Chicken Run

Tonight, I saw the new “Chicken Run” movie. Before I talk about that, I should let everyone know what I thought of the first “Chicken Run” movie, released in 2000, which I saw a few days ago on Netflix.

Mrs. Tweedy isn’t playing around. Despite her cute British name, she’s not a nice chicken farmer. She means business. Early in the film, she separates a chicken that hasn’t been laying its daily egg and sentences it to a chopping block. Since this is an animated film, we expect a joke and a close escape. Not a chance. The chicken gets its head chopped off, the other chickens hear the horrifying sound of the ax – and later, in case there’s the slightest amount of doubt of what happened, we see chicken bones.

It is seriously a matter of life and death for the chickens to escape from the Tweedy Chicken Farm in this DreamWorks animated film that looks and sounds like no other. Roger Ebert said in his review, “Like the otherwise completely different "Babe," this is a movie that uses animals as surrogates for our hopes and fears, and as the chickens run through one failed escape attempt after another, the charm of the movie wins us over.”

Ebert continued, “The film opens as a spoof on World War II prison pictures such as "The Great Escape" and "Stalag 17" (the most important location in the movie is Hut 17).” Most of the chickens are happy with imprisonment and free meals (“Chicken feed! My favorite!”), but one named Ginger has courage and tries one escape attempt after another, always being thrown into the coal hole for a week as her punishment. Her cause grows more urgent when Mrs. Tweedy, voiced by Miranda Richardson, decides to cancel the egg operation and turn all of her chickens into chicken pies.

Ginger, voiced by Julia Sawalha, has tried everything: tunnels, catapults, disguises, deceptions. Mr. Tweedy, voiced by Tony Haygarth, is sure the chickens are planning intelligent escape plans, but can’t convince his wife, who is sure they would never do that. Then a blessing arrives, Rocky the Flying Rooster, voiced by Mel Gibson, an American bird who is on the run from a circus. Well, he can teach the chickens to fly and they can escape that way? Maybe, maybe not. Ebert noted, “There are many adventures before we discover the answer, and the most thrilling follows Ginger and Rocky through the bowels of the chicken pie machine, in an action sequence that owes a little something to the runaway mine train in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." There are tests of daring and skill in the escape plan, but also tests of character, as the birds look into their souls and discover hidden convictions.”

In a more predictable movie, the plot would be on autopilot. Not in “Chicken Run,” which has an original and sometimes darker view of the possibilities. One of the movie’s likability is the way it lets many of the characters stick with weirdness (Ebert noted, “It's set in England in the 1950s and sometimes offers a taste of those sly old Alec Guinness comedies”). Characters like the Royal Air Force veteran rooster with a sneaky secret exist not to move the plot along but to add color and texture: This movie about chickens is more human than many usual comedies.

Ebert noted, “The movie is the first feature-length work by the team of Peter Lord and Nick Park, who have won three Oscars (Park) and two Oscar nominations (Lord) for their work in Claymation, a stop-action technique in which plasticine is minutely changed from shot to shot to give the illusion of 3-D movement. Park is the creator of the immortal Wallace and Gromit, the man and his dog who star in "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave." In "Chicken Run," they bring a startling new smoothness and fluid quality to their art. Traditional clay animation tweaks and prods the clay between every shot; you can almost see the thumbprints. Their more sophisticated approach here is to start with plasticine modeled on articulated skeletons and clothe the models with a "skin" that gives them smoothness and consistency from shot to shot. The final effect is more like "Toy Story" than traditional clay animation.”

Ebert continued, “What I like best about the movie is that it's not simply a plot puzzle to be solved with a clever escape at the end. It is observant about human (or chicken) nature. A recent movie like "Gone in 60 Seconds" is the complete slave of its dimwitted plot and fears to pause for character development, lest the audience find the dialogue slows down the action.”

“Chicken Run,” on the other hand, is not only funny and terrific, clever and visually inventive, but…kind and sweet. Tender and touching. It’s a movie made by men, not machines, and at the end, you don’t feel squeezed out or manipulated, but cheerful and (Ebert said, “(I know this sounds strange”) more hopeful.

I remember seeing commercials for this movie when it was coming out, but I didn’t watch it, probably because I thought I wouldn’t like it. However, when I saw it on Netflix a few days ago, I found out that I was wrong. This is a good movie with a good story. I know this isn’t a new story, as we have seen escape movies done before, but this is a good one for the whole family to watch, especially children. Check it out on Netflix and see what you have been missing.

What can be said for the sequel, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, which came out on the 15^th on Netflix?

It’s been 23 since a flock of brave chickens made a near-death escape from their coop, giving the UK’s stop-motion studio, Aardman, worldwide recognition. “Chicken Run” was the studio’s first film and it remains the highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time. Sara Clements said in her review, “Both crowd-pleasing in its comedy and hard-hitting in its feminist and anti-fascist themes, its success is no surprise. Coined “The Great Escape but with chickens,” it brilliantly navigates the line between light fun and dark drama, and according to Aardman co-found, Peter Lord, the film may have inspired the Academy to introduce the Best Animated Feature category.” Whether or not that’s true, you can see why “Chicken Run” was so loved by audiences back then and why it remains so regarded by them now. The film could have been fine by itself but a sequel also seemed unavoidable. Does “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” match up with the original?

The last time we saw the hasty American rooster Rocky (Zachary Levi) and courageous hen Ginger (Thandie Newton), they had just escaped the prison of Tweedy’s Farm. Now the couple and the rest of the hens have all settled down on an island paradise, hidden away from the dangers and appetites of the human world. Rocky and Ginger are ready to forget the past and take on a life task: parenting. This won’t be an easy task with such an adventurous and rebellious chick. The new parents have a difficult time keeping their daughter, Molly, voiced by Bella Ramsey, safe from her growing curiosity about what’s outside of the island.

When Molly sees a truck carrying chickens to a place called Fun-Land Farms, she sees the picture of a chicken giving the thumbs up while sitting happily on a bucket. She starts to feel sheltered, questioning why she can’t leave. The world can’t be that bad for chickens, can it? Just like her parents did in the first film, Molly is chasing freedom. She leaves the island to simply face the dangers of the outside world on her own, unavoidably finding herself in the same problem as her parents in the first film. Knowing that they can no longer run from what’s going on outside, Ricky, Ginger, and the chickens make a plan to save Molly and other chickens from Fun-Land Farms. This time, they’re breaking in.

Directed by Sam Fell, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” is much bigger in scale than the previous film, with three locations in the story instead of one. The film’s production design is remarkable, especially when you see that Aardman still isn’t that big of a studio. Clements said, “Building sets by hand, the story takes place first in the chicken’s island home that’s surrounded by greenery and full of cozy wooden houses and flowers. Then, the action moves to Fun-Land Farms, whose cheery messaging contradicts its imposing, supervillain compound exterior.” Inside the factory is a utopic, lively area with theme park rides, endless corn, and a room full of chickens mind-controlled by a collar unaware of their fate as a bucket full of nuggets. Aardman’s vision was so large that they had to include CGI for certain parts, like background chickens and environments, but you can’t even tell because it keeps the feel of the original so well.

What also retains the feel of the original is the voice cast. Many of the original cast have returned: Imelda Staunton as the muscle Bunty, Lynn Ferguson as the intelligent Mac, and Jane Horrocks as the knitter Babs. New voices like Newton as Ginger, Levi as Rocky, and David Bradley as the elderly RAF mascot Fowler, are excellent replacements that are natural fits to the characters. New cast members include Bella Ramsey as Molly, Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammad as Fun-Land Farms scientist, Dr. Fry, and the duo rodent of Fletcher and Nick are given new voices of Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays.

Clements said, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is a spirited action adventure with plenty of comical spy hijinks inspired by James Bond and Mission: Impossible. It feels fresh using those different influences, but thankfully still retains a strong female-driven narrative like the first film. The introduction of Molly keeps the stakes high and its story compelling with the relationship between Ginger and Molly and their growth together and as individuals. However, other aspects of the story, like breaking into the film’s new farm, may have seemed like a full circle moment on the page but it comes off as too derivative in execution. The balance between dark and light themes is still present, perhaps thanks to Karey Kirkpatrick returning as a writer, but speaking to the dawn of the fast food industry doesn’t carry the same impact as watching Chicken Run as an adult and realizing it’s an allegory for the Holocaust.” Despite a few complaints, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” is still full of likability and so much humor, ending up with an enjoyable return for this freedom-fighting coop.

I was really surprised with how good of a sequel this was. The runtime of the film went by so quickly that before I knew it, the film was over. Check this out on Netflix if you haven’t seen it and you have seen the first. Everyone will love it, even though you could see similarities between this and “Pinocchio.”

Thank you for joining in on these reviews tonight. Stay tuned tomorrow for the conclusion of “Disney Month 2023.”