Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget returns to the world of the heist-headed chicks in its long-awaited Netflix sequel. But this time around, instead of breaking out of Mrs. Tweedy’s farm, they have to break in.
After the events of the original, Ginger (now voiced by Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi) are living with the rest of the gang on an idyllic island getaway. However, when their daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey) hears about an exciting new opportunity on the mainland, their world is upended as she gets trapped in a new facility run by Tweedy.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, director Sam Fell (who’s also known for his work on Flushed Away) explains they drew from some unexpected films for the Netflix sequel. "The Truman Show is in there," he says. "Chicken Impossible is in there, and we looked early on story-wise, thinking about Ginger, at Aliens. In the way that Ripley was haunted by her experience in the previous film and how she just did not want to go down to the planet again."
They even looked further afield to Rise of the Planet of the Apes too, which Fell says inspired the chickens’ island home. "At the beginning of that movie, Caesar and the apes are hidden away in the redwood forests, and they have their own beautiful, lantern-lit place."
It wasn’t just cultural references that Fell wanted to bring in, but also to evoke the horror aspects of the first movie. Back in 2000’s Chicken Run, the stakes are gigantic as the team works out how to escape being made into pies. This time around, the sequel is exploring the growth of fast food, and given its title, you can see where it might be going...
Fell explains that they didn’t want to shy away from the spine-tingling sequences facing our winged heroes, but it was a discussion about how much they could push it. "When I came in, I asked the producers and Carla Shelley, who has been there forever and kind of runs the place, to be honest. I asked her, 'Are we doing that? Can we do that now?' They did then but you don't see it as much so can we do that? And she said, 'Yeah, I think we should because it just makes it watchable, it makes you invest in the characters even more when you know what they're facing.'"
Another balance that was key to making the film was how to keep the heart of the original with a bigger canvas. This was something Puppets Team Leader Anne King, who has been with Aardman since the original, says they felt comfortable doing because so many of the crew returned for the sequel.
"It just brings back so many memories of that first time and all the things we learned," she tells GamesRadar+. "That was the first time we'd ever done a feature film and it was a lot of learning on the job to get it to work. Having all that experience under your belt, we were quite ambitious with what we wanted to do because we knew what we could really get away with this time around."
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget arrives in theaters on December 8 and on Netflix on December 15. For what else to stream, check out our guides to the best Netflix movies and the best Netflix shows currently available.
