Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

It’s pleasingly daft, very British and not exactly memorable.

There are some fine new villains. The voice work rumbles with buttered-crumpet charm. Middle-ranking Aardman is better than almost anyone else on top form.

Briskly cheerful, but lacking the sharp deadpan wit that made Aardman famous, this episode is a warmed-over broiler that offers only paltry pleasures.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is baggier than the original, not as funny, and it drags in parts and is on the whole less memorable. But dammit, it’s still fun, and that’s ultimately what matters.

If only the movie lived up to its witty title, in a Netflix film that’s mildly and sporadically amusing but mostly just an unnecessary, warmed-over rehash.

The film makes so many callbacks and hat tips to “Chicken Run” that it feels less like a sequel and more like an inferior remake.

The stakes are both enjoyably high and simultaneously very silly, and it keeps the film in that same sweet spot that made the first one so watchable for children and adults alike.

Our favourite chicken revolutionary returns in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget for another life or death fight against evil, meat-hungry humans.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget ... feels like a referendum on children's animation, a call for well-crafted kids' movies built on compelling characters, smart themes, and actual jokes instead of cynical, synergistic products.

This latest adventure is every bit as well-crafted, cleverly written, and stuffed with gallinaceous puns as its predecessor.