'Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget' review: Chickens meet 'Mission: Impossible' in this fun sequel
Let's get one thing straight right off the bat: It's basically impossible to top the lightning in a bottle that is Chicken Run. Mix The Great Escape with chickens and Aardman's top-notch claymation, and you get an inspired animated classic. Try to do that twice, and you make yourself redundant. Perhaps that's why it took 23 whole years to make a Chicken Run sequel.
Enter Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, which reunites us with the original gang as they take on a brand new mission for the good of chicken-kind. This time, though, they're breaking into a chicken farm, as opposed to busting out. The slightly tweaked concept isn't enough to totally differentiate Dawn of the Nugget from Chicken Run, nor is it strong enough to outdo the original. But a sweet storyline about parenthood, a spunky new heroine, and the return of a terrifying villain help make Dawn of the Nugget a clucking good time.
What's Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget about?
Dawn of the Nugget picks up years after the chickens of Tweedy's Farm flew to freedom in a homemade airplane. They've settled on an idyllic island far from human eyes, where Ginger (voiced by Thandiwe Newton, replacing Julia Sawalha) and Rocky (Zachary Levi, replacing Mel Gibson) are raising their adventurous daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey). She yearns to know more about the outside world, but Ginger hopes to keep her sheltered from the horrors she and the other chickens endured under Mrs. Tweedy's (Miranda Richardson) beady gaze.
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The chickens' peace comes under fire when humans begin developing the area near the island. Among these developments? Fun-Land Farms, a high-tech chicken farm whose trucks boast images of smiling chickens giving the thumbs up... while sitting proudly in nugget buckets. As if that weren't already incredibly ominous, Fun-Land Farms' slogan, "where chickens find their happy endings," is enough to set off major alarm bells.
Instead of taking the fight to the humans like she would have done in the old days, Ginger's first instinct is to hide. After all, she's got Molly to think about now. But when a wayward adventure leads Molly right into the belly of Fun-Land Farms, it's up to Ginger, Rocky, and their whole crew to rescue her.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget delivers fun, if familiar chicken mayhem.
What follows is basically a retread of the first movie, especially when it comes to the return of the formidable Mrs. Tweedy. The emotional heft of Ginger and Rocky's relationship — including Rocky's deception about being able to fly — is unfortunately missing here, even though the life-and-death stakes are still very much at play.
Instead, Dawn of the Nugget moves its focus to the mother-daughter connection between Ginger and Molly. We see loud and clear the sacrifices Ginger is prepared to make for her daughter, whose daredevil bravery feels like the perfect combination of her parents. The ensuing dynamic between overprotective mother hen and mischief-making daughter makes for a sweet core to the film, even if it's a fairly common film trope.
Dawn of the Nugget's real fun lies in its send-up of spy thrillers like Mission: Impossible or the James Bond franchise. To infiltrate Fun-Land Farms, the chickens will have to brave obstacles ranging from the simple (barbed wire) to the ridiculous (robot ducks with laser eyes). Elaborate plans and gadgets are quick to follow.
Director Sam Fell makes sure Dawn of the Nugget wears its spy and heist influences on its sleeve, from the jazzy themes that play during plan-execution sequences to Fun-Land Farms' design itself, which screams "Bond villain lair." Even Mrs. Tweedy's new look, complete with updo and mod chic dress, feels like a take on the Bond girl.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is honestly fairly scary.
With her axe and her bloodthirsty desire for revenge, Mrs. Tweedy remains terrifying as ever. She haunts Ginger through black and white flashbacks that resurrect the horrors of the first Chicken Run — don't forget, this woman was making pies of Ginger's friends. These in turn help further flesh out Ginger's desire to keep Molly safe.
But even outside of Mrs. Tweedy, Dawn of the Nugget conjures some extra frightening sequences of its own. Fun-Land Farms keeps its chickens in a state of artificial happiness, masterminded by scientist Dr. Fry (voiced by Ted Lasso's Nick Mohammed). They smile dumbly in their pastel playground of an enclosure, walking docilely to their deaths when the time comes. The vacancy behind their eyes in these moments is uncanny, almost zombie-like, giving the title Dawn of the Nugget another layer of fried and battered meaning. As for the nugget-making process itself, we never see it in action, but we certainly hear it — and that makes for some especially troubling moments!
Overall, though, nothing beats Chicken Run when it comes to fear factor, just like nothing from Dawn of the Nugget can truly measure up to the first film. This holds true even in the animation, which feels a tad colder and more sterile than the warmer qualities of the original. (This sterility could certainly be due to much of the film taking place in a literal factory farm, but the contrast continues even beyond that.) Still, there's plenty to enjoy here, with Ginger, Rocky, and their chicken compatriots going big in order to go home — and creating oodles of fun along the way.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is now streaming on Netflix.
Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
