“Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” (in select theaters Dec. 8 and on Netflix Dec. 15) is Aardman’s seventh stop-motion animated feature and their ninth feature overall (counting CG movies “Flushed Away” and “Arthur Christmas”). Sam Fell, who directed “Flushed”, is in the “Nugget” director’s chair.
The original “Chicken Run”, released in 2000, earned $106 million domestically and remains the highest grossing stop-motion animation film in North America. It won Best Animated Feature honors at the Critics Choice Awards and was nominated for the Outstanding British Film BAFTA, Best Animated Film Annie Award and Best Motion Picture — Comedy or Musical Golden Globe Award.
Aardman has had great success when it comes to awards season, beginning with its shorts. Nick Park earned the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 1991 for “Creature Comforts” and was nominated that same year for “Wallace & Gromit” adventure “A Grand Day Out” (which earned him the BAFTA). He received BAFTAs and Oscars for follow-up ‘90s “W&G” shorts “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave”, along with the Animated Feature Oscar and British Film BAFTA for 2005 “W&G” feature “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit”.
The most recent “W&G” short, 2009’s “A Matter of Loaf and Death”, earned the Animated Short BAFTA but lost the Oscar, in a surprise upset, to the innovative “Logorama”. Park looks to get back into the awards race next year with the new “Wallace & Gromit” feature coming to Netflix.
In the meantime, there’s the “Chicken Run” sequel, which will have to achieve at least one major nomination in order to live-up to the Aardman success rate.
All eight other Aardman features (whether distributed by DreamWorks Animation, Paramount, Sony/Columbia, Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment or Netflix) have either been nominated for, or have won, an Oscar, a BAFTA, an Annie Award and a Critics Choice Award in the Best Animated Feature category, with three also earning Golden Globe Awards nominations.
Following the successes of the first “Chicken Run” and “Wallace & Gromit” features, 2006’s “Flushed Away” was up for the Animated Feature BAFTA and Critics Choice Awards. 2011’s “Arthur Christmas” received Critics Choice, Annie, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations (and should’ve been up for the Oscar). 2012’s hilarious “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” got Aardman back on the Oscar ballot, along with an Annie nom.
2015’s delightful “Shaun the Sheep Movie” was an Oscar, Golden Globe, Critics Choice, Annie and BAFTA nominee. 2018 hidden gem “Early Man” managed to make it onto the Annie Best Animated Feature list. And 2019 / 2020 “Shaun” sequel “Farmageddon” (Aardman’s first film to debut on Netflix) was up for the Oscar, BAFTA, Annie and Critics Choice Awards.