Chicken Run 2 review
IN the age of animation, we see a lot of different aspects and elements from the invigorating new ways of animation with Spider-verse, Arcane and Puss in Boots 2, the improving details of animation from the likes of Pixar and Dreamworks and even the likes of beautiful animation that stands the test of time from the likes of Studio Ghibli, but we are not delving into those studio or type of animations today (those come later with other reviews) but instead we are talking on the form of an art of animation that was big in the early days of animation in the first form of 3d style and it comes in the tradition of Stop motion animation. We have seen this style with the likes of Tim Burton providing it with the Nightmare before Christmas, Corpse Bride and some elements of Beetlejuice, Laika animation providing new stories or adaptations with the likes of Coraline and Paranorman and of course the studio that has been pioneering this style and the focus of our review for today and this comes with the Bristol based animation studio of Aardman Animations. This studio has seen a fair few successes throughout the years with their most known characters coming to us in the form of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, but in the focus of this review discussion relates to their first full length film from almost 25 years ago and this comes in the form of the film of Chicken Run, but today we are delving into it recently released sequel of Dawn of the Nugget and we are asking the question of if this film is any good or has turned up fowl? Well there is elements that could be improved but personally I enjoyed this film from beginning to end as a form of a tasty treat that released around the holidays and I will be delving into all of my pros and cons of this legacy sequel.
Cracking into the story
So before we delve a little into the story of this follow up, I will give a rundown of what followed before this film and how this story came to be in the original films story just to give a bit of a rundown in case you haven't seen the original or not seen it in a while and get you up to speed for this sequel. The original was set in a place known as Tweedy's Chicken Farm where we have a focus on the chicken's of this farm led by Ginger. They know all they are used for is to produce eggs for the farmers of bumbling oaf Mr Tweedy and the more sinister wife Mrs Tweedy and when they stop producing they are killed and eaten so she has always come up with plans to help them escape but so many plans seem to fail. This then comes in the form of a miracle of the appearance of Rocky, an American rooster who flies in and has a bit of a rough landing and injures his wing and it gives Ginger and the other chickens the idea that they will not walk out, they will find a way to fly out. After a bit of Hijinks, Pie machines, lies and construction, the Chickens and Rocky escape the farm, stop the production of Mrs Tweedy's new scheme of not making miniscule profits and finding their freedom for all of chicken kind and it is where we will fin ourselves in this sequel of them having escaped from and finding peace and now we shall delve into giving the rundown of the plot for this film:
"Having escaped from the farm, Ginger and Rocky welcome a new adventurer into their lives with their daughter Molly and all seems to be peaceful and a happy ending for Ginger and the rest of the flock. But soon this band of fearless chickens will have to flock together to save poultry kind when one of their own gets taken and must also stop an unsettling new threat: A nearby high facility farm that cooking up something suspicious"
So as plots go for this one, it is more of the basis where the likes of the original had the tone and feel of a wartime film with the most clear inspiration being The Great Escape but just with chickens. This new film starts off as a peaceful life after the terror aesthetic and soon enough once they head back to the mainland it becomes more of a heist film in the likes of a family friendly version of Mission Impossible or James Bond and it is intruiging to see what they can do with the likes of a film of chickens getting into a high stakes situation with some unique gimmicks and challenges and I think for the concept in mind it is an enjoyable watch for its concept and I think it is done well for being a simple plot. Sure it is not the level of going too over the top but it works out well overall.
Story: 7
A flock of intruiging characters
Like with any film project, a lot of films always have a select number of people that are joined together to form a ensemble and this film sees a select number of familiar faces (though with some slight changes for a few) and some new additions to the team and some will be talked about individually and some will be bundled together and I will give my thoughts on each of them below and in depth as much as I can:
Ginger (Thandiwe Newton)
Lets start with the leader of the resistance and the one that inspired the escape for the freedom of her kind and that is with Ginger. She still has that sense of leadership and will make it a mission of protecting those that have escaped from their past and will do it again in order to get her child back from suffering the same fate and she still has the element of feeling like her character from the original.... with one small caveat. You see in the midst of all of the development for this film, they decided that they will be changing the voice role for Ginger from the original voice of Julia Sawalha to Thandiwe Newton and there is some moments where the new voice is not too bad, but there are moments that I feel it would work more with the original actress. Julia had mentioned in the past that she was all for coming back as the voice but according to her own statement the reason why was they thought she was too old to play the character (which is odd when it has been seen that so many other voice actors who played a character so many years ago would come back to voice them for other projects, Disney is known for that as one and so many other places do it as well) and just feel she would still make it work (she also did a recent re-recording of the lines from the original and still sounded fine to me so it just seemed a bit unnecessary) but besides the likes of the voice role fiasco (a thing that will be brought up a few times in this section) I think her character is still good and felt like she did years later with just some issues with the voice here and there. Speaking of voice change.
Rocky (Zachary Levi)
Lets go onto the main male lead of the group and this comes to the American Rooster himself of Rocky. The basis of his character in this one is more of someone that wants to be there for Ginger but also in the process of wanting to be the hero and save the day and may inexplicably mess it up in the process or make it all turn out to be a success. Now as mentioned Ginger was not the only main lead that had a voice change as this also came to the affect of Rocky as it is Shazam! lead Zachary Levi replacing the original voice of Mel Gibson and it was this voice that I felt was expected given the likes of Gibson's..... opinions and they probably wanted to change it a little from being a bit of a concern. At first the voice role for the character felt a little off but overtime it grew on me and felt close to the original by the end of the film. I think in some sense they could've done more with his character just slightly but I feel that given his story is attached a bit more to Ginger, it doesn't go to the level of overdoing it and making them out to be annoying and he does have more of a presence then some of the other characters so I think he works in this film all the same.
Molly and Frizzle (Bella Ramsay & Josie Sedgwick-Davis)
Now to talk on the 2 new additions to the cast and this comes with the new addition to the family of Rocky and Ginger with their daughter Molly and the new friend she meets on the mainland with Frizzle. Now the whole approach for Molly is that she has been protected on the island by her parents but still has that rebellious and adventurous side to her that she wants to explore and see what lies on the mainland that her Mom seems to be so scared of telling her about and will venture off on her own in the night to see what's so scary about it and learn about the mysterious trucks and rumblings were going on across the way. This is where she will meet Frizzle, a rebellious chick like herself (and who also has a very think accent) who has been wanting to get herself into the supposed "Fun Land Farms" but was denied for her being too small and they will soon find themselves stuck inside with a possible danger to them both and will soon be a situation of finding a way out of the farm before they find themselves in their own bucket (but not all together). In all sense I see bot of them as an interesting pair that I like the dynamic at first and I like Molly on her own as she has more of a presence over Frizzle. For the first portion of them ending up in the farm until Frizzle is captured with a obedience collar and it is up to Molly and the rescue team to get them out and save them all. I think in some sense by the mid point they kind of put Frizzle on the side lines as it is more of the driving factor for the plot going in the form of Molly leaving the island and ending up in the high security farm and I think her character is decent and gets a fair bit of development and growth. I feel that they try a little with the new friend but it gets stopped by the mid point and then somewhat added on again near the end and I feel if they create a 3rd film or even a series I am sure they can add onto to the plot overtime but I think in some sense that for the 2 of them at the moment, Molly is a decent addition and Frizzle seemed interesting at first but feels a little underused.
Babs, Bunty, Mac and Fowler
Lets talk on the other members of the team on the fowl side and that comes in the case of Mac the Brains, Bunty the Muscle, Babs the Wool Specialist (who is just happy to be there) and army general Fowler. These 4 becomes part of the elaborate group that help Ginger break into the facility and rescue their own before they get turned into deep fried food items by using some elements of their skills in some some form to break in, get the rescue and get back out without too much of a fuss. Now it is a case that in a personal matter, I feel these character kind of feel a little underused throughout the film. They are present for a bit of the beginning with the island tranquility and the infiltrating the high tech farm, but then somewhat disappear for a stint of time before helping with rescuing the chickens from a processed end but its a case that they are really just absent for a fair chunk of the film. Of all of the 4 here, the one that gets the most sidelined is Fowler who is just sitting on the sidelines as the getaway chicken and really kind of just waits for it to all blow over by telling stories of the war to another small creature. In fairness, I don't see how they can have much of a presence in this but I can see where they could've used them for more of the break in and out of the whole ordeal but in all fairness it was done alright but could've been better.
Nick & Fletcher
Now its the focus of the last duo of the one that will get you the equipment needed for a fair price and this comes in the form of the rodent pair of Nick and Fletcher. Now they come in the form of helping in the planning and getting the crew into the facility and in all sense do give a lot of effort in helping as they become part of the duo with Rocky in the vents in a form of Mission impossible style gadgets and stealth approach and they do make the form of helping when they can and I think they work out well as well and provide a bit of humor in the process. They may feel a slight bit underused for the first part of the film but in all case they work out well overall and I think it was nice to see them back again for another escapade. Now it just leaves one more person to talk about and a face that you would not expect to see.
Mrs Tweedy
It was only natural that the main antagonist of the original was going to make some form of a return in some way and the reveal that it was her all this time was an interesting one. Sure it would've been nice to reveal her in the film itself but the way they present it in the trailer was done very well to get people invested. The likes of Mrs Tweedy doesn't appear into the project until around the halfway mark of the film but her presence is felt throughout once the film brings the Fun Land Farms into the picture and I think her use of being a returning villain works on her thirst for power, fame and money and will kidnap thousands of chickens before she'll return back to a life of miniscule profits in a look of feeling like a Bond Villain and will make it a mission to turn every chicken into Nuggets. I like her in this film as being just a villain who is out for revenge against the chicken that destroyed her first chance at riches and seems to do it out of spite and I think it works in all sense of the word. It would've been better if the case they kept the reveal of her return a secret until the films release and maybe have a little more of a presence in the film but I think they do well with her presence in the film and felt they couldn't make a Chicken Run sequel without Mrs Tweedy.
That essentially wraps up the characters in the film as the only other presence in this is with the other background chickens, as well as Tweedy's new husband Dr Fry who is fine, does not add much but give some exposition to their base of operations and Sir eats a lot or Reginald Smith who is not a major player of the film and really has like 2 scenes of being the owner of the massive food chain so I could not delve too much into him either but in all sense of purpose, the characters work well of having a connective approach back to their original personalities was always a positive. Sure some of them feel a bit underused and some I felt the voice change was a bit unnecessary (especially the main lead of Ginger) but at the end of the day they worked well with what they had and I can appreciate the effort that went into it all the same.
Characters: 6.5-7.5
Molding a world, one piece of clay at a time
Now let us delve into some of the positives in the aspect of the presentation and have to give the praise to the work and effort that is put into these films, especially in the realm of the stop motion aesthetic cause I know the aspect of that is a long and arduous process (I know cause I made a awkward stop motion project for my first year of college that is somewhere online that you can find). The average focus of the creation of a Stop motion film will get you on average around 2 seconds of footage a day as it is a continous effort of building to a 101 minute film over the course of say more then 3 years is impressive, especially with plenty of moving parts, characters and sets that they build up and is impressive in the design and established aesthetic from the peaceful home on the island, to the Bond villain look and aesthetic of Fun Land Farms to the sunshine look and feel of the Carnival pen they have themselves in and it is a damn impressive feat that they can make it look lively and visually appealing.
The same I can give on the characters as they are quite impressive from the method that they had a whole situation where about 2 decades ago there was a bad fire at their studio or warehouse and saw a fair amount of items and puppets from the original film get damaged or destroyed in the fire and the method of getting them back in the film with the accurate designs back is impressive (then again they had some of them for some ads in the past so I guess some were saved) and watching the elements of going piece by piece with changing out elements and aspects from mouths and eyes and so much expression and tone is told from the extensive work ( there is an excellent video going over the aspect of working on a scene with Rocky that you can find
here of how they get 1 frame in real time and it was quite the interesting watch) but overall the classic designs are great, the new designs are very nice and stylish and helps fit a tone balance well and enjoy seeing them all worked out.
Presentation: 10
Writing: its a living
Lets keep this section brief and I will give my thoughts on the element that the likes of the writing is decent. It is nothing ground breaking but it does the job well enough where it is not to the level of being graining on the ears that it has its fun jokes and gimmicks in there mixed in amongst the selection. Sure some of the jokes don't land that often and it does seem to go a much less darker tone compared to the original (which makes sense since the first was more of a war time based tone and this is more a colourful family spy film) and some sight gags work and some are a bit off but in all honesty I see it as a fine enough tone for the writing that it does not get bogged down and messy in the details and I think it works fine enough for some fun gags, a few funny jokes and a decent straight forward narrative.
Writing: 6.5-7
The music of cracking proportions
So this one I cannot give much fault with but the music is not bad in this at all, it is nice to hear some of the original themes from the first film with a little bit of an updated tone to them to give it an update with a classic callback as well as some licensed tracks or new originals in there as well with one of the licensed tracks in it that when I hear it now reminds me of an unsettling scene involving chickens being mind controlled to their demise and I think it fits it well of something so catchy and upbeat being played for a dark concept and I think when it is done well it works. Some tracks I can get here and there and they do not focus on the music much but I think it is fine enough as it is (it is a common aspect that you should know I have no knowledge in music so it probably does not make much sense)
Music: 7-8
Issues that leave you scrambled
So like a lot of projects as per usual there is some usual issues and complaints that come from the film and there are a few small issues that I would have with the film itself and I will be giving a rundown of some of the small complaints from each of the sections as I can:
Story: This one is mainly on the case of the film being a bit more lighter compared to the darker tone of the original but I get they want to provide something lighter with the project and it would not be much of a massive issue or work in connection with the more upbeat Spy flick they are going for but I think a little balance of it works (which it does have here and there but not as much)
Characters: This one is just a little with some of the characters feeling a slight bit underused such as Fowler and Frizzle and a bit of the other 3 hens besides Ginger, Rocky, Molly and the rats and maybe a slightly earlier appearance of Mrs Tweedy (as well as to learn what happened to Mr Tweedy) that could've worked a little more with the balanced screentime for characters. Also some of the choices of the change of voice cast for some (mainly with Ginger) as it works in some elements and in other it doesn't.
Writing: Some of the elements of the undermining of Jokes in the film can be a flat aspect as there is a bit of a lack of jokes here and there (some sight gags and jokes work but it feels a little underbaked here and there)
Music: Mainly on the case of some tracks that get overlooked or an underuse of it here and there but not a completely bad soundtrack and score.
But these are my main problems I can gather from the film, again all minor small points but it is a fair balance of giving both the positive and the negatives when it comes to any projects.
An eggcellent return or something gone fowl?
So overall, after 20+ years since the original outing and back and forth's, re-castings, a devastating fire and the some studio changes later, the follow up to the original Chicken Run with Dawn of the Nugget seems like a well made and established follow up to the film that started the legacy of full length films in their award winning company with a entertaining feast of visuals, story and characters that all seem like we only just seen them recently and haven't changed a day. Sure the more lighter tone and the spy flick based approach compared to the war tone of the original may feel a bit too kiddy for the fans of the original, but as someone who enjoyed the original as a kid, I was excited for this one and it did not dissappoint that much to me at all and I feel if you haven't seen it yet, I say to give it a watch and make your own opinions on it yourself and be in for a tasty treat that will either make you hungry for food or make you think or other concerning aspects.
Overall score:
Story: 7
Characters: 6.5-7.5
presentation: 10
writing: 6.5-7
Music: 7-8
total score: 37 - 39.5/50 or 74-79% (B- to B)
And with all of that I would like to know your own thought on this follow up to the original and want to know if you have seen the film and did you like it, hate it or are indifferent about it and tell me your own thoughts about it down below in the comments of your own opinions and we an discuss them there. As always I hope you all stay being wonderful people and have great day everyday and I will see you all in the next review or blog piece:)
Take care, Keep being you, Signing off
Sam H :)
Comments
Post a Comment