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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget Movie Review

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is a 2023 British stop-motion animated comedy film directed by Sam Fell. It is Aardman’s ninth movie and it’s one of their weaker efforts.

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“Now you’ve had the appetizer,

time for the main course“

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Having pulled off an escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has found a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock. But back on the mainland the whole of chicken-kind faces a new threat, and Ginger and her team decide to break in. This sequel comes 23 years after the original film that remains one of the best that stop-motion animation has to offer. The sequel is serviceable, but it pales when compared to its ingenious predecessor.

This flick was everything that I’d expected it would be – fun and charming, but slight and disappointing plotwise. My main issue with the approach is its bigger scale. The original was smaller in scale, and thus infinitely more charming. This sequel is too big for its own sake, relying way too heavily on action scenes and not enough on humor.

It was not great that they recast Mel Gibson and Julia Sawalha, but at least Newton and Levi did a solid job in their roles. Ginger and Rocky are just as lovable as they were before, but their roles here were significantly reduced and not as exciting as they were previously. Molly as their child is the protagonist and she’s your standard heroine that wants freedom to explore the world, but is forbidden to do so. This premise was too familiar.

Other characters are pretty forgettable and underdeveloped with the exception of Mrs. Tweed, who was just as devious as ever. She’s a delightfully over-the-top and fun villain. Whenever the movie focused on villainy and chaos that erupted inside that chicken farm, it was a lot of fun.

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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is quite entertaining, there is no doubt about it. It is endearing, at times rather funny and very well voiced, animated and scored. The stop-motion animation is nowhere near as artistic as it was in the original, but it had its bright spots with their home place being particularly inviting, gorgeous and superbly detailed. The chicken farm was also very well imagined and explored. I just found its ‘Mission Impossible’-inspired plotting way too uninspired.