Technical data:
Director: Sam Fell
Producer: Steve Pegram, Leyla Hobart
Screenplay: Karey Kirkpatrick, John O'Farrell, Rachel Tunnard
Main actors: Thandiwe Newton, Bella Ramsey, Zachary Levi, Nick Mohammed, Miranda Richardson
Production company: Netflix, Aardman
Overview (from IMDb): After escaping from Tweedy's farm, Ginger has found a quiet island sanctuary for the whole gang. But back on the mainland, the entire chicken family faces a new threat, and Ginger and her crew decide to break in.
Review:
WARNING: The following review contains Spoilers.
Before talking about this movie, I want to talk about its predecessor, "Chicken run", which is my favorite animated movie, since it breaks with established tropes and schemes in animation and uses a strong theme and some black or off-color jokes, which could qualify it as a PG-13 movie; as they are: An empowered female protagonist with strong sisterhood ideals, references (almost direct) to the holocaust, somber tones, deaths, an escape plot, a political message, etc., all done with excellent Stop-Motion animation.
23 years after the release of "Chicken Run" comes its sequel, which completely destroys the legacy of its older sister. Let's start with the most obvious, the plot and the script, which here are much more childish, since all the jokes are calm, there are no violent references and the plot is much lighter. All this is noticeable from the beginning, which is a montage of Molly (Ginger and Rocky's daughter) growing up as a rebellious daughter, since her parents won't let her leave the island where she lives, while a pop song plays in the background. Here 2 clichés are evident: 1. The overprotective parents who lived a tragic past that they do not tell their daughter to avoid... (it is not clear in the movie), 2. The montage of Molly's growth, very far from the beginning of the first movie which was Ginger trying to escape from Tweedy's farm.
Another big problem with this film is the "flanderization" (which in short is the exaggeration of a character's trait, which ends up turning it into a caricature of itself) or abrupt changes in the personality of several characters such as:
-Ginger: Here she goes from being a rebel to a typical overprotective mother and a coward, since she does not always feel determined to enter the farm.
-Rocky: From the first movie this rooster was somewhat clumsy, but made up for it with some cunning and charisma. In the second one, he's portrayed as a complete idiot who does everything impulsively.
-Babs: Although this hen wasn't always smart, she did have common sense. In this movie they took away his brain.
Something I also noticed is the lack of the criticism and brutality of the first movie, because although in this one there is some criticism with the brainwashing of the hens (which I feel is a reference to the media management and the addiction to technology), it is not as shocking or as present as in the 2000 movie.
In terms of aesthetics I like the use of Stop-Motion, as in this film is much more detailed; but this is a double-edged sword, because having so many details and colors takes away the dark and melancholic atmosphere of its older sister (which went more for sepia tones and the few details it had were lugubrious), and this affects especially the nugget factory, because if it had a more abandoned or dark look you would feel that it really is a place you would not like to enter, but the factory is so colorful that it takes away the evil. Also, the setting doesn't fit a lot of times, because this movie takes place 10 years after the first one (which takes place in the 50's), and things like the weapons in the nugget factory and even some expressions that the characters use make this movie look like it's set in the 2010's-2020's.
In this movie there is a serious script hole, which is: Why is Mrs. Tweedy still alive, because in the first movie a board falls on her and literally crushes her, and in the second movie she is still alive, because in the second movie a board falls on her and literally crushes her, and in the third movie she is still alive.
Conclusion: "Chicken Run" had set the bar very high and an excellent job had to be done to at least match it. "Chicken Run 2: The Dawn of the Nuggets" doesn't even try, it takes away everything that made the original movie great and turns it into a walking cliche and very childish, that, if it hadn't been because it is a sequel to what for many is the best movie by Aardman and dreamworks, it would have gone unnoticed as another disappointment made by Netflix.
Rating: 4.5/10
Links:
Official Trailer:
Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chicken_run_dawn_of_the_nugget