Netflix's Latest Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget Trailer Reveals A Kidnapping And A Heist Plot
The last time (and only time) Aardman Animations made a sequel to one of its beloved stop-motion animated features, the result was "A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon," a pretty charming love letter to classic sci-fi cinema. So the bar is set even higher for "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget," the long-awaited follow-up to "Chicken Run." The studio's 2000 riff on "The Great Escape" is still the highest-grossing stop-motion animated movie of all time and, for some animation enthusiasts, remains Aardman's crowning achievement, which is no minor feat. I mean, we're talking about the same studio that "28 Days Later" director Danny Boyle praised for creating "the best action sequence I've ever seen in a film" in "Wallace and Gromit — The Wrong Trousers."
"Dawn of the Nugget" sees the feathered freedom fighter fowl formerly found flocking on Tweedy's Farm living out their dreams of paradise on a lovely island bird sanctuary. But wouldn't you know it, when Ginger and Rocky — who are now voiced by Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi, respectively — have a rebellious daughter of their own named Molly (who's voiced by Bella Ramsey because when you need someone to portray an unruly young upstart, of course you hire the actor who played Lyanna Mormont on "Game of Thrones" and Ellie on "The Last of Us"), the restless young chick sets out in search of adventure, only to be kidnapped and taken to a chicken nugget factory owned by her parents' old nemesis, Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson).
That's right — this time, instead of breaking out of Tweedy's Farm, Rocky, Ginger, and the gang are breaking into Mrs. Tweedy's newly-invented mechanical monstrosity, as you can see from the above trailer for "Dawn of the Nugget."
The chickens come home to roost this December
Mrs. Tweedy's inclusion in "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget" was as much a shock to "Chicken Run" fans as Ginger herself when she popped up in the sequel's first trailer. Director Sam Fell, who previously co-helmed the animated films "Flushed Away," "The Tale of Despereaux," and "ParaNorman," recently explained to Total Film (via GamesRadar+) why he elected to bring back the scheming farmer — who is now married to Dr. Fry (Nick Mohammed), the scientist behind her newly-minted nugget factory — for the sequel:
"We had a male villain first of all. We thought: new movie, new villain. Bond works that way. But the key was, thinking about Ginger as the central character. You think about 'Aliens' — Ripley's haunted by what she went through. That shadow she has to inevitability face again just seems so deep and strong. So it came out of Ginger, needing to have the rematch."
Also returning for this rematch are "Chicken Run" voice actors Jane Horrocks (Babs, still knitting like there's no tomorrow), Lynn Ferguson (Mac, presumably still working on that thrust issue), and Imelda Staunton (Bunty — what, you thought she wouldn't be back, you old sausage?), with Romesh Ranganathan, Daniel Mays, and David Bradley among the fresh additions to the voice cast. We'll see how they and a creative team that includes writers Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell (who wrote the first "Chicken Run") and Rachel Tunnard fare when "Dawn of the Nugget" begins streaming on December 15, 2023, on Netflix.
For Ginger and the flock, all is at stake when the dangers of the human world come home to roost; they'll stop at nothing even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk to save chicken-kind. This time, they're breaking in!