Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget streams on Netflix December 15. This review is based on a screening at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival.
More than two decades after Chicken Run, screenwriters Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell (with newcomer Rachel Tunnard in tow) reunite with Aardman Animations for an inversion of their record-setting escape caper. But putting Ginger, Rocky, Bunty, and Babs back in action without the original's full cast onboard feels like the first in a long line of mistakes being made in Dawn of the Nugget. The result is a paltry sequel that only highlights what audiences loved about its predecessor.
Comparisons with the first film are unavoidable, and Dawn of the Nugget feels more like a Bargain Bucket than any type of stop-motion Happy Meal, as a very slim story gets padded out to feature length. Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi do their best to fill in for Julia Sawalha and Mel Gibson in the roles of Ginger and Rocky, but Sawalha and Gibson’s absence is felt throughout a film whose stakes feel threadbare. With their daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey) providing an essential kick start to the story, Dawn of the Nugget falls back on formula fast to create obstacles for this plucky teenager to overcome.
Beyond the disappointment of a pedestrian plot – which sees the intrepid chickens attempt their own smash and grab – this sequel succeeds in packing movie references in at every opportunity, from the obvious Mission: Impossible nods to any number of throwbacks to Bond villains’ lairs, where complicated security measures are overcome by common sense and a smart catchphrase. With the freedom to fashion household objects into weird and wonderful contraptions, Dawn of the Nugget also trades in Chicken Run nostalgia, as crude catapults create a stop-motion spectacle sending our feathered friends into a fortified factory farm packed with peril.
Highlights amongst the returning cast include Miranda Richardson and Jane Horrocks, who breathe life back into Mrs. Tweedy and Babs with some inspired voice work that elevates every moment of screen time they’re given. In the case of Mrs. Tweedy, that sense of pantomime villainy has been cranked up to 11, as the overbearing farmer injects Dawn of the Nugget with a sense of childlike terror alongside some psychedelic visuals that feel more Austin Powers than 007 by design. Babs, on the other hand, might be a few seconds behind everyone else, but Horrocks has perfect comic timing and knows how to deliver a punchline on cue, armed with nothing but a pair of needles and writers who can pull solid-gold sight gags from her knitting.
Unfortunately, Newton and Levi lack the chemistry of Sawalha and Gibson, and seem to spend their time overshadowed by the original leads. In hindsight, the decision to recast Rocky seems sensible, since Gibson circa 2023 no longer fits a family image in the traditional sense, but to replace Sawalha feels more like a marketing ploy than an issue of public perception. Dawn of the Nugget is made no easier to enjoy due to a lack of originality from Kirkpatrick, O’Farrell, and Tunnard, who have simply gone back over old ground with an animated classic that should have been left alone. Although there is no faulting the top-tier animation on display, there is no avoiding the fact that nuggets of any kind were unnecessary.
With a wafer-thin story and need to recast essential characters, Dawn of the Nugget fails to hit the heights of Chicken Run by avoiding anything risky. For the sequel to impress audiences, Aardman needed to reinvent the wheel, combining Oscar-winning animators and an excited writing team prepared to push their story somewhere new. What they delivered instead is a film that will slip by unnoticed on Netflix, except for parents looking to distract their children on a Sunday afternoon.
