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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (also known as Chicken Run 2) is a 2023 stop motion animated action-adventure comedy film directed by Sam Fell, from a screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick, John O'Farrell and Rachel Tunnard, from an original story by Kirkpatrick and O'Farrell. A sequel to Chicken Run (2000), the film was produced by Aardman Animations, French Studios by Pathé, DreamWorks Animation and distributor by Universal Pictures Netflix . It stars the voices of Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi, Bella Ramsey, Romesh Ranganathan, David Bradley, Daniel Mays, Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, Josie Sedgwick-Davies, Nick Mohammed and Miranda Richardson.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget had its world premiere at the 67th London Film Festival on October 14 2023, and was later released by Netflix on December 15, two months later. The film received positive reviews from critics.
Plot[]
After successfully escaping from Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy's Farm, Ginger and the freed chickens have settled in an idyllic island, called bird sanctuary, where the flock can live in harmony, without any risks from humans. Ginger and Rocky start a family with a hatchling named Molly. The rats, Nick and Fetcher occasionally visit the chickens to drop off supplies for their new home.
Sometime later, an older Molly grows adventurous and more curious about the outside world from the island, but Ginger, haunted by her experience from the poultry farm, refuses to let Molly leave the island, and Rocky does not want to tell her about the outside world. Soon after, humans have arrived on the mainland shore of the lake with trucks and construction. Suspecting to be another chicken farm, Ginger orders the chickens to lay low and wait until the humans leave. Molly, driven by her curiosity, argues with Ginger and, later that night, sneaks across the lake and into the outside world. Ginger and Rocky discover this and bring a party consisting of Babs, Bunty, Mac, and Fowler to retrieve her.
Meanwhile, Molly ventures into a roadway where she is saved by a chicken named Frizzle from getting run over by a car. Frizzle offers Molly to join her in hitchhiking a ride to the chicken farm. The driver notices them and takes them aboard the truck. Ginger's group chases after the truck where they stumble on Fun-Land Farms, a highly-advanced poultry farm with a play area for chickens and heavy security systems. Rocky manages to break into the facility, but he is captured by a garbage disposal machine. Ginger and her group come to Nick and Fetcher for supplies to bypass their security. They successfully break into the facility, but the rats are sucked into the garbage chute where they rescue Rocky and escape the furnace.
Inside the facility, Molly discovers that the chickens are unresponsive before Frizzle has been captured by the facility's scientist, Dr. Fry, who places a collar that brainwashes her. Molly, determined to save her friend, escapes from the play area and follows Dr. Fry. Ginger reunites with Molly, and learns that Mrs. Tweedy, her former farm owner, is running the whole operation alongside her new husband, Dr. Fry. Molly and Ginger realizes that Mrs. Tweedy is using the collars as brainwashing device to suppress chicken's fear so she can make chicken nuggets for Reginald Smith, a fast-food chain businessman who is in demand for new food items.
Ginger is discovered and captured by Mrs. Tweedy, who tries to force the behaviour collar on her, but Ginger refuses to submit. Rocky distracts her for Molly to set Ginger free, but the collar becomes active, rendering Ginger brainwashed. They reunite with the group, and successfully remove the collar from Ginger before they are trapped in a silo.
They successfully escape the silo, but Molly refuses to go back home without rescuing Frizzle, so Ginger and the others agree to help the other chickens as well. Mrs. Tweedy starts the production of chicken nuggets, and Ginger and Rocky try to get the remote control that will deactivate the collars while the rest of the group tries to prevent the chickens from going into the fryer.
Molly sees Ginger being cornered by Mrs. Tweedy and goes to help retrieve the remote. She successfully gets the remote to Ginger, but Mrs. Tweedy catches and holds her hostage with an axe. Rocky uses a power cord to swing over and sweep the axe away, and Ginger deactivates the collars. Mrs. Tweedy gets hit by her axe into the fryer and the axe drops inside, causing the machine to overload. The chickens all stampede outside to the food truck, and the group drives off to the front gate. Mrs. Tweedy, however, emerges from the fryer coated in batter and boards the truck, trying to cut her way through the roof. However, Fowler slides down the escape rope and knocks Mrs. Tweedy over the moat of robotic duck drones just before the fryer overheats and explodes, destroying the Fun-Land Farms facility.
The chickens return to the island with Frizzle and the freed chickens from the facility. Ginger and Rocky decide to live in the island while going out and rescue any chickens from chicken farms with Molly and Frizzle serving as aerial reconnaissance to report back any chicken farms they discover.
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Cast[]
- Thandiwe Newton as Ginger (archive recordings of Julie Sawalha used in flashback scenes)
- Zachary Levi as Rocky Rhodes
- Bella Ramsey as Molly
- Imelda Staunton as Bunty
- Lynn Ferguson as Mac
- David Bradley as Fowler
- Jane Horrocks as Babs
- Romesh Ranganathan as Nick
- Daniel Mays as Fetcher
- Josie Sedgwick-Davies as Frizzle
- Peter Serafinowicz as Reginald Smith
- Nick Mohammed as Dr. Fry
- Miranda Richardson as Mrs. Melisha Tweedy
Production[]
A sequel to Chicken Run was reported in April 2018 with Aardman Animations, StudioCanal and Pathé producing. DreamWorks Animation, who co-produced the original film, had no involvement due to ending their partnership with Aardman after the release of Flushed Away in 2006. Sam Fell directed, with Paul Kewley and the original's director, Nick Park, producing. The original Chicken Run writers Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell wrote the sequel. Aardman co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton serve as executive producers.
On October 16, 2019, the film officially began pre-production. Aardman stated that Mel Gibson was not asked to return as Rocky. In June 2020, Fell released more details about the sequel, which will follow from the ending of the first film, where the chickens have settled into their new safe area. Molly, the chick of Ginger and Rocky, begins to outgrow the area, just as word of a new threat to the chickens arrives. In July 2020, Julia Sawalha, the voice of Ginger in the first film, revealed Aardman's intention to recast her role, saying her voice now sounded too old, and commented "I have officially been plucked, stuffed & roasted". The decision was met with widespread criticism with some finding the decision ageist.
Principal photography commenced in early 2021. In January 2022, Zachary Levi, Thandiwe Newton, David Bradley, Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays replaced Gibson, Sawalha, the late Benjamin Whitrow, Timothy Spall and Phil Daniels as the voices of Rocky, Ginger, Fowler, Nick and Fetcher, while Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton and Lynn Ferguson reprised their roles as Babs, Bunty and Mac from the first film, with the film's title revealed as Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. Bella Ramsey, Nick Mohammed and Josie Sedgwick-Davies respectively voiced three new characters, Molly, Dr. Fry and Frizzle. In September 2023, it was announced that Miranda Richardson would reprise her role as the voice of Mrs. Tweedy and that Peter Serafinowicz also joined the cast as Reginald Smith, a "slightly bemused businessman".
Release[]
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget premiered at the 67th BFI London Film Festival on October 14, 2023, with none of the cast in attendance due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, with the film's characters walking the red carpet in their place. It was released on Netflix on December 15, 2023. The film had a preview at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival months prior, on June 11. Netflix purchased the worldwide distribution rights to the film, excluding China. On December 26, 2023, Warner Bros. Pictures, Skydance start their partnership during the release.
Reception[]
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget garnered positive reception, though slightly down from its predecessor. On Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of 83 critics' aggregated reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget offers more of the easy laughs and eye-catching animation that fans of the original enjoyed, although there's a general feeling of diminishing returns." Metacritic assigned the film an average score of 63 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
John Nugent for Empire magazine wrote, "the ambition and technical scope are markedly bolder" than its predecessor Chicken Run, adding it is "silly, witty, extremely British — this is a family film made with a very Aardman-y kind of craft and care".
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