Sometimes a concept so hideous and disturbing enters your brain and refuses to leave no matter how much you want to dismiss it and even though it’s my responsibility as an underpaid (sorry, I meant unpaid) reviewer to speak these thoughts into the ether, this causes me legitimate discomfort to voice it: does anyone else think Aardman animation has dropped off in the last couple of years?
It’s a far cry from the glory days of Oscar winning shorts, box office conquering debut features and various other iconic doings from a bunch of grown adults who get their kicks fiddling with plasticine, but the last few years hasn’t really seen the studio firing on all cylinders and it may become even more apparent when you settle down to watch the incredibly belated sequel to their first-ever feature, Chicken Run. Is the house Wallace And Gromit built suddenly getting foundations of clay, or can this sequel force these nagging doubts to shut the cluck up.
After the beleaguered former inmates of Tweedy’s Chicken Farm managed to escape a fate being turned into pies, they’ve since found peace after building an idyllic sanctuary where the likes of Ginger, Rocky, Bunty, Babs and the rest can live out the rest of their chickeny lives in peace. In fact, Ginger and Rocky have settled down so much they’ve given birth to a fearless, headstrong daughter, Molly, who give her parents a different kind of anxiety as she yearns to leave the sanctuary to explore.
However, while the once intrepid Ginger has now become something of a helicopter parent who openly frets about her daughter’s safety, she’s given a fresh jolt of panic when a new road opens up on the other side of the river from where the free free range roam. Soon vans start using it with the logo Fun-Land Farms emblazoned on the sides and this finally is the straw that breaks the camel’s back as Molly finally leaves the sanctuary and crosses the lake to get to the other side.
After meeting fellow poultry adventurer, Frizzle, the two head on to Fun-Land Farm to see if its as exciting as their logo makes out, but while the organisation is suspiciously laid out like a supervillain’s compound, the two naive chicklets find that the interior is a veritable playground for chickens that keeps them happy and relaxed. However, when Ginger and Rocky find that their errant child has gone walkabout, they rope Bunty, Babs, Mac and Folwer (not to mention rodent con artists Nick and Fetcher) in to mount a dangerous rescue mission to discover the truth behind what Fun-Land Farms is really up to.
But what are they up to? Well, unbeknownst to Ginger, she’s about to run into an old enemy whose hatred of chickens hasn’t exactly mellowed over the years…
Look, the nature of Aardman and how they have helped keep the magic of stop motion animation alive, despite dipping their wriggling toes into the realms of CGI from time to time, will alway garner unlimited levels of respect from me. In fact, the first Chicken Run was something of a seminal experience for me and is still a genuine source of childlike joy even now due to the fact that it’s basically perfect. Taking that eccentric, British sense of humour forged in the likes of A Grand Day Out and The Wrong Trousers and spinning it out into a flawless pastiche of The Great Escape, the movie managed to throw together a beautiful, 40s, wartime design ethic, the quaint nature of a 70s Hovis television ad and some razor sharp jokes that gave us a prisoner of war camp movie for family viewing that also carried some pretty major stakes.
However, while I understand that a staggering twenty three years have passed since Ginger and her feathery friends went over the fence and that audiences have changed in that time, there’s something of a disappointing feeling that Dawn Of The Nugget isn’t really matching to the beat of its own drumstick. For a start, gone is that previous aesthetic that harkens back to a more traditional era in favour of a far more modern tone that swaps out chicken farms masquerading as POW camps for ones that resemble the huge, technologically advanced bases usually reserved for the likes of supervillains and the type of people who hate James Bond. While this isn’t an issue in of itself, it’s also putting Aardman in a sandbox that’s been a bit overused as of late – not only has two Incredibles movies been set in similar circumstances but virtually every single Despicable Me movie has taken the form of some bumbling, hi-tech heist that’s one part Mission: Impossible to two parts Bond with some Marvel-esque visuals throwing in for good measure. One of Aardman’s biggest virtues is that they tend to be completely unique when compared to such contemporaries as Disney, Pixar or Ghibli.
Maybe this wouldn’t have been such an issue if I also didn’t feel something of a weird disconnect with the characters. While some of the changes make perfect sense – Ginger has lost her daredevil fighting edge in favour of being an overprotective mother – others seem poorly thought out such as Rocky seemingly having no narrative purpose other than to pull an occasional prat fall when a scene needs to rnd on a cheap gag. What also isn’t helping (although this won’t be a problem for younger viewers) is that the changes in voice actors also brought me out of the movie a little bit as Thandiwe Newton and Zachery Levi sound noticably different from Julia Sawalha and Mel Gibson.
While all this dumping on Aardman for turning in a colourful, but strangely empty romp is making me feel uncomfortable, there are flashes of the old magic here and there. The animation is gorgeous as always, the film takes a few friendly visual jabs at propeties that are too adult for its childish audience to get (Squid Game, anyone?), Bella Ramsey’s Molly is refreshingly not irritating and there’s still that sense of the surreal floating around about the place (exploding robo-ducks). However, surely the best thing about Chicken Run is the resplendent return of Miranda Richardson’s Melisha Tweedy who has had something of an impressive glow up from stern – possibly psychotic – farmer’s wife to full blown arch villain with mad scientist husband/henchmen and numerous goons stationed about her place.
There’s still room for the odd crackerjack joke too – the retinal scan gag feels like vintage Aardman – but while it moves like a rocket and is rainbow coloured fun, it’s missing the inherent darkness that lurked around the edges of the original movie that was far more dirty and lived in than this more sparkling follow up. In fact, not even pulling out the old trick of having one of the more expendable chickens bite the bullet can’t invoke the hold the hold the first film had upon you.
Still silly and still fun, Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget nevertheless feels like the animation giant only operating at a fraction of their power and as a result, this feels like a chicken dinner that’s only been half cooked. With another feature length Wallace and Gromit entry due for Christmas 2024, here’s hoping Aardman can get it’s act together before it cocks things up.
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