With every new Aardman production, their stop motion animation technique becomes more and more seamless, looking practically indistinguishable from the work being put out by other animation studios that use CG. However, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget also threatens to flatten into the same kind of entertainment churned out by other studios at a faster rate. There isn't as much personality to either the story or the art direction—which gave the first Chicken Run film such a sense of urgency—and any ideas about how one's radical beliefs are tested with age never really get off the ground. And yet, what Aardman is able to do with actual tactile models will never not be impressive, these rebellious chickens standing as a tribute to handcrafted storytelling that will never be replaced.

The few moments when Dawn of the Nugget allows itself to be a little eerier are when the film is at its best. Horror isn't something that Aardman is known for or very interested in (as opposed to their fellow stop motion studio Laika), but at times they still get to take advantage of how eerie an unblinking silicon model can look. And every suggestion of violence—a human character holding up an axe, for example—feels all the more real, given our subconscious knowledge that the chickens we see on screen are made of actual parts that can be held, manipulated, and broken.