Film Review: Chicken Run sequel Dawn of the Nugget is big peck-ture entertainment

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. Picture: Netflix

• Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
• ★★★☆☆
• Netflix

A belated sequel to Chicken Run (2000), Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (PG) follows the adventures of the irrepressible teen chicken Molly (voiced by Bella Ramsey) as she seeks to free her feathered chums from Fun-Land Farms, an outfit that has discovered the limitless potential of the chicken nugget.

When the self-proclaimed ‘free lone ranger’ infiltrates Fun-Land, however, the story simply reverses the original’s plot: there the chickens needed to break out, but here Molly’s parents Ginger (Thandie Newton) and Rocky the Rooster (Zachary Levi) need to break in to rescue Molly from the axe-wielding Mrs Tweedy (Miranda Richardson).

Expect plenty of poultry-related gags, each one more fowl (sorry) than the last, and gorgeous stop-motion clay animation from the venerable Aardman Studios — it’s not quite on a par with the superb Wallace and Gromit material, but it’s all very pleasant family-friendly fun.