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Not since 1998’s Babe 2: Pig in the City has a sequel to a cherished family film contained such unapologetically dark moments as Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. Not literal darkness as the film is as bright and cheerful looking as anything Aardman Animations has ever done. No, I’m talking about a specific darkness that’s mostly absent in “family” entertainment these days, the kind of subversiveness Jim Henson was producing before his death and George Miller would make between Mad Max films – the Babe sequel included.
via YouTubeNone of this should be surprising to fans of the original film who paid attention, given its overt callbacks to fascism and concentration camps. Where that film was essentially a family-friendly version of John Sturges’ The Great Escape, Dawn of the Nugget, paints a less complicated look at the smothering effects overparenting can have on a family. Well, that and hard lessons about learning anything promoting itself a utopia probably isn’t, because utopias simply can’t exist.
After managing to escape Tweedy’s Farm in the first film the chickens established an island paradise for themselves Ginger (Thandiwe Newton, replacing Julia Sawalha) and Rocky (Zachry Levi, replacing Mel Gibson) are expecting the hatching of their first offspring. Soon out pops Molly (Bella Ramsey), their wide-eyed daughter who soon blossoms into a preteen chicken wanting more from the perfect world her parents crafted for her.
After she spots the colorful poster on the side of a Fun-Land Farms delivery truck, displaying a chicken sitting happily in a bucket, she sneaks off the island and runs into Frizzle (Josie Sedgwick-Davies), a teenaged mainland chicken also seeking out the “happy chicken truck”. The two quickly get scooped up by the human delivery driver and are shuttled off to a farm boasting the ominous tagline “Where chickens find their happy endings”.
At first it seems like Fun-Land Farms is everything the poster promised; it’s big and bright, with everything a chicken could ever want or need, including a day-glo colored fantasy park straight out of Barbieland. It’s all play, all day, eating as much as you want and no responsibilities. It’s all very reminiscent of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, where everything is perfect and serene in a drug-fueled utopian wonderland…just as long as you don’t ask questions.
It’s within this modern fortress we meet Dr. Fry (Nick Mohammed), the scientist behind the modernization of chicken farming. But also learn the Dr. is married to Mrs Tweedy (Miranda Richardson), back and more diabolical than ever, making her overly dramatic entrance just in time to pitch a future of fast-food opportunities to Mr. Smith (Peter Serafinowicz), owner of the Sir Eat-a-Lot chain of restaurants.
As an incredibly disturbing, yet adorable, infomercial explains a chicken’s natural instincts “when faced with processing” is fear and panic, which results in meat that’s tough, dry, and flavorless. To combat this Dr. Fry has developed a mind-control collar that zaps their little chicken brains into a stupor, making them blissfully unaware of what’s to come. Because a happy chicken is a tasty chicken. Well done, science.
Parents, brace yourselves. A very specific scene occurs near the middle that shows off the alluring powers of this new system, one where a stupored chicken – cheered on by her fellow chickens – is made to demonstrate the chicken-pacifying powers of Fry’s new system and with the press of a button is “called” to claim her prize by ascending the Aztec-like pyramid to her fate. I kept saying to myself, they’re not going to go there, are they? Yes, they go there, and out pops a bucket of fresh chicken nuggets (which look delicious); behold, the dawn of the nugget.
This subplot, of course, will be instantly familiar to Douglas Adams fans, specifically his cow at the restaurant at the end of the universe bred to like being eaten (not much of a shock as Karey Kirkpatrick, screenwriter of both Chicken Run films, also wrote the 2005 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie).
Now Ginger, Rocky, and the gang must do the unthinkable and break into a chicken farm to save Molly on a mission that’s surely impossible. Or should that be reversed?
Much was made of the decision to replace Julia Sawalha and Mel Gibson with Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi as the lead voice actors during production for…reasons. It turns out this wasn’t a big deal as both Newton and Levi are perfectly fine, though it was strange hearing Levi attempt a Gibson impression before giving up. There are a few other swaps, most notably the esteemed David Bradley stepping in for cranky Fowler after original actor Benjamin Whitrow passed away, and rats Nick and Fetcher, but everyone in the movie puts in great performances.
Sam Fell (Flushed Away, ParaNorman) assumes solo directing duties from Peter Lord and Nick Park, leading a production that’s lighter on pathos and larger on visual gags this time around, more like Tom Cruise action blockbusters than the oppressive gulags of the first film. Scenes move quickly from one visual gag to the next, aided by dialogue that’s just as clever and quippy as ever.
The animation and background details are drop-dead stunning and gorgeous, endlessly clever and full of life. I could go on and on about the magic of stop-motion animation and how much more natural and tactile it looks than any other kind, but you already know this. Aardman fans know what to expect when there’s clay involved, and even with the odd CGI tweaking (inevitable, given the scope of the project) Dawn of the Nugget is a visual feast for the eyes and soul.
And how refreshing is it to have Melisha Tweedy be a diabolically, unrepentantly evil villain? It’s not something we see much these days. Then again, she does suffer fools quite a bit, jumping from one imbecilic husband to the next, exploiting the wealth and fortunes fate denied her. She also seems to be…um, aroused over chicken nuggets. And revenge.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is a less abrasive, less cinematically ambitious sequel that still, nevertheless, manages to deliver enough of the Aardman magic to deliver a rousing adventure. The stop-motion animation (even aided by CGI) is incredibly beautiful, the script is funny and disturbing, and there’s enough quintessentially British humor to scratch a specific itch that we rarely see in family entertainment these days.