A trip to the cinema followed by a bite to eat is a staple treat of the school holidays. But the plot of one of this season’s big family films may mean the traditional stop-off afterwards suddenly seems less appetising.
In Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, in cinemas on Friday, thousands of hens must be rescued from a nugget factory where they are kept in a state of stupefied joy by remote control lobotomising collars. This, a scientist explains, is because when a bird is frightened, “its muscles tense and the connective tissue forms knots”, resulting in “tough, dry and flavourless meat”. Reprogramming a chicken’s response to the horror of being “processed” should radically improve flavour and sales.
