Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget | 2023 | PG | – 0.3.2

Why is “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “peril, action and some thematic elements.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes depictions of chickens in a processing plant being made into chicken nuggets for human consumption, several scenes of chickens attempting to free themselves from humans and robots that use weapons and electronic shock collars to control them, several arguments and name-calling. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When the chickens are kidnapped and taken to a major poultry producer to become chicken nuggets for human consumption, three island-living chickens (voiced by Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi and Bella Ramsey) start a nighttime attack to free the captive birds. Also with the voices of Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, David Bradley, Jane Harrocks, Romesh Rangana Than, Daniel Mays, Josie Sedgwick-Davies and Miranda Richardson. Directed by Sam Fell. [Running Time: 1:40]

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget SEX/NUDITY 0

 – None.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – Two chickens discover that the bushes and the sky in an amusement park are fake and chickens are controlled by electric collars that make them feel happy and causing them to march toward an escalator and up to an image of a bright sun; one chicken passes through the fake sun and we hear loud machinery grinding and whirring, and then the scene cuts to an office where a fresh bucket of chicken nuggets rises through a door.
► Hundreds of fowl march toward an escalator, slide into a room, and march down a narrow hallway to a ledge above a meat processor; a few chickens without collars try to hold them back and a chicken on the floor hits a remote control button to deactivate the collars and save the birds. Chickens ride a conveyor belt to a slide, go down to a narrower conveyor belt, are grabbed by the neck and fitted with electronic collars; then they are put down a slide to an amusement park where other fowl are attacked by robot ducks that shoot darts that hit nothing, and shine laser beams at them; we don’t see the beams hit anything, but the camera moves off-screen and we see bright red flashes (no one seems to be hurt). A man wearing a chicken suit walks around the park and scares chickens who yell in fear. A chicken knocks three other chickens down with a mini-golf club (they are uninjured).
► A woman grabs a hen, puts an electronic collar on her, and then clamps her down to a lab table where she passes out and then revives; a rooster enters and knocks three people down (there are no injuries) and then four guards run into one another and fall down; the first woman slaps the rooster across the room (he is unhurt), and he climbs to a catwalk to save two other chickens. An axe on a cable line twirls through the air and knocks a woman off a catwalk; we see her later, covered in nugget breading and the top of her topknot hair is missing. A rooster, two chickens and other animals steal a truck, jump off the end of a drawbridge across a moat, and lead other chickens to safety; robot ducks in the moat swim toward a woman, the camera moves off-screen, and we see red flashes (they ae lasers) to end the scene; in a long shot, a factory erupts in flames and smoke, and crumbles to the ground while we hear that the meat processing machine inside overheated.
► A large crowd of chickens begins to act dazed, marching toward an escalator. At an amusement park, collared chickens eat all they want and enjoy rides like the revolving eggcup ride. A few chickens choose weapons like knitting needles, plastic wrenches, pop-guns, and electrical tape and smuggle themselves into a poultry factory in a cake; they pop out and chain up a guard, crash him into a tree with a rocket-propelled skateboard, and tie him with cable lines to the tree, where he moans with a bag over his head; a hen knits another guard into a long straight jacket and he hops out of the frame, another man is blinded by a camera flash, and another man falls unconscious when a duct grate covering falls on his head (no injuries are shown). A group of chickens hears about yet another farm planning to slaughter chickens, picks up their weapons and begins charging toward the camera as the scene ends in a freeze-frame.
► Chickens fall into a corn silo and a grinder under the corn begins to make noise as a chicken jumps into the corn and suggests making popcorn by lighting a large firecracker, another chicken uses her glasses instead to concentrate light and start the popping, a buzzing alarm sounds, and the firecracker ignites with a loud boom, popcorn raises the birds to the exit door and the popcorn shoots out the roof to rain on the ground (several humans are buried in popcorn but uninjured).
► A scene and a flashback show the shadow of a woman swinging an axe while dimly lit chickens cry, scream, and someone yells, “We’ll be pies”; during the flashback, a chicken in a bed awakens with a loud yelp of fear. A teen chicken runs away at night to see a new building across the water; she is run off the road by a truck but is unharmed, she and another chicken are captured by a man who tosses them in the back of a truck with a cartoon of a smiling chicken sitting in a bucket of chicken nuggets on the side and a caption that reads, “Chickens have a happy ending at Fun-Land Farm,” and the truck passes through gates and razor wire fencing to let the birds off at an amusement park.
► Animals fly fake clouds over a poultry processing plant and two rats use an umbrella as a parachute, which later collapses on them and sends them through a trap door and down a slide where they help chickens escape. A rooster sets up a zip line for escapees and chickens and rats use it, but the rooster falls off the line and against a tree (he is not hurt). A rooster and a hen hang onto a speeding truck and fall backwards onto a mechanic’s creeper ridden by chickens operating a jetpack made from firecrackers (no one is hurt).
► A hen and a rooster chase and throw water on each other. A rooster falls from a ladder but is unharmed. A hen yelps in fear at something unseen snarling from a bush. A baby chick in an egg breaks one leg through the shell and hops away as hens chase it. A chick rides a water wheel and digs out of her playpen with a spoon. A young chicken builds a raft and uses a spoon as an oar to cross a pond to explore; hens and roosters fear for her life and go out to find her. Chickens barricade their island with wire fencing and dense bushes. A rooster disguised as a bush runs into a tree but is uninjured. A close-up of an axe shows it cutting into a chunk of wood. A close-up of an operational chain saw is shown in a forest and we see leaves flying. A commercial shows unhappy chickens made happy on a farm and then made fat and tender with “science” sprinkled from a saltshaker.
► Two chickens argue with a younger chicken a few times. A hen argues with a teen chicken for several seconds. Three chickens cry at different times and two rats cry twice. A hen blows a raspberry at another hen. A woman screams at guards, her husband and chickens in several scenes. A woman tells a restaurant owner that all the chickens will be turned into nuggets.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget LANGUAGE 2

 – 1 implied scatological reference (a chicken says, “Go Time” for beginning a mission and another bird says, “I went before we left”), 1 mild anatomical term, name-calling (crazy, idiot, knackered, raving lunatic, stupid, weird, ‘nana [Cockney, possibly banana], cheeky, egghead, naughty, hen-hole, plain, dull, simple-minded, easily-frightened, rambling old rooster), exclamations (shut-up, shut your beak, shhh, bloomin’, cock-a-doodle-doo as a war cry, wow, yay, wheee, heck, whoa), 1 religious exclamation (Holy moly). | profanity glossary |

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget SUBSTANCE USE

 – Electronic collars cause chickens to act like zombies that giggle and march toward an escalator that takes them to a meat processor while they believe they are winning a prize, and a coffee vending machine makes a cup of coffee (no one drinks it).

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – The poultry industry, animal cruelty, animal rights, sentient animals, vegetarianism, revenge, danger, fear, manipulation, teamwork, allies, hope, freedom, justice, family, happiness, technology, inventions, veterans, scientists.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget MESSAGE

 – The oppressed will continue to fight until they are all free.