Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget: Everything We Know About The Chicken Run Sequel
Not to cause a panic or anything, but "Chicken Run" — only the highest-grossing stop-motion animated feature film of all time and a stone-cold classic — is getting a sequel. Titled "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget," the movie marks the latest collaboration between renowned British animation powerhouse Aardman Animations and Netflix after the feature-length "A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon" (one of the greatest movie titles ever) and the shorts "Robin Robin" and "Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas," all of which were released in the U.S. by Netflix. To be sure, as complicated as my feelings are about Netflix as a whole, the streamer has become a safe harbor for animated projects from smaller or international studios like Aardman, and for that, it has my gratitude.
Furthermore, Netflix is going all-out to draw attention to "Dawn of the Nugget," even previewing it at the annual Annecy International Animation Film Festival well ahead of its arrival. But will this 23-years-in-the-making sequel have enough thrust to get airborne? That remains to be seen, so here's everything we do know so far.
When will Dawn of the Nugget be released?
Netflix has announced that "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget" will make its way onto the streaming service on December 15, 2023, no doubt in the hopes of attracting families eager for something to watch over this year's winter holidays. The original "Chicken Run," by comparison, opened at the U.S. box office on June 23, 2000, coming in second behind the Farrelly brothers' R-rated "Me, Myself & Irene." Yes, as difficult as it is to fathom in 2023, there was once a time when an original adult comedy and a fanciful British stop-motion homage to "The Great Escape" were the biggest films in the States.
As for "Dawn of the Nugget," it will face direct competition for the attention of families from the musical "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" prequel "Wonka," which is due to reach theaters the same weekend it arrives. Luckily for Aardman, people seem far more inclined to give stop-motion films the time of day in the streaming age than they ever have in theaters, so don't count the chickens (formerly) of Tweedy's farm down for the count this early out.
What is the plot of Dawn of the Nugget?
Aardman co-founder Peter Lord and "Dawn of the Nugget" director Sam Fell took to the stage at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on Wednesday, June 14, to reveal more about the impending "Chicken Run" sequel. The original movie, as you might recall, was set in late 1940s Britain at Tweedy's farm, a place that drew heavy inspiration from the Stalag Luft III WWII POW max-prison camp in "The Great Escape." "Dawn of the Nugget" will pick up in the early '60s at the island sanctuary where the film's poultry heroes — led by the valiant Ginger and her suave rooster beau Rocky — set up camp following their daring escape from the Tweedys, with Fell describing it as "Chicken Wakanda" (via Deadline).
Now the proud parents of a teen chick named Molly, who's clearly inherited her mom's defiant personality, Ginger and Rocky are forced back into action thanks to the launch of Happy Land, a factory farm set up just opposite their island paradise. "[Ginger is] a reluctant hero. She's a bit like Ripley in 'Alien.' She is traumatized by what she has lived through. She doesn't want to go back," as "Dawn of the Nugget" producer Layla Hobart explained upon joining Lord and Fell at the Annecy panel.
Much like Tweedy's farm in "Chicken Run," the look of Happy Land in "Dawn of the Nugget" was heavily influenced by classic action-adventure cinema — in this case, the old-school "James Bond" movies. Fell explained:
"We took that and kept pushing it and exaggerated this factory farm so it had a Bond villain's layout with ridiculous security. It gave us kind of a genre to work in. We got into this notion of it being a Bond movie with chickens."
The Dawn of the Nugget voice cast
Aardman found itself at the center of a maelstrom of negative press in 2020 when original Ginger voice actor Julia Sawalha revealed she would not be returning for "Dawn of the Nugget," having been informed that her voice "now sounds 'too old'" for the role. That decision comes across as being all the more ageist and otherwise perplexing now, in light of the news that the "Chicken Run" sequel will take place over a decade after the events of the first movie.
Mind you, Mel Gibson isn't coming back to reprise Rocky, either, which I think we can all agree is definitely for the best. Unfortunately, Aardman's attempts to avoid further controversy by recasting Rocky aren't going so swimmingly — what with Gibson's replacement on "Dawn of the Nugget," "Shazam!" actor Zachary Levi, having recently made vague anti-vax statements, in addition to following the misleadingly-named homophobic group "Gays Against Groomers" on Twitter.
Thankfully, the rest of the sequel's voice cast has come together without a hitch, with Thandiwe Newton ("Westworld") now voicing Ginger and "The Last of Us" star Bella Ramsey voicing Molly. Returning cast members include Imelda Staunton (Bunty), Lynn Ferguson (Mac), and Jane Horrocks (Babs), with David Bradley taking over for the late Benjamin Whitrow as the elderly rooster Fowler (that old sausage!), and Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays now voicing Ginger's rat-y associates Nick and Fetcher.
The Dawn of the Nugget production team
"Dawn of the Nugget," as mentioned earlier, is being directed by Sam Fell, an animation veteran whose credits include Aardman's well-received computer-animated film "Flushed Away" and Laika's acclaimed stop-motion horror-comedy "ParaNorman" (which he co-helmed with Chris Butler). Its story comes from "Chicken Run" writers Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell, with Rachel Tunnard ("Military Wives") having joined the duo in penning the screenplay. At the bare minimum, we can count on the sequel boasting fabulous stop-motion animation. Aardman has only further refined their craft of late, while at the same time retaining their charmingly hand-made style (as most recently evidenced by their "Star Wars: Visions" short, "I Am Your Mother").
As for Fell, he seems well aware he's treading on sacred ground with his "Chicken Run" sequel, telling the Annecy crowd he was drawn to the characters returning from the first movie. "They're so vivid that everyone knows them 23 years later," he noted. The filmmaker also seems to be tuned in to the delicate alchemy that made the original film as lively and funny as it was moving, which is encouraging. "The other thing is the execution. It is taking a brilliant line between dark and dramatic and light and funny," Fell observed.