The wait is finally over as the heroes of the Chicken Run are back, 24 years after Ginger the Hen and Rocky the Rooster escaped from the Tweedy’s farm. They were leading a happy life with the rest of their feathered friends on an island sanctuary, but only until trouble found their way.

It took Aardman Animations over 20 years to return with a sequel to their biggest film, but the result was as good as the expectations.

For those who do not know, British studio Aardman Animations Limited, known for using stop-motion and clay animation techniques, was behind the original Chicken Run and is now back with quirky British humour and an emotional story. The studio also produced Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, but Chicken Run has been their highest-grossing stop-motion flick. While the first movie was a joint production with DreamWorks Animation, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget has Aardman Animations and Netflix Animation as producers.

The sequel is as entertaining as the original film, if not better. Ginger and Rocky are now parents of a rebellious girl who follows her mother. Life is easy until Molly (Bella Ramsey) finds herself trapped and wants to explore the unseen. A James Bond kind of den prompts Molly to run away, but the ‘as good as paradise’ den has trapped the young hen. Ginger and Rocky join hands again with Mac, Bounty and Babes, and instead of breaking out of a factory, the chickens must break in.

Mrs Tweedy is back with a sinister plan and it’s up to the chicken to do anything but ‘chicken out’. Ginger and Rocky, voiced by Julia Sawalha and Mel Gibson in Chicken Run, have been replaced by Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi in the sequel.

Inventive stop-motion animation, slapstick humour, and adventurous storytelling will appease children and their parents who must have loved Chicken Run when it was originally released. The film celebrates the underdog, with unlikely heroes saving the day against tougher opponents. Not to forget, the mother-daughter relationship is the key to the film, with Ginger having to learn to let Molly explore her independence; whereas Molly must realise that sometimes listening to her parents is better. It’s the story of every family and the children need to understand the theme rather than only watching it for a few laughs.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 22nd, 2024