Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget Review Roundup

As great as the original Chicken Run was, it didn't exactly received the tremendous love that it deserved (at least in comparison with Wallace and Gromit). It actually took tv reruns in the subsequent years for it to finally achieved cult status and that perhaps explains why we have to wait twenty-three years for a sequel. The Dawn of the Nugget is finally here...does it do the Chicken Run name justice? Here's the review roundup:

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THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER (Leslie Felperin)
'The humor is mostly situational, playing off the disconnect between the chickens’ innocent view of the world and the viewer’s more experienced insight. The lack of cackle-worthy one-liners here and the entertaining but highly predictable last act make this a little bit snoozy for savvier viewers. After all, what could be more retro in a cartoon than a conveyor belt full of deadly dangers, a trope that goes back to the Max Fleisher cartoons of the 1930s.'

For the full review please visit here.

INDIE WIRE (Sophie Monks Kaufman) 
'For all the painstaking visual detailing, “Dawn of the Nugget” falls fowl of some standard-issue sequel anxiety. A sense of Sam Fell having big shoes to fill permeates the atmosphere and, as he tries to replicate what made the original beloved, we see the moving parts, much like the conveyor belt carrying brainwashed chicken to their doom. Whereas the original shocked us early on by using noir-ish shadows to represent a chicken death, there is a risk-averse approach to showing anything like that this time. While there’s lots of hooting and hollering about saving Molly, without proof that the film will go there, the peril seems cartoonish and the eventual display of mass solidarity, which could have been a teachable moment for parents watching with children, is as throwaway as a misshapen nugget.'

For the full review please visit here.

VARIETY (Peter Debruge)
'The sequel doesn’t offer many surprises plotwise, but is consistently amusing in its dad-jokey kind of way. The folks at Aardman can hardly resist a good pun, and they load “Nugget” with a level of detail that will reward repeat viewings.'

For the full review please visit here.

ROLLING STONE (Jake Francis)
'The key issue with Dawn of the Nugget is that it simultaneously feels all too similar to the original and also misses the mark on what made it such a treasured film. A fair amount of the cast is replaced, some for understandable reasons, some for… less understandable reasons. Levi replaces Mel Gibson, and while there’s certainly a logic to removing the latter from a film like this, Levi fails to deliver on the role and his voicework feels staggeringly flat. The same goes for the typically excellent Thandiwe Newton, who replaces Julia Sawalha from the first film seemingly for no other reason than she’s slightly younger. Bella Ramsey does an admirable job at the heart of things, but the lack of chemistry among the voice work holds the film back before it has even begun. Voice acting is an artform in itself, and it isn’t unusual to hear screen actors struggle with the adjustment. The verve and charm that felt so tangible in the performances of 2000’s Chicken Run feels otherworldly compared to the relatively mundane performances of Aardman Animations’ latest offering.

​For the full review please visit here.

THE GUARDIAN (Peter Bradshaw) 
'Some of the time I found the proceedings a little bit generic, like something you might put on an iPad to keep kids quiet, even if that is a noble enough aim. Also, Some of the time, this new Chicken Run has the same flaw as the newer Pixar movies: a sense that the film could almost have been algorithmically fabricated through AI, especially here in the opening act. Well, the gags puncture that and a lively voice cast including Romesh Ranganathan, Daniel Mays, David Bradley, Jane Horrocks and Imelda Staunton provide energy and fun.

For the full review please visit here.

MAMA'S GEEKY (VIDEO REVIEW)

In the end, the film amassed a pretty good score of 81% from 26 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. A far cry from the amazing 97% score of the original. 

​So this sequel may not live up to its excellent predecessor, but it does seem like the perfect opportunity to introduce your kids (or kids of this generation) to the awesomeness of Aardman stop motion animation. 

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