punky_fish247

So much of what makes Aardman great is the clever and hilarious humour and creative storytelling, none of which felt represented here. I so badly wanted to enjoy this movie after loving the first one as a child (and as an adult), but this sequel lacked almost everything I loved about the first.

What made the first movie so memorable is the dark subject matter and the lightness of the humour, working together. A chicken farm allegory for a prisoner of war camp, made child-friendly?? It was such a reach, and unique idea, made amazing by the silliness of the visuals and the comedy to balance the severe subject matter. By the end of the film, you SO badly wanted them to succeed. This lacked all of that. It was basically the same "prison escape" premise, but watered down beyond any recognition. I couldnt have cared less about the characters by the end.

The comedy was also lacking. I chuckled once, that was it. Nothing overly clever, and the characters lacked all their unique funny qualities from the first movie. Rocky was particularly annoying.

It sounds dumb, but the human-chicken interactions also were super weird. The whole humour of the first movie was how the husband was the only one seeing their human-like behaviour, which was a whole source of comedy in itself, but this time the chickens were already humanised? Treated as intelligent from the get-go, it made for a weird dynamic. It was like all the fundamentals from the first movie weren't respected or carried forward. So many opportunities for comedy, nuance or story, lost.

It felt like a cheap TV-made special made exclusively for younger children. The only positive things I can really say is that the quality of the animation is impeccable, as usual, and the child characters were pretty delightful. Otherwise, a pretty big disappointment..

The choices Tennant's character makes in the first episode are so ridiculous and outrageous that it just becomes unwatchable for me, it's just so infuriatingly self-sacrificial for absolutely no reason. An abysmal situation that could've easily been solved with the most basic communication- it's maddening. Perhaps this circumstance doesn't drive the rest of the show, but at this point, I don't care to find out.

Not to mention the corny intro, written by a generation that doesn't really understand modern youth, and Tucci's somewhat ridiculous character intro as well. The whole thing is very Moffat in the way that it's painfully unrealistic, and not in a fun way.