It’s been a very long incubation period (of over two decades), but now there are just a few months left to wait until the second chapter of Chicken Run finally hatches.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget will be released on Netflix in December, and now the streamer has just released new images and the film’s first trailer.
Happily, the motley crew, including Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi) are back, but danger once again looms on the horizon. After years spent enjoying their hard-earned tranquility, there’s now a new threat in the form of a mystery factory. So, reluctantly, the chickens decide to tackle it head on.
In order to secure their future, they try and break into the highly-guarded complex to investigate.
“It’s an impossible mission,” says Nick (Romesh Ranganathan), one of the rats. The chickens have to pass an electric fence, “camera-driven gun-toting moles”, and “the laser-guided exploding ducks”.
“That place is impenetrable,” he continues.
“Yeah, and you can’t get in, neither,” says his rat friend, Fetcher (Daniel Mays).
Although most of the characters are returning for part two, some of the voice cast has changed: David Bradley replaces Benjamin Whitrow as Fowler the rooster, and Jane Horrocks replaces Jane Horrocks as chicken Babs.
However, Imelda Staunton returns to play chicken Bunty, Lynn Ferguson returns to play Ginger’s assistant Mac, and, most importantly perhaps, Miranda Richardson returns to play the terrifying Mrs Melisha Tweedy.
Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us) is joining the cast to play Ginger and Rocky’s daughter, Molly.
News of a second film has, predictably, divided fans. The first film was, after all, total perfection and it will be difficult to make a part two which comes even close to being as marvellous.
“This is going to be clucking good,” commented one fan under the trailer. “As a person who saw the original and loved it I am happy to see something like this again but still I didn’t think we needed a sequel to such a good and classical movie,” commented another.
“I really hope they don’t screw this one up!” said a third.
The first film was released in 2000. It smashed the Box Office, became the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time (a title it still holds), picked up a tonne of awards, and was met with near-universal acclaim: critics described it as, “a great eggscape from banality”, a “treat”, “a warm, witty delight” and praised its “delicious absurdity”.
