When we meet Sam Fell in the cozy atmosphere of a hotel in Old Montreal, the English director displays an irrepressible good humor. He has something to be proud of. Indeed, after the volume animation successes Flushed Away (Mouse City) And ParaNormanFell is set to unveil his most technically ambitious film to date: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Chickens on the run. The dawn of the nugget), which he and his team have been working on since 2018. Yes, this late sequel to the now classic Chicken Run (Chickens on the run), published in 2000, brings back all the beloved original characters, starting with the hen Ginger and the rooster Rocky, who here become the parents of the young and adventurous Molly.
Molly, who, with other chickens, ends up in a food processing factory which has just been erected not far from the sanctuary where her chickens took refuge at the end of the first film. First film where Ginger, Rocky and their ilk repeatedly tried to escape from the farm of a cruel couple.
“Revisiting such beloved characters caused me excitement and anxiety, simultaneously,” says Sam Fell.
“Basically, I love the original film and its characters, and I knew from the start that everyone else loves them too. The number of people who have told me that this film is an integral part of their childhood… People are very protective of Chicken Run. I had the responsibility not to disappoint them. »
That being said, there were two people in particular that Sam Fell didn’t want to betray at any cost: Nick Park and Peter Lord, the directors of the original.
“My apprehension also stemmed from the fact that I know Nick and Peter very well,” agrees Sam Fell.
“We have been friends for thirty years. Peter was my mentor. These characters… these characters so well defined and so endearing, I knew how dear they were to both of them. So I wanted to do things well for them. »
Change in continuity
Sam Fell received the blessing of Nick Park and Peter Lord from the start.
“You should know that they were in the studio, never very far away. »
The studio in question is Aardman Animations, a British flagship to which we owe the films Wallace and Gromit (Wallace and Gromit). Moreover, for Sam Fell, Chicken Ru: Dawn of the Nugget constituted a return to the sources after the American adventure of ParaNormanco-directed with Chris Butler at Laika Studios.
“It’s the project I’ve worked on the longest — six years. The first two years, I spent determining the narrative parameters: what could I change, what should I keep? I didn’t want to limit myself to paying homage to the first: that would have been far too limiting. I wanted to make a film anchored, in terms of its sensitivity, in the present, and not in the past. I wanted it to be my film. And I wanted it to be relevant now, for a new audience, but while being respectful of the legitimate expectations of early viewers. »
I didn’t want to limit myself to paying homage to the first: that would have been far too limiting. I wanted to make a film anchored, in terms of its sensitivity, in the present, and not in the past.
While wanting to put his stamp on this sequel which is based, like the original, on irresistible plasticine creatures, Sam Fell wanted to preserve distinctive attributes of the 2000 film. On this subject, Karey Kirkpatrick, the original screenwriter , collaborated with John O’Farrell and Rachel Tunnard for this screenplay.
“In addition to its wonderfully tactile dimension, Nick and Peter’s film has an excellent balance between lightness and seriousness, between comedy and drama. The characters risk death: it’s rather unusual to see this in animation. And there was already the germ of leading female characters, especially with Ginger. »
Make way for Ginger
In this regard, the latter was not always the protagonist of this sequel. As Sam Fell reveals, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget originally favored Rocky’s point of view, as in 2000. The trouble was that this created a feeling of repetition.
“Before the volume animation stage, we always produce a preliminary version of the film with fairly elaborate sketches. It’s long and tedious, but essential. And so, about two years into the project, we screened this draft to the team and to Nick and Peter. In the end, we all came to the same realization that something was wrong. Over the next two weeks, I did a lot of thinking — and depression. Then one day it hit me: Ginger was the key to everything, and this time it had to be her chapter. She is such a great defender of freedom… Ginger has this nobility… She is an idealist. In the original, she could have saved herself alone, but already, she had this desire to free everyone else with her. When I understood that, everything fell into place. »
Despite this significant change in narrative perspective, there are certain elements which remained unchanged. To clarify Sam Fell:
“The idea has always been to reverse the context. That is to say, after the small-scale farm, we move on to industrial breeding, and after the story of escape, it is now one of infiltration. »
So, where Chicken Run was irreverently inspired by The Great Escape (The great Escape), Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is more akin to a “gallinaceous” version of the saga Impossible mission.
“I think we managed to make a really cool film capable of delighting all generations. And if I don’t believe in being preachy in cinema, I admit that I became vegetarian during filming. »
Ginger to the rescue!