The 2000 Aardman animated movie Chicken Run is about as near an ideal household movie as you will get. The Great Escape-inspired frolic from Nick Park and Peter Lord a couple of brood of chickens escaping from a POW-style hen farm nonetheless holds up 23 years later. A private favorite from my youth, I sat down and gave it a rewatch in preparation for the brand new sequel and it’s nonetheless as charming and gratifying to look at as an grownup. Enough time has handed now to categorise it as an animated traditional.
But how does Sam Fell’s sequel Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget maintain up compared? Let’s simply say, set your egg-specatations low. While not a catastrophe, this long-awaited follow-up fails to recapture the magic of its predecessor.
Our story begins with Ginger and Rocky having settled down within the utopian hen sanctuary that they fled to within the earlier movie. Years have handed, the commune is prospering and they’re now mother and father to an inquisitive and adventurous spring hen referred to as Molly (Bella Ramsey) who identical to her mom longs for freedom past her rapid environment.
Molly’s curiosity takes her to the Fun-Land Farm manufacturing unit. A building that resembles a Bond villain’s headquarters on the surface. But on the within Molly and her new pal Frizzle (Josie Sedgwick-Davies) are taken to a vibrant hen playground that appears like a hybrid of Barbie Land and the staircase corridors from Squid Game – full with pink slides and all-you-can-eat feeding stations. But as soon as the veneer of pleasure wears off, Molly quickly discovers she’s being held captive and the homeowners of Fun-Land Farm have sinister plans for her and the remainder of the imprisoned chickens.
So it’s as much as her mum Ginger and the remainder of the gang to interrupt into the ability to bust her out. As the tagline says; final time they broke out, this time they’re breaking in.
Should we be that shocked that the brand new Chicken Run movie isn’t all that nice although? There have been early warning indicators that the sequel was in jeopardy. Like an old automobile that has been stripped for elements, Nugget is missing a lot of what made the primary one so beloved.
For starters, Nick Park and Peter Lord aren’t as concerned this time round. While they function govt producers, their lack of contribution to the script is noticeable. Karey Kirkpatrick has returned for screenwriting duties alongside John O’Farrell and Rachel Tunnard. But as an alternative of prioritising recent materials, they fall into the entice of relying far too closely on old nostalgic references and quotes from the earlier movie to get a fast chortle. Bab’s iconic “I don’t want to be a pie” line is rejigged and tweaked inside the first ten minutes. It could also be acquainted nevertheless it isn’t half as humorous. It simply feels lazy.
And then there’s the questionable determination to ask some however not the entire voice actors again to reprise their roles. The voice casting of the primary was pitch-perfect however apart from Imelda Staunton (Bunty), Jane Horrocks (Babs) And Lynn Ferguson (Mac), a number of members of the unique poultry solid weren’t invited again for the sequel. We can perceive the argument to not have controversial Mel Gibson return to voice Rocky (changed on this movie by Zachary Levi) however why recast the rats Nick and Fletcher when Timothy Spall and Phil Daniels have been available?
But the absence that actually stings probably the most is Julia Sawalha who voiced the resourceful and provoking protagonist Ginger within the authentic.
The determination to not carry her again is a puzzling one and appears past arbitrary. Sawalha has been changed by Thandiwe Newton and whereas she does a high-quality sufficient job, she does lack a sure plucky tenacity and resilience that made Sawalha’s Ginger such an important chief. The cause Sawalha obtained for her exclusion was “her voice sounded ‘too old’ and that they wanted a younger actress to reprise the role”. A nonsensical and ageist excuse if ever there was one, seeing as Newton is just a mere 4 years younger than Sawalha and true-to-real-life, Ginger herself has additionally aged within the movie.
Credit to the writers for attempting one thing totally different. Having the sequel be a rescue mission fairly than a jailbreak was an attention-grabbing change of path. Dawn of the Nugget isn’t with out its enjoyable moments – a refrain of Yorkshire-accented chickens doing a rendition of Cliff Richards’ Summer Holiday was a hilarious spotlight. But frustratingly an excessive amount of is lacking of what made the primary such a winner.
It’s not simply beloved voice skills that the sequel has misplaced, the animation model has had an upgrade – however new doesn’t at all times essentially imply higher. The authentic Chicken Run movie was made in 2000 and primarily used the old-school claymation technique of animation. It had stop-motion characters shifting round bodily miniature fashions. There was CGI used within the movie nevertheless it was extra used for refining sure pictures – it wasn’t used as the usual like it’s now.
Today the development of CGI has made it a lot simpler to create CGI backgrounds that appear like Aardman plasticine backdrops. But the human eye is educated to know the distinction and whereas the brand new technique could also be cheaper and fewer time-consuming, the draw back is the sequel lacks the tactile sense of world-building that made the primary really feel so lived in. It’s what gave the Tweedy farm its grim Auschwitz vibe whereas, in Dawn of the Nugget, the backdrops look extra synthetic.
What additionally made the unique Chicken Run so particular was its quintessentially British keep-calm-and-carry-on sensibilities. Chicken Run was impressed by M*A*S*H, The Great Escape and Stalag 17 – movies very a lot centred round WW2 however Nugget is extra akin to a contemporary slick Mission Impossible movie than any of these classics. The authentic was additionally very selective in its music selections as to not make it sound too fashionable. However, Nugget does the alternative and embraces pop songs from the likes of Paloma Faith which makes this outing really feel like a distant third-generation cousin fairly than an in depth sibling-sequel.
The first movie was a fun-for-the-whole household journey nevertheless it didn’t draw back from having some darker and extra mature moments. The stakes have been set almost instantly with Edwina being taken to “the chop” after she will’t lay any extra eggs – an emotionally sombre second that you simply don’t usually see in children’ movies. In Nugget one other hen meets their destiny however this time it’s performed as an alternative for laughs. As it’s geared extra in direction of simply the kiddiwinks, the emotional weight of the stakes is way much less substantial.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget has fleeting moments of ingenious greatness – however that’s all they’re actually; “nuggets” whereas the primary movie was a full chook with all of the trimmings. This meal is gratifying sufficient however you wouldn’t return for seconds.
Grade: C
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget has its world premiere on the BFI London Film Festival and can be launched on Netflix December 15.
Image: Aardman/NETFLIX
