Aardman Animation has always been at the forefront of clay animation, but what puts them at the front of the filmmaking process is their ability to use whimsical humour, something that suits the Britishness of the products. In 2000, they produced Chicken Run, an affectionate pastiche of The Great Escape but with chickens. Twenty-three years later, we get the sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, and once again, the Bristol-based company have delivered a gently witty and sweet-natured spoof of the 60s spy movies. Yet if all the same ingredients are in place, why was it just good and not as good as the original?

Ginger, Rocky and the other chickens who escaped from Tweedy’s farm are now living a life of freedom on an idyllic island. Ginger and Rocky have a daughter, Molly, who is fascinated by what life is like off the island. One day, she finds herself on the mainland and is enticed by a truck showing a wonderland for chickens. However, it turns out that this is a factory for making the perfect chicken nuggets. Knowing Molly has gone, Ginger gets the gang together to save her. Instead of breaking out of a farm, they are breaking in this time.

The animation, as you would expect from Aardman, is excellent. They have honed their creative side, and now the clay figures are smooth, not a fingerprint in sight. This time, instead of the darker colours of the first film, this is brimming with colour and brightness to entrap and confuse the captured chickens in the factory, but the darkness is still hidden away from the creatures’ eyes. Director Sam Fell, who gave us the 2006 Flushed Away, is skilled in stop motion, and it shows.

Where, perhaps, his skills seem to falter is the lightness in touch with the pacing and humour. The film takes its time to really kick into action. We get the re-introduction of the key characters from the first film and get the audience to meet Molly, a younger version of her mother, with the same mentality for adventure. It’s not until the gang goes to the factory to break out Molly that the film really kicks into gear; with some inventive nods to Mission: Impossible and Bond, it almost runs out of steam during the final act, as if everyone ran out of energy.

The film madly misses Peter Lord and Nick Park, the kings of the studio. They manage to bring that gentleness and, dare I say, British touch to the humour. There are occasions when the film goes done some more lurid gags that somehow sit uncomfortably within the confines of what we know the company have produced in the past. It also could have been done with some trimming. Running just over 90 minutes may not seem too long but the final act doesn’t grab as much as the rest of the film and so could have been swifter to get to the final scenes.

There also doesn’t seem to be the same energy from the voice cast. Julia Sawalha and Mel Gibson were both dropped. Gibson because of his past convictions and Sawalha, more controversially, because they thought her voice sounded “too old”. Other characters were recast including the rats, previously played by Tim Spall and Phil Daniels, as well as some of the bast actors sadly passing. Some of the replacements work, while others don’t bring that same vocal sparkle.

Like Ginger, Thandiwe Newton is fine but needs more urgency and energy than Sawalha had. At the same time, Rocky is substituted with Shazam star Zachary Levi, who seems slightly out of place compared to Gibson. Returners Jane Horrocks as Babs, Imelda Staunton as Bunty and Lynn Ferguson as Mac are still fun. Even new rats Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays are good, and you wonder who did their voices in the first place. The strongest is Bella Ramsey as Molly. She brings the right pace and energy needed to keep the attention and get her character to life.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nuggets is a good film. It’s fun, often inventive and a pleasure to have another Aardman film to their credit. The original film was always going to be a hard act to follow, but they do often get close. But sadly, it’s the pacing that lets the film down.

3 out of 5

Director: Sam Fell

Starring: Thandiwe Newton, Zachery Levi, Bella Ramsey, Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, Romesh Ranganathan, Daniel Mays, David Bradley, Josie Sedgwick-Davies, Peter Serafinowicz, Nick Mohammed, Miranda Richardson.

Written by: Rachel Tunnard, (also story) Karey Kirkpatrick, John O’Farrell, (additional material) Mark Burton, Holly Walsh, Lynn Ferguson, Ben Willbond, Laurence Rickard, (based on the characters created) Peter Lord and Nick Park

Running Time: 101 mins

Cert: PG

Release date: 8th December 2023 (Netflix release: 15th December 2023)