Not as crispy as the first, but still tasty enough for me.
The original “Chicken Run” from Aardman Animation was a delightful stop-motion film about a flock of chickens in Yorkshire who enlist the help of an American circus rooster named Rocky to escape from Mrs. Tweedy’s chicken farm. 23 years later, we finally have a sequel with the subtitle “Dawn of the Nugget,” with a couple of differences.
One being that Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi replace Julia Sawalha and Mel Gibson as the courageous chicken Ginger and Rocky. Another is that these two have a daughter Molly who possesses her mother’s spirit. And another is that the screenplay is inferior to the original, but gets overshadowed by its colorful and exuberant appearance. It’s almost in the same analogy of “incredibles 2,” which toned down on the story and gave it a bright look. And as I mentioned in my review of Disney’s “Wish,” which got a lot of mixed reviews, “….when I see delightfulness, I have to recommend it.”
Now, that the chickens have found their sanctuary, Ginger and Rocky must do everything in their power to protect Molly (voiced by Bella Ramsey from “The Last of Us”). But it’s obviously not as easy as they think. As a baby, if you put her playpen in the dirt, she can dig her way out (reminds me of how I climbed out of my crib as a baby by putting my feet on the wall). As a child, if Rocky isn’t watchful, she can sneak on the rats’ supply raft. And as a teenager, if she finds Rocky’s circus poster, she has to learn about her father’s glory days.
Here’s where the story goes “Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea” and “Pinocchio.” Molly can’t stand her mother’s overprotective nature and believes that a chicken truck (with happy chickens advertised on it) can take her to a fun place known as “Fun-Land Farms.” So, she sneaks off the island and meets the free-spritzed Frizzle (voiced by Josie Sedgwick-Davies), who also wants to go to this place, which is practically Pleasure Island with all the corn and slides they can enjoy. Only instead of them turning into donkeys, they wear collars which turn them into happy zombies, so they can become chicken nuggets, all controlled by the chicken’s former enemy Mrs. Tweedy (voiced by Miranda Richardson). If you think I spoiled that, you didn’t see the trailer. Blame that, not me.
So, Ginger and Rocky must lead a rescue mission to save their daughter and all the chickens in the farm. This is how the story gets derivative and inferior to the original. But I can tell you this: it sure loves popcorn as much as we do.
I’m surprised that both movies have human characters who don’t seem to acknowledge that these chickens wear hats. I guess it’s apparent that any cartoon has to be line with the real world, in which people don’t seem to know that the animals are CGI creatures that can dance or wear clothes. Or in this case, they’re made of clay. And speaking of which, when I heard that the factory that made Aardman’s clay was closing down, I was worried the studio would unfortunately resort to CGI. But they reassured us, there is still plenty of clay. It’s what helped make “Wallace & Gromit” and “Chicken Run” so remarkable and eccentric.
“Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” is now directed by Sam Fell (whose best and funniest film has to be “ParaNorman” from the Laika company), while Nick Park is an executive producer and Karen Kirkpatrick is back as the sequel’s writer. I’d be a broken record if I kept saying the film isn’t as fresh as the original, but still has its nice qualities. But it’s true. I was able to see through the cynicism and enjoy the delightfulness the sequel has in store. I like the way it introduces us to Sedgwick-Davies as Frizzle, the way Ramsey voices Molly, they way they keep Jane Horrocks as the featherbrained Babe, and seeing Ginger’s spirit being threatened by these collars is like your mother drinking rum punches, especially when Molly tries to wake her up. It’s not really an ideal comparison, but it is fun when you look back on it.
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