Zachary Levi voices the character of Rocky in Sam Fell’s Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. The movie will begin streaming on Netflix December 15 and serves as the sequel to Chicken Run, which is the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time.
Having pulled off a death-defying escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has finally found her dream — a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock, far from the dangers of the human world. When she and Rocky hatch a little girl called Molly, Ginger’s happy ending seems complete. But back on the mainland the whole of chicken-kind faces a new and terrible threat. For Ginger and her team, even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk — this time, they’re breaking in!
“I’ve been so blessed that throughout my life, I’ve been able to be a part of genuinely excellent family entertainment, and not necessarily children’s entertainment, but family entertainment,” Levi shared with me. “What separates family from children is that family entertainment is written on a slightly higher intellectual level so that adults are enjoying it on an adult level while the kids are enjoying it on a kid level and that allows for really everyone to truly enjoy it, and that’s an energetic thing. And so, when a whole family, not is just sitting and watching something together, but when everyone’s actually enjoying it together, that creates a positive, energetic literally vibe that bonds people.”
Fell, who is also an executive producer, explained what it was like to take on the Chicken Run follow-up, “It’s kind of a challenge. That’s probably why I wanted to do it because it was a challenge and it’s a little bit sort of exciting and scary at the same time, like all good things are. It just took a long time to be honest. It’s taken a long time because the first movie is very special and very beloved and there’s so many things about it that you wanna keep, but that can paralyze you if you are too reverent of it and you’re too in awe of something from the past. And in some ways, that’s kind of what the story is about in its heart, you know? So, for me, there were certain things that kind of gave me my pass to kind of move on. Molly was one and the idea that Ginger and Rocky have a kid now, and now we get a kid POV and she’s a brand new character. She’s fresh, I’m a brand new director in this, and so, the pair of us are kind of like, for me, she was really enjoyable to kind of think about her.”
We talked about balancing the love that fans have for the original while also making the sequel their own, the joy of family entertainment, cool behind-the-scenes details, and more.
Watch my interviews here:
