Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
It is with absolutely no pleasure that I write this sentence: “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” is fine. It may be more than enough for parents sifting for something to occupy their kids on Netflix next week but it’s not what Aardman Animation, the creative geniuses behind Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, generally release into the wild. Even their minor films like the underrated “Flushed Away” or whimsical “The Pirates! A Band of Misfits” usually clear that bar. Lack of ambition, just off comic timing and inferior world building keep this chicken from flying even though there are just enough things about it that work to make it worth a peep if you don’t know who made it.
In this film’s world it has probably not been 23 years since the original “Chicken Run,” but at least a few years have passed since Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi) led Tweedys Farm chickens in a great escape. The trauma of that event has brought these fowl together to live on an island where Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) cannot reach them or other chicken eating predators. Their rat pals Fetcher (Daniel Mays) and Fowler (David Bradley) bring supplies, but Ginger and Rocky’s daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey) wants to know what’s happening on the mainland. She gets caught up when a series of events lands her in the clutches of a massive chicken farm a factory looking to revolutionize the nugget by keeping birds as happy as possible before turning them into fast food because stress makes for tough meat. So Ginger, Rocky and company must break into one of these places after breaking out of one such deadly facility in the first film.
That’s a great idea. It’s only okay here executed modestly well there’s something about rhythm an Aardman comedy part physical humor, part old-fashioned vaudeville, all classic character beats warmed up by some of the most full-bodied voice work in any animated film that is so captivating. Yes, the technical skill it takes to make an Aardman movie is something to be admired, but I’ve always thought of them as great examples of comedy, something that plays well for everyone at every age see “Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon” if you want a recent example of this formula done right. Something is just slightly off here in Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell and Rachel Tunnard’s script. The jokes don’t exactly hit the floor but they do land with a “hmm” instead of a laugh. Outside of a couple inspired sight gags there’s just not as much funny in “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” as there should be or could have been with a sharper screenplay. There’s also something about what has been given to them that doesn’t inspire this voice cast with Levi being particularly ill-suited for what he’s been asked to do here as a former circus star who gets himself right back into his old routine to save the day like so much else in this movie he’s not bad it’s just hard to say anything about him when you know you won’t remember him after five minutes past watching because why bother when everything else keeps falling short like that?
Still, I wouldn’t say “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” is boring. It’s not. It keeps you invested in Molly and her new friends’ rescue mission, with jokes and character turns frequent enough to prevent most Netflix viewers from checking their phones. That’s a fine bar for animated movies this year, which have been pretty lackluster (barring Spidey and Ghibli), but it’s not what I’m used to saying about Aardman.
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