It was not until I was about to sit down and start watching Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget that I realized that I had made a culinary faux pas with my chicken dinner.  If you are not familiar with either this recent sequel, or the original Chicken Run (2000), then you will likely not grasp the irony.  You see, both of these films deal with poultry attempting to escape their tasty fate.  This might sound like a fever dream, but the first one is quite clever.  Indeed, it is a personal favorite.  Thus, when I happened across a follow up, which I had no idea had been in the works, then naturally I had to take a look.  As crazy as this might sound, the first is among the most clever films I have ever seen.  That is high praise coming from me, so the follow up has a high standard to meet.  I am not sure it hit the mark, but it seemed to have fun trying.

Since it has been over twenty years since we last saw these characters, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget catches you up on how this group of fowl came to live on an island in the middle of a lake.  Led there by the bold hen, Ginger (voiced by Thandiwe Newton), they escaped the Tweedy poultry farm and a fate of being baked into pies.  On their haven, they have built a civilization for themselves, and Ginger and her rooster, Rocky (voiced by Zachary Levi), are eagerly anticipating the hatching of their first chick.  This little birdie is to grow up to be Molly (voiced by Bella Ramsey).  She possesses her mother’s bravery and her father’s wanderlust.  Indeed, her favorite activity is to perch atop the trees and watch civilization across the lake.  A time or two, she manages to stowaway aboard Fetcher (voiced by Daniel Mays) and Nick’s (voiced by Romesh Ranganathan) raft.  They are two rat friends that occasionally bring the chickens supplies from the outside world.  In addition to Molly’s designs on getting away, there is an added fear for Ginger in the encroachment of human civilization in the form of a road built on the other side of the water.  Of interest among the trucks that soon pass down it are ones labeled with happy faces of chickens.  To Molly, they are fascinating and seem to promise something fun and exciting.  For Ginger, they are an indication of a nearby poultry farm and more suffering for her kind.  Because of these fears, when she calls together her island co-inhabitants, she proposes that they take measures to stay concealed rather than do anything about this potential problem, a course of action that takes those her know her well by surprise.  She feels this way because she does not want Molly to venture off.  Of course, this is what the young chicken does.  Not long after making it across the lake, she meets Frizzle (voiced by Josie Sedgwick-Davies), another chicken who has gotten away from a farm.  In her case, it is not by choice, but rather she had missed out on her fellow fowl being transported to Fun Land Farms.  These are the cheery lories Molly had noticed, and which had excited her curiosity.  As luck would have it, a vehicle with its sunny logo passes their way, and they track it down to a nearby gas station.  Its driver takes the two of them as poultry attempting to bolt, and throws them into the back with the rest.  Ginger, Rocky, and other familiar beaks catch up with Frizzle and Molly just as it is pulling away from the service station.  Though they are not able to free Molly, they at least know where she is going.  In spite of its inviting name, Fun Land Farms is a seemingly impregnable fortress with all kinds of modern defenses to keep out unwanted intruders.  Frizzle and Molly do not notice any of this, and instead are ushered inside to a theme park-like atmosphere that is everything they hoped it would be.  Yet, before too long Molly begins to notice there is something not right with the other chickens.  They all behave in a vacant, robotically happy manner, unaware of most things going on around them.  This is the result of a collar around their necks, an invention of Dr. Fry (voiced by Nick Mohammed).  As Dr. Fry explains to Reginald Smith (voiced by Peter Serafinowicz), owner of the Sir Eat-A-Lot fast food chain, the lolling happiness of the poultry is key to making better tasting nuggets.  When Reginald is given a taste test of this principle, he promises to return soon to pick up more for his restaurants.  As for Ginger and Rocky, Rocky’s macho attempt to breach the walls goes poorly, but it gives the better planning of Ginger the knowledge of how to defeat the defenses.  Eventually, they are all inside and trying to find Molly.  She had slipped out of the gilded prison to try to find a way to help Frizzle, who had been fitted with one of thee collars and had become yet another drone.  In a moment of which Scooby-Doo would be proud, they bump into each other. However, before they can get away, the true villain behind this enterprise is revealed: Mrs. Melisha Tweedy (voiced by Miranda Richardson).  She had literally been the one pulling the levers before, and now she is seeking revenge.  Mrs. Tweedy manages to capture Ginger and is subjecting her to torture with one of the collars.  Only when everyone meets back up is Ginger freed, and eventually they make it the roof, which is their escape route.  However, Molly will not leave without Frizzle, and thus Ginger chooses to stay with her daughter, this time vowing to free all the chickens.  Doing so means coming beak-to-nose again with Mrs. Tweedy for Ginger, though the chicken triumphs once more.  They then drive Reginald’s truck off the property and make it back to the safety of their island.

Thinking about the characters in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and them worrying about their freedom is stretching believability.  Yet, the original movie worked, and it owes it more to the good writing than any other feature.  There is less of the snappy dialog you see in the first as its sequel goes more for the development of the characters.  Namely, while they all originally longed for freedom beyond the barbed wire of the farm, Ginger had grown content with their little corner of the countryside.  This makes me, in a way, think of what I have read about cloistered orders.  To be sure, the monks and nuns that live in these places are aware of the outside world.  They simply want little of it.  Ginger’s motivation is different from the decisions of the women and men that live these lives.  Her course of action for much of the early part of the film is clearly spurred by fear, particularly since she is keen to protect Molly.  People typically do not enter the religious life out of fear, and if they do, are soon rooted out.  The problem is that Ginger is attempting to hold on to her daughter by force rather than letting her nearly grown-up daughter make her own choices.  This is the essence of Faith.  God cannot make anyone do His will, no matter the miracles and wonders he wrought.  We either choose to be with God, or we risk losing eternity in paradise.  Given that these are chickens and such thoughts are likely not in their heads, it is a lesson that can be gleaned from the proceedings all the same, and The Legionnaire is here to help.

Though Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget does not quite have all the charm of its predecessor, it is still worth watching. The way the animation is done is extraordinary, and they do enough with the concept to make it interesting.  I give this one a recommendation, though I encourage seeing its predecessor first.