Netflix animation film “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nuggets”, which was released a few days ago, is the latest work from Aardman Animations, which has given us a series of charming and entertaining animation films ranging from “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” (2005) to “Shaun the Sheep” (2015). Although it sadly does not reach to the level of its predecessor “Chicken Run” (2000), the film still has a fair share of wit and charm for us, and that may be enough for you if you simply want to kill your spare time.

As some of you remember, nearly all of the chicken characters in “Chicken Run” gloriously succeed in escaping together from their evil owner at the end of that film, and the early part of the “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nuggets” shows how they have freely lived on an isolated island during next several years. For example, Ginger (voiced by Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (voiced by Zachary Levi) officially become a couple, and they subsequently have a little daughter named Molly (voiced by Bella Ramsey), who soon causes some headache for both Ginger and Rocky as she becomes quite eager to explore the outside world. Ginger naturally tries to hold Molly as much as possible, but, of course, that makes Molly all the more determined about getting out of the island than before.

On one day, Molly happens to learn about some big place which looks like a really special place for chickens, and she certainly becomes curious about this supposedly special place in question. In the end, she manages to sneak out of the island, and Rocky and Molly certainly become quite worried about that. In the end, they and several other chickens form a rescue team, and then they quickly go after Molly despite being well aware of the possible risks in front of them.

Meanwhile, Molly happens to encounter a little young chicken around her age, and these two young chickens soon find themselves taken to that supposedly special place for chickens along with a bunch of other chickens. The place looks pretty nice to them at first, but, not so surprisingly, it turns out that there is a truly diabolical plan behind this place, and Molly and her new friend belatedly come to realize that after noticing something quite odd and strange about those chickens living there.

When Ginger and her fellow chickens later arrive at that place, it does not take much time for them to discern that Molly gets herself into a really big trouble, but their main opponent, who is eventually revealed around the middle of the story, turns out to be pretty nasty and formidable to say the least. Quite determined to settle some old score in the past, this figure in question is already ready to go all the way for the ambitious plan involved with the massive production of, yes, chicken nuggets, and it goes without saying that Molly and many other chickens will be slaughtered sooner or later for that.

As Ginger and her fellow chickens try to save the day for Molly and those unfortunate chickens, the film steadily provides a series of various comic moments to tickle and amuse us. Although these comic moments are relatively less inspired compared to many hilarious highlights of “Chicken Run”, the technical efforts from director Sam Fell and his technical crew members including cinematographer Charles Copping are still commendable at least, and this surely distinguishes the film a bit from many of rather bland Hollywood animation films during several recent years.

In addition, the film is often lightened up by the spirited voice performances from its cast members. Thandiwe Newton, who incidentally substitutes Julia Sawalha in the previous film, and Zachary Levi, who replaces Mel Gibson without much complain from us (We all know the reason, don’t we?), effortlessly click together, and it is a shame that the film does not utilize more of the nice chemistry between their voice performances. In case of several other notable cast members in the film including Bella Ramsey, Imelda Staunton, David Bradley, Jane Horrocks, and Nick Mohammed, it is evident that they have a lot of tun with their colorful supporting characters, and Miranda Richardson shows us again that she has always been so good at playing nasty and vicious villain characters.

Overall, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nuggets” is amusing enough to hold my attention at least during its running time, but I must point out that this is a relatively less impressive work from Aardman Animation besides being one or two steps from its excellent predecessor. To be frank with you, the film made me a bit nostalgic whenever Harry Gregson-Williams’s bouncy score quotes the original main theme from “Chicken Run”. While it has been more than 20 years since I watched the Korean dubbing version of “Chicken Run” at a little movie theater, I still remember well how much that lovely animation film, which could have won an Oscar if the Academy Awards had made the category for animation feature films a little earlier, excited and tickled me a lot in one way or another, and I think “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nuggets” will be probably remembered as a mere minor footnote to its predecessor.

Anyway, considering that 2023 has been a curiously weak year in case of animation films, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nuggets” are fairly recommendable for now, but I will not deny that I would rather recommend “Chicken Run” and several other better works from Aarman Animations first. We all know Aardman Animations can do much better than this, and I can only hope that I and other audiences will be more entertained and satisfied in the next time.