe Newton, David Bradley, and the other replacements sound enough like their predecessors to make the transition smooth enough.
As the sequel begins, the escaped chickens have made a life for themselves on a sanctuary island, creating all manner of Rube Goldberg-ish machines powered by water and pulleys to do their chores. Rocky the rooster (Levi) and Ginger the chicken (Newton) now have a daughter, Molly (Bella Ramsey), from whom they have hidden the truth about how the outside world is full of larger creatures who mass-slaughter poultry for food. There’s no sense in giving the kid nightmares, after all. The only problem is that without knowing the danger, Molly insists on trying to see what else the world has to offer, and makes her own great escape off the island. One thing leads to another, and she ends up in a new high-tech fast-food nugget factory. At first, its faux theme park holding area makes the place look like a nonstop party. But like Pleasure Island in Pinocchio, its true agenda is quickly sussed by Molly, as she starts to notice just how surprisingly stupid all her fellow inmates have suddenly become.
Rocky and Ginger, of course, know what’s up immediately, and assemble the old team to break into the new factory to get Molly out. Everyone’s got a specialty, and with a handful of gadgets made of found objects, they just might have a chance. The stakes feel less ominous this time, but that’s all to the good—it ruins the comedy to think too long about the notion that any of our heroes could be deep-fried and eaten. This movie features more teamwork than any one Tom Cruise-like figure, but Aardman protects its characters every bit as much as Christopher McQuarrie protects Cruise from looking his age.
It’s rare to see family animated films as purely focused on fun as this one. Though there’s an obligatory message moment about how parents should listen more to their kids and recognize their shared similarities, the explicit lecturing lasts for just one scene. The rest of the time, it’s just good chickens against evil human food barons, in a contest as fanciful and pre-determined as Wile E. Coyote’s struggle to eat the Roadrunner. Despicable Me also got this notion before Gru became overly sentimentalized: cartoon supervillains with over-the-top technology are animation stalwarts for good reason, especially when their own hubris and unjustified faith in themselves brings them down. If only the same were true for their real-world counterparts (cough … Elon … cough).
Sam Fell makes his solo feature directorial debut here, following co-director roles on Flushed Away, ParaNorman, and The Tale Of Despereaux. His experience in both CG and stop-motion suggests that some of the sets herein may be digitally enlarged; if not, they’re some of the hugest, most intricate clay sets ever. If Dawn Of The Nugget holds any disappointment, it’s that the most elaborate contraptions show up upfront, and there’s no grand, Indiana Jones-style setpiece for a finale. Fortunately, the emotional hook is stronger: a return grudge match with a surviving Mrs. Tweedy (Richardson). When villain and hero finally face off, better that there aren’t more sight gags getting in between them. As far as having faith in his characters to carry the scene goes, Fell’s no chicken.
Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget arrives on Netflix December 15
32 Comments
“But I don’t want to be a nugget. I don’t like honey mustard.”
With two decades in between its amazing that any of the actors were able to return. That said, I still say “but I don’t want to be a pie” almost daily, so maybe it isn’t that long.
Our whole family still quotes, “My whole life flashed before me eyes… and it was really borin’” endlessly.
I’m big on “Are those our only choices?”
I also wouldn’t be the least bit concerned if none of them had. I remember Gibson because his self-confident (pre-meltdown) persona was perfect for the overconfident chicken and he has a very distinctive voice but otherwise have no idea who was in an animated movie I saw two-plus decades ago.
I think Zachary Levi is well on his way to being as big a toxic freak as Mel Gibson, just needs some time
Levi for sure has some weird takes and views, but I think he has a looong way to go to get Gibson level toxic. I’m not saying I’d be surprised if Levi ended up ranting about Jews at a drunken traffic stop, but I don’t quite see him ranting on the phone to his ex that he hope she “gets [assaulted] by a [group of black gentlemen]”.
He’s certainly not on that level yet…but I have a hunch…give it time
Harvey Dent dot jpg.
As long as he doesn’t drink alcohol, he should be okay. Alcohol…makes it worse.
Mel Gibson is completely unhireable for a family film nowadays
Gibson has appeared in more than a dozen films, produced two, directed two (including Hacksaw Ridge, which netted him a Best Director nomination), and written one. It’s also all shit that has happened since the 2010 “I hope you get raped by a pack of [n-bombs]” recording came out. So not even counting Lethal Weapon, Mad Max, Braveheart, Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto, etc… meaning his “cancelled” period has been the equivalent to a Hollywood career any aspiring star would trade their soul for.
Damn, that was in 2010? Feels like much longer ago. Damn I’m getting old
You may be thinking of the “sugar tits” DUI incident, which I believe took place in 2006.Personally, I can’t believe there were four years between the two incidents, and both of them still feel weirdly recent to me, at least recent enough that I can’t believe the likes of Will Ferrel and John Lithgow are willing to ham it up with him on screen (Wahlberg doesn’t surprise me).
Well, that kind of explains it? I thought like, all of Gibson’s breakdown happened at the same time around then. I guess I just didn’t remember that there was a gap between incidents.
Me neither – I had to look it up. They feel like they took place months apart. I suppose Gibson really was “cancelled” for a bit in that during that 4 year stretch he did practically nothing. But oddly it wasn’t long after recordings of him using racial slurs to wish violence on the mother of his child that his career started to pick back up. I’ve since come to accept that Ricky Gervais is a piece of shit, but I’ll forever respect his relentless mockery of Gibson — to his face, no less — and refusal to join in on the communal sweeping-under-the-rug the rest of Hollywood was happy to grant.
No it was definitely a few increasingly and steadily more worrying incidents and then finally too much situation, over a few years. Like, a LOT of years, really – I remember turning off to him around “Braveheart” but I can’t really remember why. Maybe that’s when he doubled down on his “my asshole is for things to come out of, not go into!!!” comments?
Well, 2015 was a lifetime ago, so that tracks.
That was still pretty dirty what they did to Julia Sawalha, and she even sent them recordings proving she sounded the same.
Yeah I’m not interested. If they’d just admitted Netflix thought Newton had a bit more star power or whatever that’d be one thing, this is throwing talent under the bus.
You don’t fuck with Julia Sawalha, is all I’m saying. You just don’t.
Damn straight.
Yet they did. And will pay.
Will kids refuse to eat chicken nuggets after seeing this?Not for long, I’d guess.
Chicken nuggets are mostly filler anyway.
Sounds good.
But it better have kazoos doing an homage to the Mission: Impossible theme.
My best mate played a kazoo for his practical music exam, mostly as a form of protest. Not one of those fancy, metal, $9 kazoos, either. Oh no. Tres gauche. One of those fluoro-coloured plastic ones they have in a jar for two bucks a pop by the music store cash register like they’re Caramello Koalas in a corner shop. He passed.
I’m in. I’ve seen everything they’ve done – no point stopping now. Luckily this looks charming and fun.
I only care if it’s as communist as the first one.
Counterpoint: It’s bad.Without the wordplay and atmosphere, to say nothing of the classic movie references, this only superficially resembles the original film. Calling it a “Mission: Impossible” riff is pure PR; there’s no self-destructing messages, no pull-off disguises, and certainly no latin-jazz inflected score (the music is strictly vanilla). The action is split between too many side plots, and those plots re-converge far too conveniently. There’s no suspense, and considering it’s a full 20 minutes longer than the original, that’s a problem in itself.The animation is smooth but repetitive. Characters faint out of frame with their legs sticking up at least three different times, and everyone seems to break out the same “slide for home plate” move in the chase sequences.
Also, it’s not funny. I laughed at the repeat-flashback gag, and that’s it.I really wanted to like this.
Is that you Brian Eno, you old sourpuss?
We watched this while high and found it only mildly entertaining (although we did find the concept of a poultry farm-as-supervillain lair amusing). It just made me want to watch the original again.