Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget director Sam Fell has said that making the movie presented "a list of difficult challenges".
The long-awaited Aardman animated sequel is set to drop next month on Netflix, reuniting fans with favourites including Rocky and Ginger.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Fell spoke about some of the differences that came over two decades after the last movie was released.
Related: Chicken Run 2 lands strong Rotten Tomatoes rating after first reviews
"The thing that attracted me from the beginning was the notion of: this time, they’re breaking in," he noted.
"It gave us this kind of film for Aardman to tackle, like a heist movie, like a break-in, and it was such a delightful premise. It gives you so much comedy – these unlikely action heroes, these little-scale props.
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"And then thinking about the new era of farming – this gigantic factory farm, making these nuggets, and the fun of exaggerating that into this ludicrous, high-security Bond villain’s lair, and then putting Mrs Tweedy at the middle of it as this supervillain.
Related: Chicken Run 2 director explains why they weren't going to bring back Mrs Tweedy
"We had so much fun with that. And then at some point it was like, 'Oh'."
Fell elaborated: "The perfect stop-motion scene is two characters inside a room. Think of Wallace and Gromit having breakfast in The Wrong Trousers. That is your sort of perfect stop-motion scenario.
"Now, having chickens outdoors, in the land of the giants, with water and crowds and fireworks and popcorn – it was pretty much a list of difficult challenges."
The director explained that alongside it being "a bigger, badder challenge for the chickens to break into this place", it was also "a bigger challenge for the whole crew and the studio to kind of achieve this".
Related: Chicken Run 2's new trailer reveals Game of Thrones star's take on recast role
Going on to praise the crew, Fell said: "They’ve blown me away with what they’ve done. They’ve really pulled it off. They’re an amazing team down there. Nothing will stop them.
"The story demanded it and it’s a milestone. This movie is a milestone, and the first movie was a milestone."
"I was there," he further recalled. "Because the studio really scaled up from making half-hours to making Chicken Run a feature film, it was a big deal, and they had to train new people, and find new techniques. It really transformed the studio, that movie.
"In a way, this is also another new milestone movie, and it’s become another big challenge. In some ways, it’s also transformed the studio."
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is in select UK cinemas from December 8 and released on Netflix on December 15.
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Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International. Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' as a sub-editor.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
