REVIEW: ‘Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget’ Captures What Made the First Great

Aardman is an animation studio that helped shape many memories around stop-motion. From Wallace & Gromit to the original Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep, the English animation studio brings their BAFTA and Academy award-winning talent to Netflix with Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. Directed by Sam Fell, the film is written by Karey Kirkpatrick, John O’Farrell, and Rachel Tunnard.

Having pulled off a death-defying escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) has finally found her dream — a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock, far from the dangers of the human world. What’s better? She and Rocky (Zachary Levi) are adding to their little family. When Molly (Bella Ramsey) hatches, Ginger’s happy ending is complete, that is, until Molly starts to want to go outside their nice slice of paradise.

Like her mother, Molly is strong-willed and wants to see what’s beyond what’s in front of her. But Molly’s need for adventure turns dangerous when, back on the mainland, the whole of chicken-kind faces a new and terrible threat: nuggets. For Ginger and her team, even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk — this time, they’re breaking into the danger, not escaping it.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is utterly fantastic. The animation is gorgeous, tactile, and the kind of magical you can only get by making fantastic anthropomorphic chickens and villains fit to face off against Bond. The ability of the team at Aardman to capture emotion in clay is unmatched, and their ability to build dynamic sets is unparalleled. Their iconic style is one that feels nostalgic but never old, fantastical but never detached from depth. It is perfection.

Stop-motion animation is wonderous on its own, but the folks at Aardman help define it. The first film was the highest-grossing stop-motion animated movie of all time, and with this sequel, the talent on display is astounding in one scene where the group is stuck in the bottom of a corn silo. To escape, they light fireworks, and the resulting rain of popcorn is the right amount of comedy and the right whimsical twist to watch.

This is a studio I grew up with and helped define my humor. The choice to make this sequel focused on a relationship between a mother and a daughter, with the latter following in the former’s footsteps, hits harder now that I’ve grown up and rebuilt my relationship with my mom. Do as I say, not as I did is the crux of the story and how Molly and Ginger’s relationship develops once they’re both in danger at Mrs. Tweedy’s (Miranda Richardson) new Fun-Fun Farms on the verge of becoming nuggets. The film hits its message home. Ginger’s attempt to keep her daughter at home is to keep Molly safe, to keep her in a life she worked hard to make for her, and it’s only by venturing into the villainous clutches that she can see the reason behind her overprotective parents.

For her nefarious nugget-creating part in all of this, Mrs. Tweedy remains a terrible, campy, maniacal, self-centered, perfect Bond villainess. She is so extremely awful, and that makes her absolutely one of the best-animated villains in cinema. With her current husband and nugget genius Dr. Fry (Nick Mohammed), their plan to take over the fast food industry by making every chicken happy is darkly comedic.

Truthfully, their evil plan is the right amount of funny for kids and the right amount of maniacal for adults, making Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget a fantastic all-ages film that knows who its viewers are. Instead of feeling like they’re trying to appeal to everyone, they’re aiming at the now-parents who watched the original 23 years ago and their children. It’s expertly done in ways that other studios like Disney should take notes from.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is fantastic in every way. It’s fun, it’s hilarious, and it’s filled with so much heart. Nostalgiac but never old, new but never detached from its roots, the film is one of the best animated features of the year.

Chicken Run: Dawn of Nugget is streaming exclusively on Netflix now.