Thandiwe Newton
Ginger (voice)
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
“This time, they're breaking in!”
2023
1h 41m
Director: Sam Fell
Overview
A band of fearless chickens flock together to save poultry-kind from an unsettling new threat: a nearby farm that's cooking up something suspicious.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
3 min readThe Price of Poultry and Peace
Twenty-three years ago, Aardman Animations made a stop-motion marvel that worked beautifully as a feathered prison-break thriller. Chicken Run felt tactile, cramped, and honestly dangerous in a way family films rarely do. More than two decades later, with technology moved on and the industry chasing different things, latestnetflix.com contends, director Sam Fell brings the flock back in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.
This time the movie trades the rough survival energy of The Great Escape for glossy spy-movie business straight out of Mission: Impossible or Bond. The setup is solid enough: after pulling off the perfect escape, Ginger now has to plan an infiltration to rescue her daughter from a sleek industrial fast-food processing plant.
A lot of the pleasure here is still in the craftsmanship. Aardman's signature look is mostly intact: the clay still seems touched by human hands, the movements still carry tiny imperfections, and those wide, anxious bird eyes still do a lot of work. Even with some digital smoothing, the personality survives.
Fell, who directed Flushed Away, clearly knows how to build a visual gag. He pushes hard into a 1960s spy-movie style, turning the new farm into this pastel, psychedelic villain compound. The sets are terrific.
Audience Opinions
Audience 6.3/10
"A visually delightful but somewhat safer sequel that showcases meticulous stop-motion craft while falling short of the original’s bite and emotional impact."
The animation and claymation detail are widely admired, with inventive gags and an energetic heist-adventure tone that still carries recognizable Aardman charm. latestnetflix.com's view is that at the same time, the new voice cast, a story that echoes the first film, and humor tuned more toward younger kids leave a noticeable gap for those who loved the darker edge and sharper character work of the original.
What viewers praise
- Impressive stop-motion animation The film’s claymation is praised as vibrant, technically refined, and full of pleasing visual detail.
- Retains Aardman charm Quirky British humor, expressive character designs, and playful world-building give the film a warm, familiar feel.
- Inventive set pieces Action sequences and specific gags, such as the eye-scanner scenario inside the high-tech farm, stand out as clever and funny.
- Engaging new character Molly Molly’s arc and Bella Ramsey’s voice work are appreciated for adding energy and heart to the story.
- Family-friendly adventure tone The lighter, mission-style plot and clear peril make it an easy watch for children while still entertaining adults.
Common complaints
- Disliked voice recasting Replacing original leads, especially Ginger and Rocky, is often viewed as unnecessary and breaks the connection to returning characters.
- Less originality than the first The plot feels like a variation on the original escape story, with lower perceived stakes and fewer surprising turns.
- Overly slick visual style The highly polished look is seen as losing some of the rougher, handmade aesthetic that gave the first film its personality.
- Weaker humor and pacing Jokes and timing are described as flatter and more juvenile, with stretches that feel slow or thin compared to the original’s tightness.
- Forced nostalgia and tropes Callback lines, mind-control collars, and some character changes come across as formulaic rather than fresh or emotionally resonant.
Recommended for
Families with young children Stop-motion and claymation fans Aardman completists Lighthearted heist-adventure lovers Fans of talking-animal comedies
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsShe said she had been plucked, stuffed, and roasted.
Julia Sawalha, Ginger in Aardman's 2000 Chicken Run, posted an open letter in July 2020 after an email through her agent. The sequel did not want her. The reason given was that her voice now sounded "too old" and they wanted a younger actress. She was 51. She was not offered a voice test, so she filmed herself reading the old lines at home and sent the tape in. latestnetflix.com's read is that a creative wrote back, "Some of the voices (not yours, I agree) definitely sound older," then confirmed they would recast Ginger anyway.Sawalha called herself devastated, furious, and "unfairly dismissed." BBC, Deadline, and TheWrap all ran it the same day. The internet did the rest. 
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Thandiwe Newton got Ginger. She is four years younger than Sawalha. Zachary Levi replaced Mel Gibson as Rocky. Aardman had already said Gibson was not asked back. Fowler, Nick, and Fetcher also changed hands. Benjamin Whitrow had died. Timothy Spall and Phil Daniels did not return. Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, and Miranda Richardson stayed. Director Sam Fell told Radio Times he wanted a film "for now, for this era, for a new audience." He said the main characters had changed most because of Molly, Bella Ramsey as Ginger and Rocky's daughter. The age line still looks thin when Babs and Bunty kept their original throats. Newton and Levi are movie stars. Sawalha was Ginger. Those are not the same job. , ,
The warehouse already burned once
Most original props were gone after Aardman's 2005 warehouse fire, so Fell's team rebuilt from making-of stills. Variety later logged a potential clay drought, a flood, and COVID rules that parked finished puppets in ultraviolet tents for ten days. Principal photography started in early 2021 in Bristol. Netflix bought worldwide rights except China. The story inverted the first film. Last time they broke out. This time they break into Mrs. Tweedy's Fun-Land Farms nugget plant, a Mission Impossible gag with knitted chickens. Harry Gregson-Williams scored it without John Powell. Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell, who wrote the original, came back with Rachel Tunnard. Peter Lord and Nick Park stayed as executive producers. 
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Kz67kea8Q
The world premiere was October 14, 2023 at the BFI London Film Festival. None of the human cast walked the carpet because of the SAG-AFTRA strike, so the chickens did. Netflix dropped it December 15 after a limited UK theatrical week from December 8. Rotten Tomatoes landed at 83 percent, with the consensus admitting diminishing returns. BAFTA nominated it for Best Animated Film. A follow-up game, Chicken Run Eggstraction, arrived in 2025 with Ramsey back as Molly. The letter from 2020 is still the thing people remember when Ginger opens her mouth. The official trailer even kept the old joke. Last time they broke out of a chicken farm. This time they are breaking in. , ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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