Those chatty British chickens have been supersized.
Now, instead of the quaint country cry of “I don’t want to be a pie!” from the 2000 claymation classic “Chicken Run,” the fed-up cluckers battle a bigger foe that has more trans fats: a fast-food factory in the silly sequel “Dawn of the Nugget.”
Running time: 101 minutes. Rated PG (peril, action and some thematic elements). On Netflix Dec. 15.
The ee-i-ee-i-old farmyard charm is missed, I’ll admit, and the pressure put on the film to modernize and amp things up after two decades away is perceptible. Remember, when the original hit theaters Pixar had only three movies under its belt.
But the second “Chicken Run” grabs you by the giblets anyway, thanks to its terrific returning voice cast of big-personality Brits, such as bubbly Jane Horrocks and Imelda Staunton (who, in the 23 intervening years, has gone from the coop to Buckingham Palace) and earnestly funny writing.
Netflix, to its credit, has not laid an egg.
Rocky the Rooster (Mel Gibson has not come back; he’s instead voiced by Zachary Levi) and Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) from the first film, however, have. Their cute baby chick is named Molly (Bella Ramsey from “Game of Thrones”), and she’s been raised on a protective island faraway from the deadly farm her parents bravely escaped from.
Of course, as curious young adults are wont to do, Molly starts to dream of the outside world. The idyllic freedom her parents risked their feathers for is, for her, a prison. And so Molly hightails it to a distant oasis across the water that she spots on a truck — Fun-Land Farms: “Where chickens find their happy endings.”
Uh oh, Molly’s KFC.
Indeed, she winds up stuck in a drive-through death trap with her bird-brained pal Frizzle, and at first they’re entranced by what looks like a miniature golf course with all the feed they can eat.
This is where director Sam Fell and screenwriters Karey Kirkpatrick, John O’Farrell and Rachel Tunnard’s intelligent mischief cranks up. Fun-Land combines Aldous Huxley’s dystopian “Brave New World” — all the chickens are brainwashed into satisfied submission — with the fattening up of “Hansel and Gretel.” It’s Grimm’s Poultry Tales.
Coming to the rescue, Ginger, Rocky and the rest embark on a complicated mission with plenty of “Mission: Impossible” references.
Despite the newfangled attitude, the claymation (original director Nick Park also created “Wallace and Gromit” and “Shaun the Sheep”) still has that old-school, instantly endearing caveman quality from the 2000 movie. It’s a soulful looking film, even with the addition of complex machines and an “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” 1960s aesthetic — especially when it comes to resurrected villain Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson).
“Dawn of the Nugget” is not the best roast chicken you’ve ever had. But it remains a clever and just-scary-enough good time for kids. Even a CostCo rotisserie can really hit the spot.
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