Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023) 
Director: Sam Fell
Screenwriters: Karey Kirkpatrick, John O’Farrell, Rachel Tunnard
Starring: Bella Ramsey, Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, David Bradley, Jane Horrocks, Romesh Ranganathan, Daniel Mays, Josie Sedgwick-Jones, Peter Serafinowicz, Nick Mohammed, Miranda Richardson

On the surface, the original Chicken Run (2000) was a fantastic children’s movie and a feat for animated films. It was 90 minutes of pure feathery fun and righteous chicken anger. The movie had impeccable comedic timing akin to Aardman Studio’s other works like Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. These movies have a beating heart and soul that has stuck with children and adults alike because of their ability to wrap us in the warm hug of their respective worlds. And still, beneath it all lies something even deeper, something profound. For many millennials and cuspers, Chicken Run was an introduction to Marxism and revolution itself. 

As rebel chicken, Ginger (played by Julia Sawalha in 2000) rallies the hens against tyrannical farmers, she dares them to imagine a world governed only by their own will. “Don’t you get it?” she clucks, “There’s no morning headcount, no dogs, no farmers, no coops and keys, and no fences.” It’s a powerful cry for revolution – a call to rise up against injustice, no matter the cost. Though the film is filled with slapstick humor, its demand to rage against oppression transcends the children’s animation genre, cementing it as a powerful allegory for World War II and universal demands for human (and chicken) rights. 

Needless to say, the sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, was highly anticipated by audiences and critics. Nearly 20 years after the original, the follow-up had big shoes to fill. What lessons would the new Chicken Run teach us? Perhaps something about the rise of fascism? Environmentalism? Maybe it would lead us to the answers we’ve all been searching for in these tumultuous times? Unfortunately, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget takes more of a formulaic follow-up approach than broaching anything remotely groundbreaking. 

In this rendition, Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi, replacing Mel Gibson) return, now living in an idyllic, poultry utopia. Though they are happy in their new homes, they are closed off from the rest of society. Their daughter, Molly (Bella Ramsey), takes after her mother and dreams of life bigger than their confined existence on the island. Soon, Molly escapes to the mainland and finds herself trapped in a chicken factory called Fun-Land Farm. Now, it’s up to the other chickens to break into the factory, a subversion from the previous film’s breakout. 

Dawn of the Nugget isn’t completely without charm. The animation is beautiful and bright, stepping away from the original film’s muted color palate to favor a more vibrant chicken paradise. Fun-Land Farm is garishly bright, showcasing the false promises of the deceptively named poultry plant. Even the heist-like stunts feel higher stakes and more elaborate. There are more hijinks, slipping, falling, and scrambling than ever. 

Though the scale feels dialled up to 11, the film is missing its original creativity and simplistic but resilient spirit that made it an instant classic. Dawn of the Nugget is much more concerned with simple tropes like breaking away from tradition and marching to the beat of your own drum than anything revolutionary. Its simple premise and resistance to taking risks – both thematically and comedically – make the 101-minute run feel like a bit of a slog. 

It’s a lot to ask of a film – to be both a succinct manifesto about the state of modern politics and revolutionary movements and a hokey comedy about chickens falling on their heads – but it has been done before. Perhaps the reason Dawn of the Nugget felt so flat is the enormous shadow its predecessor casts upon the film. And, in the 20 years in between the first and second editions of Ginger and Rocky’s story, we’ve had plenty of time to fill in the gaps on our own. Dawn of the Nugget is a fine movie to turn on for the kids on a Saturday afternoon, but turn on Chicken Run (2000) and you might just have a revolution on your hands. 

Score: 12/24

Recommended for you: Aardman Animation Movies 2000-2020 Ranked

Anyone who has read the first two pieces of this series – here and here – will have noticed that I haven’t actually written about many outright religious movies; this is partially because my intent has been to illustrate the power of cinema as a medium, but it’s also because my experiences are massively affected by the Judeo-Christian tradition and I therefore do not want to exclude any readers from my journey. Furthermore, I don’t really like writing about Jesus on the internet because people often look foolish to say the least, and I’m honestly hoping to avoid being tagged as a moron like so many of my faith are so often. Often, people of my faith come across as having a poor grip on reality because of how we are (apparently) so convinced that a magic bearded man in the sky will solve all our problems. However, after watching The Miracle Worker (2000), I’ve decided to be forthright about such matters…

In this day and age I, of course, have my doubts; do you have any idea what it is like to keep faith during these times? Everyday supposed people of faith commit horrendous atrocities on a much larger scale than at any other point in human history – dropping enormous bombs, poisoning water supplies, taking away aid and benefits from the needy, cutting people’s heads off, enslaving people, shutting our borders on refugees, and leaving millions in poverty. On many an occasion, in personal prayer, I have asked and even begged God to put a stop to these horrible things and it feels like every time I have been left with silence. I also contemplate the audacity of how I pray asking for God to protect me from these horrible things – through all the millennia God has been known to man, people have suffered terribly; who am I to ask God to answer my prayers? I still do believe in God, of course, but some days I feel he has no power in this world.

The Miracle Maker is a movie which is so often unfairly tossed aside as a Children’s movie as it is an animation produced jointly by the BBC and Icon. But I remember when it was first aired on the BBC at Easter, where as child I was enraptured by it. I hadn’t seen it for years, but decided to watch it during this year’s Easter period – I do enjoy watching content like this around this time as I feel watching Jesus’ life dramatised helps to invigorate my faith in a way scripture reading cannot at times. Re-watching it as an adult has actually helped to deepen my faith in a profound way by giving me a better appreciation and understanding of the person, Jesus of Nazareth. It was very much a case of watching a movie at the right time in my life, as witnessing the gentleness and love of the man in an era of seemingly endless terrible world events gave me hope and relief.

After 2000 year, the essence of who Jesus Christ is, is still a mystery. As a Catholic you would assume that I believe he is the Son of God, which of course I do, but what does that mean? A Catholic belief about God is the Trinity, one God made of 3 people: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. Jesus as the Son of God was a human, but in all entirety, was God – the word made flesh. But what even does that mean? How can you be mortal and immortal at the same time!? Even after centuries of theology this isn’t fully understood. The Miracle Maker as a film is extraordinary in the way it represents Jesus and invokes a great empathy and affection in the audience, specifically those with beliefs, and it even helped me to make sense of worship.

The film starts with Jesus doing his last job as a carpenter (a career he inherited from his foster-father Joseph), before starting his mission on Earth. Before he begins preaching to people, he fasts for forty days in the desert where he is tempted by the devil three times. He resurfaces and makes waves throughout the countryside, with his novel teachings emphasising the importance of love, forgiveness, and acceptance of social pariahs over following the letter of the law which has lost its heart. As such, he quickly makes enemies out of the religious elite, who eventually plot his death. With the help of a breath-taking blend of stop-motion and 2D animation, and the tremendous voice talents of Ralph Fiennes, the film does a remarkable job of making sense of the duality of Jesus’ identity, making him more tangible and relatable than the mythical being we’re so often presented with.

Jesus’ life is steeped in ordinariness; but he transmits an incredible charisma that causes people to be drawn to him. There is a humanness in his character: he loves meeting new people, eating and drinking with friends, and being generally social. But there is something else that goes beyond the capabilities of a human; far much more than just being a nice man. A large part of the film is through the eyes of a young girl Tamar (Jairus’ daughter in the Gospels – spoiler alert for you Bible nerds) who is one of the people drawn to him and follows him throughout his mission. Out of everyone else in the film, it is Jesus who has the greatest patience with Tamar, respects her as a person and never disregards what she has to say because she is a child. Literally what adult person can keep up with that attitude towards children constantly? But in all seriousness, he keeps on achieving things beyond what is capable of oh-so easily corrupted humans. He reaches into the hearts of those who have been hardened by cynicism, turning them into avid followers. He offers friendship without judgement to those despised by many, such as sex-workers and the tax collectors who are considered traitors. Most importantly, his abounding compassion never goes to waste and he uses it at every opportunity. It may seem like I have missed out the most obvious indicator of his divinity, which are the many miracles he performs and yes, it is these stories which you first learn about as a kid, but re-watching this movie as an adult you can look through these amazing acts to see the real God. Jesus encounters many sick people during his travels and every time he stops whatever he is doing to heal them, but he also offers healing beyond that of physical illness, and that is in the forgiving of sins. It is these immense acts of mercy that eventually led to his death (for this was considered blasphemy). This was so important for me to realise because as a Christian, the best way to understand the nature of God is by observing it in Jesus and, in the interpretation of The Miracle Maker, you can see a God with an insatiable love for mankind who cannot stand to see us suffer. Even though I don’t expect God to come down to wave his magic wand, it is of great comfort to know that he is not indifferent to all the suffering going on in the world today, but that it instead causes him grief.

The Miracle Maker goes beyond simply stating the different events and miracles of Jesus’ life: very often you hear the rhetoric that the teachings of the Bible are irrelevant today because times have changed. But… oh my sweet summer child, nothing changes. History repeats itself over and over again. Like the people of the world today, the people of Palestine in Jesus’ time lived in times of political uncertainty and upheaval. Jesus lived under Roman occupation, and the one thing everyone remembers about the Romans from history lessons was their brutality. Like today, there were many people who opposed this occupation, and some were attracted to the more violent methods of resistance, there were even those whose violent aspirations had gotten tangled up in their religious beliefs: many Zealots during the time believed that the prophesied Messiah would come as a warrior leader who would trample Israel’s enemies. On the flipside, there were those who aspired to power by being sycophants to the Romans, content to let the ordinary people suffer under the hefty Roman taxes so long as they could still enjoy the small pleasures they got from life. In fact, they had gotten so used to it, they were prepared to silence anyone who may incite the people against them and the Romans. Again, this is a very similar story to the scandals that come out about politicians almost daily in our modern times.

The Miracle Maker shows that Jesus’ human life is strewn with the same corrupted people as our current lives are. More astonishingly, it also shows Jesus going through the more painful trials of human life. One moment that really sticks out is when Jesus is told the news that John the Baptist (who was a relation of Jesus) had been executed by King Herod. It cuts to Jesus crying his eyes out on the ground only turning to the sky to utter a very tear-stained “Father”. Man, I can’t even begin to describe how this blows my mind. The spiritual dryness I have had some experience with is the feeling of God not answering or acknowledging prayers. And remember, in Christian belief Jesus is God yet he goes through the all-too-human experience of feeling forsaken by God. This is seen again in the Garden of Gethsemane scene, moments before Jesus is arrested. Jesus Christ’s Passion is full of pain; mental and physical torture as shown in his time in Gethsemane e.g.

Matthew 26:38, Then he said to them “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me”.

Like The Prince of Egypt, The Miracle Maker introduces children to dark and heavy material without being condescending, as was delightfully demonstrated in this scene. The animation transitions into trippy 2D animation as Jesus descends into a moment of terrible depression and distress, begging God to let there be another way, crying out “TAKE IT AWAY! TAKE IT AWAY!” Conveniently, Satan turns up offering Jesus an escape route, but Jesus stays resolute to the will of his Father and allows himself to be captured.

To conclude, this film represents the complexity and humanity of Jesus more than any other film that focuses on his life, and works to illustrate how despite his divinity, he knew exactly what it was to be human, experiencing all of our temptations and crucially our pain. Witnessing this, his willingness to suffer and die becomes that bit more incredible. Many people in this world are not Christian, but for myself and others of my faith, this film succeeds in helping us to understand the love God has for us, especially when you can see that he knows what it means to live a human life.

John 3:16, For God so loved the World that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

The Miracle Maker displays the extraordinary potential of cinema, introducing children and adults alike to the most existential of questions and opening our minds to even more. What a movie to watch at Easter; what a movie indeed.

  The Young Victoria (2009)
Director: Jean-Marc Vallèe
Cast: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany, Mark Strong, Thomas Kretschmann
Plot: Set in 1800s England, the film explores the story of young Queen Victoria from the years immediately before her coronation, through her ascension to the throne at the very young age of 18 and her marriage to Albert. Her uncle King Leopold I of Belgium arranges the match with his young nephew Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. What starts off as an arranged engagement, blossoms into a true love story.

The Young Victoria is an adaptation of Great Britain’s 19th Century monarch Queen Victoria’s early life as written by the awarding winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes. It focuses on Victoria’s personality and her struggles as the very young Queen of Britain and it is an interesting insight into Victoria’s relationship with her beloved husband Prince Albert – which was never really developed before. Since a much anticipated TV-series is due to be out later in 2016 and will cover roughly the same time-span – starring Jenna Coleman as the young Queen – I thought it would be interesting to re-watch this gem and ponder how the TV adaptation will compare to it.

The Young Victoria is based on true events and was deeply researched by Fellowes. Although some scenes are pure fantasy or have been changed –  like the assassination attempt for instance, which actually took place, but not in the way it is shown in the film – all in all,  it can be considered an interesting and fresh adaptation based on Victoria’s early years as a Queen, especially because the film manages to show the vulnerable and human side of both Victoria and Albert –  something that can be, and is often, easily overlooked when it comes to monarchs and emperors.

The cast was talented and masterfully chosen, I couldn’t think of anyone better than Emily Blunt as Victoria and Rupert Friend as Prince Albert: the two have amazing on-screen chemistry and I believe that is of the up-most importance in a film that tells the story of how their affection grew through the years and turned to love in time. I was also delighted to see so many British actors that I knew like Paul Bettany, who portrayed Lord Melbourne the Whig Prime Minister and Victoria’s trusted adviser, and Miranda Richardson who played Victoria’s mother the Duchess of Kent. I can’t help but mention Thomas Kretschmann, who was fit for the role of King Leopold I of Belgium.

I particularly appreciated the setting of the film, since it was shot at different estates across Britain and it is pervaded with the atmosphere of the English landscape. The cinematography was, generally, masterly. The pivotal scene of the coronation is featured twice in the film. The first time it takes the form of a flash forward, where the camera focuses on the details of the coronation ceremony: the robe, the crown, the audience gathered to attend the event and finally the focus shifts on Victoria’s face with a close-up showing her concern and fear. The camera then quite tellingly zooms on her mother’s face, and with a graphical match cut we are introduced to the next shot and taken back in time to tell us how the story will unfold leading up to the coronation. Victoria’s relationship with her mother is presented throughout as being a bit strained and although it is unclear if that was the case in real life, it is nevertheless known that some rough moments between the two of them actually happened – and they are shown in the film. It would have been interesting to see more of their dialogues and interactions, as they were quite non-existent. On the other hand, I found the development of Victoria and Albert’s relationship particularly intriguing. It seemed that Albert supported and helped Victoria through her reign – at least up until his death in 1861 – and the two ruled together and confronted each other with their ideas, ultimately making British people’s lives better and introducing new reforms in different and important fields. All of this comes across very well in the film. I must admit I didn’t know that before watching this film; I just assumed Victoria made every decision and ruled alone as the Queen, but I now know that, quite surely, Albert did have a great impact on her life and decisions. I was a particular fan of their interactions in the movie, especially their witty comebacks and the reality of their relationship as it was portrayed by the two leads; the characters had a lot in common, but they also disagreed and argued about life and making the right choices. This made the whole story relatable and I found that this is an element hardly conveyed in period drama films of this kind. Even so, their time on screen was limited – most of the time at least – as they mostly exchanged letters. This was because the movie wanted to ensure anticipation for the moment when they finally decided to marry. I must say that I would have loved to see more of them ruling together, but the screenwriter chose to explore a different angle to the story and his collaboration with the director Jean-Marc Vallèe and his crew succeeded in recreating the atmosphere, the colourful interiors of the palaces and of period clothes – with their bright hues –  thus giving us an unforgettable portrayal of two central figures in British and European history. We’ll see if the TV-series will measure up to such a task.

I really enjoy period films in general but this one has always been one of my favourites. Nevertheless, I think it was way too short. As a film that deals with political unrest and changes during Victoria’s reign, I feel like it didn’t develop the matter as closely and deeply as it should have, especially when considering a non-British audience that would be without all the precise knowledge of that period of history of Britain. I also didn’t appreciate the establishing shot during one of Albert and Victoria’s dialogues that was very out of place and therefore gave the impression of the movie having a ‘lazy’ or ‘messy’ side that the rest of the picture seemed absent of. I feel like the picture would have seemed more balanced if we were presented with more of Albert’s life too: we only see some shots of Leopold’s palace in Belgium and Albert’s actual home. This is, however, understandable as the focus and interest regarding the story would clearly be on the iconic figure Victoria became and thus much of the focus of the story was centred on her.

Again, we’ll see if the TV-series will measure up to such a task.

18/24

It’s summer 1914  and Vera is a young girl from a conservative middle-class family. She is intelligent, brilliant and she wants to attend Oxford to study literature and improve her writing skills since she dreams to become a writer herself. Her father is against it but the story will turn out in a completely different way when the war breaks out and Vera is forced to say goodbye to her fiancé Roland, hoping to see each other again.

All I can say is that the two of them make a lifelong promise to one another. The first half of the film drags on a bit, however, the story soon picks up pace and you find yourself quite hooked.

It is not an action war film that shows the fighting, but the psychology of the characters, and this is what I like the most in this WWI dramas. Another highlight for me was finding out that the film score was composed by Max Richter, whose work I was already familiar with – he also wrote the score for Lore – and I thoroughly enjoyed in Testament of Youth.

The story starts by showing the audience the life of Vera, her brother Edward and their friend Victor, right before the outbreak of the First World War. The film is told mostly through Vera’s experience and that is emphasised in the sequence at the beginning, which was uniquely shot – it is a sequence showing Vera’s point of view and it is used for a flashback that takes the audience back to the start. The film centres around Vera and the men of her life: her brother Edward, her best friend Victor and of course the love of her life Roland, with whom she shares the same passions and interests –  especially for poetry and writing –  and their relationship is very intellectual and not only romantic.

This is something that I found to be new, because I don’t recall any war movie that displays this kind of relationship between the two main characters. The actors Kit Harington (Roland) and Alicia Vikander (Vera) had great on-screen chemistry and I enjoyed their scenes together. The rest of the cast was also brilliant and their performances captivating. There were very emotional moments that I can’t mention otherwise I’ll spoil them for you, but I literally cried for all the film because the way Alicia Vikander portrayed Vera was so realistic that each event that struck her, struck me too.  I should be accustomed to these striking feelings in war dramas – those that leave you reeling –  but they always get you when you thought you weren’t vulnerable.

I will just mention a sequence when Vera speaks about the war and its consequences… The speech delivered by Alicia Vikander is emotional, gripping and one of the highlights of the entire film. Vera points out how Britain and the victorious countries shouldn’t look for revenge – and impose hefty war reparations on their former enemies –  because, after seeing suffering on both sides, she’s realised the futility of war. This is the first step in the development of her pacifist ideas.

Vera Brittain went on to become a successful writer. Testament of Youth, the first instalment of her autobiography, was published in 1933. According to her biographers, writing was a cathartic process for her, a way of coping with the losses she had suffered during the conflict. And this comes across very well in the film. On this note, I’ll leave you with one final quote that sums up the meaning of the story and the significance of Testament of Youth in Vera’s life:

“They’ll want to forget you, they’ll want me to forget.

But I can’t. I won’t. This is my promise to you now. All of you.”

21/24