Chicken Run was a film from Aardman Animation by Dreamworks, that came out around 2000. It’s about a group of egg-laying chickens who live on a farm in Yorkshire, England. When a rooster arrives on the scene he convinces the hens to escape the farm. It was such a hit that it spawned a sequel called Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. The sequel will be out on the streaming service Netflix this holiday season.

The sequel finds Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi) living the good life on an island with their daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us) with the rest of the flock of chickens who escaped the farm years before. When word gets out that there is a factory in the surrounding hills they start to get worried. Could their kind be threatened once again?

As the title suggests the threat to chickens is real once again. It’s not a pie-making factory but worse this new factory has created a way of making chicken nuggets. There is a doctor named, ironically Doctor Fry (Nick Mohammed, Ted Lasso He tries to give the chickens a good life before stuffing them out. His boss Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) is back with revenge in her heart. She hasn’t forgotten how she was treated by the chickens the last time they escaped the farm.

Aardman Animation is famous for molding a special clay into figurines and they are in turn moved excruciatingly slowly which creates the animation. They have had a few other animated films besides Chicken Run, namely Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Shaun the Sheep Movie, and Early Man just to name a few. They have made Animation fresh and new, separating themselves from the computer animation studios. This is one of their best movies yet.

With the previous film in this series being a fun adventure film the steaks had to be raised in this sequel. The factory in and of itself is a death trap for chicken-kind and that leads to quite the adventure for the band of chickens. Mac (Lynn Ferguson), Babson (Jane Horrocks) Bunny (Imelda Staunton), and Fowler (David Bradley) are all chickens who have a vested interest in destroying this death trap known as a factory. Throw in a couple of crazy rats Nick (Romesh Ranganathan) and Fletcher (Daniel Mays) and you have a ragtag band of misfits who have a common goal. The sequel upped the ante for these chickens which led to a fun crazy adventure-filled animated movie. 

The animated feed for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is stacked this year with films from Disney, Pixar, Studio Ghibli, Illumination, and other newer animation studios. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is one of the best-animated films of the year from the perspective of this humble film critic. It has all the things I want in an animated film. A relatable story with interesting characters and in this case a fun adventure which kept me riveted throughout. There were laughs and touching moments included as well. This is going to be a hit with kids and adults alike this holiday season. Netflix has a hit on its hands 23 years after the original movie came out.

4 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen