''Chicken Run'' is a 2000 animated

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Peter Lord Peter Duncan Fraser Lord CBE (born 4 November 1953) is a British animator, director, producer and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particu ...

and

Nick Park Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is an English filmmaker and animator who created '' Wallace & Gromit'', '' Creature Comforts'', '' Chicken Run'', '' Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy ...

and written by

Karey Kirkpatrick Karey Kirkpatrick (born December 14, 1964) is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. His films include ''Chicken Run'', '' The Rescuers Down Under'', '' James and the Giant Peach,'' '' Over the Hedge'', ''The Spiderwick Chronic ...

from an original story by Lord and Park. Produced by

Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...

and

Aardman Features Aardman Animations Limited, known simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England, United Kingdom. It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those fe ...

in partnership with

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios, Inc, Universal Stud ...

, it is Aardman's first feature-length film. The film stars the voices of

Julia Sawalha Julia Sawalha (born 9 September 1968) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Saffron "Saffy" Monsoon in the BBC sitcom '' Absolutely Fabulous'' (1992–2012). Her other television roles include as Lynda Day in '' Press Gang'' (198 ...

Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Mel Gibson, multiple accolades, he is known for directing historical films as well for his act ...

Tony Haygarth George Anthony Haygarth (4 February 1945 – 10 March 2017) was an English television, film and theatre actor. Life and career After leaving Marlborough College, Liverpool, Haygarth worked unsuccessfully in 1963 as a lifeguard in Torquay, and a ...

Miranda Richardson Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958) is an English actress who has worked in film, television and theatre. After graduating from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Richardson began her career in 1979 and made her West End theatre, West ...

Phil Daniels Philip William Daniels (born 25 October 1958) is an English actor, musician and singer, most noted for film and television roles playing Londoners, such as the lead role of Jimmy Cooper in ''Quadrophenia'', Richards in '' Scum'', Stewart in '' T ...

Lynn Ferguson Lynn Ferguson Tweddle (born 11 April 1965) is a Scottish writer, comedian, actress, and story coach. The younger sister of comedian Craig Ferguson, she is known for voicing the character of Mac in the animated film ''Chicken Run'' (2000), and its ...

Timothy Spall Timothy Leonard Spall ( ; born 27 February 1957) is an English actor. He gained recognition for his character actor roles on stage and screen. In 2000, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. S ...

Imelda Staunton Dame Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton (born 9 January 1956) is an English actress and singer. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Staunton began her career in repertory theatre in 1976 and appeared in various theatre pr ...

, and

Benjamin Whitrow Benjamin John Whitrow (17 February 1937 – 28 September 2017) was a British actor. He was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for his role as Mr Bennet in the 1995 BBC version of ''Pride and Prejudice'', and voiced the role of Fowle ...

. Set in the countryside of

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, the plot centres on a group of British

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

chickens who see an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes as their only hope to escape the farm when their owners want to turn them into chicken pies. ''Chicken Run'' was released in the United States on 23 June 2000 and in the United Kingdom on 30 June 2000. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $220 million and becoming the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film in history. At the time, this film was DreamWorks Animation's most successful release, but this was overtaken by ''

Shrek ''Shrek'' is a 2001 American animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, and written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S. H. Schulman, loosely based on the 1990 children's picture boo ...

'' the following year''.'' Twenty-three years later, a sequel, titled '' Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget'', was released on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

on 15 December 2023. Its Netflix release followed its world premiere at the 67th

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 fe ...

on 14 October 2023, which would also see preview screenings taking place at UK cinemas at the same time.

Plot

In the countryside of

, a flock of

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

s live on an

egg farm An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

structured like a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

. The farm is run by the cruel Mrs Tweedy and her submissive husband, Mr Tweedy, who kill and eat any chicken that is no longer able to lay eggs. Led by the rebellious Ginger, the chickens constantly devise new ways to try to escape but are always caught. Mr Tweedy suspects the chickens are organised and plotting resistance, but his wife dismisses his theories while being frustrated with making minuscule profits. One night, Ginger sees an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes glide over the farm's fences and crash-land; the chickens put his sprained wing in a cast and hide him from the Tweedys, who have been promised a handsome reward by Rocky's owner for his return. Inspired by Rocky's apparent flying abilities, Ginger begs him to help teach her and the other chickens to fly so they can escape, threatening to turn him in if he refuses. Rocky reluctantly gives them training lessons. One evening, a load of equipment is delivered to the farm, containing the parts for a

chicken pie Chicken and mushroom pie is a common British pie, ranked as one of the most popular types of savoury pie in Great Britain and often served in fish-and-chip restaurants. It is also very popular in South Africa. Ingredients The outside is usual ...

machine that Mrs Tweedy has ordered as part of a plan to convert the farm into a profitable pie-making factory. When the Tweedys increase the chickens' food rations and ignore the decline in egg production, Ginger deduces that the couple's new plan is to fatten the chickens for slaughter. After Ginger and Rocky get into an argument, Rocky holds a morale-boosting dance party during which it is revealed that his wing is healed. Ginger talks Rocky into agreeing to give a flying demonstration the next day. Mr Tweedy finishes assembling the machine and puts Ginger in it for a test run. Rocky saves her and sabotages the machine, buying them time to warn the chickens and plan an escape from the farm. The next day, Ginger finds Rocky has escaped overnight, leaving behind part of a poster that shows that he is in fact part of a "chicken cannonball" act with no ability to fly on his own, making them realize that their chance to learn how to fly has been crushed. In the midst of being devastated, Ginger is inspired by elderly rooster Fowler's stories of his time in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

to build an aircraft to flee the farm. The chickens assemble parts for the plane as Mr Tweedy fixes the pie-making machine. Meanwhile, Rocky comes across a billboard advertising Mrs Tweedy's chicken pies and returns to the farm out of guilt. Mrs Tweedy orders Mr Tweedy to gather all the chickens for the machine, but the chickens subdue him and finish the plane, which Ginger persuades Fowler to pilot. As the plane approaches the take-off ramp, Mr Tweedy manages to knock over the ramp before being knocked out; Ginger races to reset the ramp, but a now-alerted Mrs Tweedy attacks her. Before Mrs Tweedy can hurt Ginger, Rocky returns and subdues her, before helping Ginger re-raise the ramp, allowing the plane to take flight. Rocky and Ginger grab onto the runway lights, which have been snagged by the departing plane. An axe-wielding Mrs Tweedy follows them by climbing up the lights, but Ginger tricks Mrs Tweedy into cutting the line, sending her falling into the pie machine, blocking the safety valve and causing the machine to explode in a

mushroom cloud A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris, smoke, and usually condensed water vapour resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, but any sufficiently e ...

gravy Gravy is a sauce made from the juices of meats and vegetables that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with thickeners for added texture. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt (a mix of salt and caramel food ...

. The chickens celebrate their victory after defeating the Tweedys while Ginger and Rocky kiss, and they fly to an island

bird sanctuary An animal sanctuary is a facility where animals are brought to live and to be protected for the rest of their lives. In addition, sanctuaries are an experimental staging ground for transformative human–animal relations. There are five types of ...

where they make their home. Sometime later, the chickens have settled into their new home, and Rocky and Ginger have continued their romantic relationship. Nick and Fetcher, two

rats Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...

that have been helping the chickens throughout the escape, decide to set up their own egg farm, but they fall into a circular debate over whether they must use a

chicken or egg The chicken or the egg causality dilemma is commonly stated as the question, "which came first: the chicken or the egg?" The dilemma stems from the observation that all chickens hatch from eggs and all chicken eggs are laid by chickens. "Chicke ...

to start it.

Voice cast

as Ginger, the de facto British leader of the chickens *

as Rocky, an American circus rooster and Ginger's love interest *

as Mrs Tweedy, the owner of the farm *

as Mr Tweedy, Mrs Tweedy's husband and the co-owner of the farm *

as Fowler, an elderly rooster *

as Nick, a cynical rat *

as Fetcher, Nick's partner *

Jane Horrocks Barbara Jane Horrocks (born 18 January 1964) is a British actress. She portrayed Bubble and Katy Grin in the BBC sitcom '' Absolutely Fabulous''. She was nominated for the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for the title role in the stage pl ...

as Babs, a chubby chicken who loves knitting *

as Bunty, the champion egg-layer *

as Mac, Ginger's Scottish second in command

Production

Development

''Chicken Run'' was first conceived in 1995 by Aardman co-founder Peter Lord and ''

Wallace and Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British claymation comedy media franchise, franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving bachelor inventor, and Gromit, his ...

'' creator Nick Park. According to Park, the project started as a spoof on the 1963 film '' The Great Escape''. ''Chicken Run'' was

Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited, known simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England, United Kingdom. It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those fe ...

' first feature-length production, which would be executive produced by

Jake Eberts Jake Eberts, OC (July 10, 1941 – September 6, 2012) was a Canadian film producer, executive and financier. He was known for his work on Academy Award-winning titles ''Chariots of Fire'' (1981, uncredited), ''Gandhi'' (1982), '' Dances with Wo ...

and

, who run Aardman, directed the film, while

scripted, with additional input from

Mark Burton Mark Burton may refer to: * Mark Burton (politician) (born 1956), New Zealand politician * Mark Burton (footballer) (born 1974), New Zealand football (soccer) player * Mark Burton (filmmaker) (born 1960), British film and television screenwriter, ...

and John O'Farrell. When a chicken speaks, each sound corresponds to a different beak that was placed on the character.

agreed to finance the film in 1996, putting their finances into script development and model design. DreamWorks officially came on board in 1997. They beat out studios including

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

(which had distributed many of Aardman's earlier projects, including the

Wallace & Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British claymation comedy franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving bachelor inventor, and Gromit, his loyal and intell ...

shorts, in the U.S.), and

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

(which had also distributed some of Aardman's earlier projects in the U.S.) and largely won due to the perseverance of DreamWorks co-chairman

Jeffrey Katzenberg Jeffrey Katzenberg ( ; born December 21, 1950) is an American media proprietor and film producer. He served as chairman of Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994, a position in which he oversaw production and busin ...

; as a company they were eager to make their presence felt in the animation market in an attempt to compete with Disney's dominance of the field. Katzenberg explained that he had "been chasing these guys for five or six years, ever since I first saw ''

Creature Comforts ''Creature Comforts'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise originating in a 1989 animated short film of the same name. The film matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about their homes, making it appear as if the ...

''." DreamWorks secured their first animated feature with the film, and they handled distribution in all territories except Europe, which Pathé handled. The two studios co-financed the film. DreamWorks also retains rights to worldwide merchandising.

Animation

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began on 29 January 1998. During production, 30 sets were used with 80 animators working along with 180 people working overall. The result was one minute of film completed for each week of filming, and production wrapped on 18 June 1999.

Music

John Powell and

Harry Gregson-Williams Harry Gregson-Williams (born 13 December 1961) is a British composer, conductor, orchestrator, and record producer. He has composed music for video games, television and films including the ''Metal Gear'' series, '' Spy Game'', '' Phone Booth' ...

composed the music for the film, which was released on 20 June 2000 under the

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

label. It was recorded at the

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, London, Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of ...

in London. Powell incorporated some kazoos and whistles to create an even funnier soundtrack.

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported approval rating and an average rating of , based on reviews. The website's critics consensus reads: "''Chicken Run'' has all the charm of Nick Park's ''

'', and something for everybody. The voice acting is fabulous, the slapstick is brilliant, and the action sequences are spectacular." At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' gave three and a half stars out of four, writing: "So it truly is a matter of life and death for the chickens to escape from the Tweedy Chicken Farm in ''Chicken Run'', a magical new animated film that looks and sounds like no other. Like the otherwise completely different ''

Babe Babe may refer to: * Babe, a term of endearment * A newborn baby * An attractive (especially female) person People * Babe (nickname), a list of people * Jerome Babe (1837–1893), American inventor and miner * Thomas Babe (1941–2000), Ame ...

'', this is a movie that uses animals as surrogates for our hopes and fears, and as the chickens run through one failed escape attempt after another, the charm of the movie wins us over." ''Chicken Run'' and its sequel have been noted for their depiction of

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

veganism Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a vega ...

and

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

. According to Florentine StrzeIczyk, ''Chicken Run'' points to the way that

masculinity Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there i ...

and

femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...

are mediated in popular film genres. It also received attention for its female-led cast.

Film School Rejects Film School Rejects is an American blog devoted to movie reviews, interviews, film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, prod ...

called the movie feminist, noting that "the stereotypical ' woman's work' of these female chickens (such as their

sewing Sewing is the craft of fastening pieces of textiles together using a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabric, archaeo ...

and

knitting Knitting is a method for production of textile Knitted fabric, fabrics by interlacing yarn loops with loops of the same or other yarns. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done Hand knitting, by hand or Knitting machi ...

) is crucial in constructing their mechanism for escape and vital towards the

itself." The

Islamic Republic of Iran News Network The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN), (In Persian: شبکه خبر جمهوری اسلامی ایران), is an Iranian news channel, part of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting corporation, headquartered in the Jame Jam Park in Teh ...

argued it was a way to disguise

Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

and

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

Box office

On opening weekend, the film grossed $17,506,162 for a $7,027 average from 2,491 theatres. Overall, the film placed second behind ''

Me, Myself & Irene ''Me, Myself & Irene'' is a 2000 American slapstick black comedy film directed by the Farrelly brothers, and starring Jim Carrey and Renée Zellweger. Chris Cooper, Robert Forster, Richard Jenkins, Daniel Greene, Anthony Anderson, Jerod Mixo ...

''. In its second weekend, the film held well as it slipped only 25% to $13,192,897 for a $4,627 average from expanding to 2,851 theatres and finishing in fourth place. The film's widest release was 2,953 theatres, after grossing $106,834,564 in the United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom, it was the third highest-grossing film of the year with a gross of $43 million. With an additional $75 million from other markets, it grossed $224,834,564 worldwide. Produced on an estimated budget of $42–45 million, the film was a huge box office hit. To date, it is still the highest grossing stop motion animated movie.

Accolades

Home media

''Chicken Run'' was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in the United States on 21 November 2000 by

DreamWorks Home Entertainment DreamWorks Pictures (also known as DreamWorks SKG and commonly referred to as DreamWorks) is an American film studio and distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994, as a live-action and animation film s ...

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment LLC (UPHE) is the home video distribution division of Universal Pictures, an American film studio owned by NBCUniversal, the entertainment unit of Comcast. UPHE is the home video distributor for all of the ...

released ''Chicken Run'' on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

in North America on 22 January 2019.

Sequel

In January 2022, the title for the sequel was revealed as '' Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget'' and was announced for a 2023 release on

Zachary Levi Zachary Levi Pugh ( ; born September 29, 1980) is an American actor. He starred as Chuck Bartowski in the action comedy series ''Chuck (TV series), Chuck'' (2007–2012), and as Captain Marvel (DC Comics), the titular character in the superher ...

Thandiwe Newton Melanie Thandiwe Newton ( ; born 6 November 1972), formerly credited as Thandie Newton ( ), is a British actress. She has received various awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and a BAFTA Award, as well as nominations for two Golden Globe ...

Romesh Ranganathan Jonathan Romesh Ranganathan (born 27 March 1978) is a British comedian, actor, and presenter. His style of comedy is deadpan and often self-deprecating. Ranganathan has made numerous appearances on television comedy panel shows and has been a ...

and

Daniel Mays Daniel Mays (born 31 March 1978) is an English actor having had television roles in ''EastEnders'' (2000), ''Rehab'' (2005), '' Red Riding'' (2008), '' Ashes to Ashes'' (2010), '' Outcasts'' (2011), '' Mrs Biggs'', ''Line of Duty'', '' Des'' ...

were revealed to be replacing Gibson, Sawalha, Spall and Daniels as the voices of Rocky, Ginger, Nick and Fetcher; David Bradley voiced Fowler due to Whitrow's death in 2017, while Horrocks, Staunton and Ferguson reprised their roles as Babs, Bunty and Mac.

Bella Ramsey Isabella May Ramsey (born September 2003) is an English actor. They are known for their breakthrough role as young noblewoman Lyanna Mormont in the HBO fantasy television series '' Game of Thrones'' (2016–2019) and Ellie in the HBO post-ap ...

was cast as Molly, while

Nick Mohammed Nicholas George Mohammed is a British actor, comedian and writer. He has portrayed the character Mr. Swallow across both stage and television for over a decade. He is the creator of the Sky One comedy series ''Intelligence (British TV series), ...

and Josie Sedgwick-Davies voiced two new characters, Dr Fry and Frizzle, respectively.

Sam Fell Samuel Jason Fell (born 22 November 1965) is a British animator, director, screenwriter and voice actor. Sam started his career as director on the short film ''The Big Cheese'' for 3 Peach Animation. He then joined Aardman Animations and worked ...

directed with Steve Pegram and Leyla Hobart producing. Kirkpatrick and O'Farrell wrote the script with Rachel Tunnard. In June 2023, Gregson-Williams was revealed to be composing the sequel. Later that month, it was officially announced that the film would release on Netflix on 15 December 2023. Its Netflix release followed its world premiere at the 67th