Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

• Director: Sam Fell
• Writers: Karey Kirkpatrick, John O’Farrell, Rachel Tunnard
• Starring: Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi, Bella Ramsey, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, David Bradley, Nick Mohammed, Miranda Richardson

Grade: B

Nostalgia can be a deadly weapon. More often than not, our fondness for the pop culture of yesteryear can propel us to tack on an unecessary coda to what was already a perfectly fine artistic statement, whether it be a prequel, sequel, or spin-off. Though there are, of course, exceptions to this rule, like last year’s Top Gun: Maverick. I have tremendous nostalgia for 2000’s Chicken Run, as the VHS was on constant rotation on family road trips, so I greeted the news of a sequel, coming 23 years later and dropping on Netflix on December 15, with reserved skepticism.

The Boy and the Heron

• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
• Japanese Voice Cast: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Yoshino Kimura, Ko Shibasaki, Kaoru Kobayashi, Jun Kunimura
• English Voice Cast: Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson, Gemma Chan, Christian Bale, Mark Hamill, Florence Pugh, Willem Dafoe, Dave Bautista

Grade: A

Over the course of his 40+ year career, animation master and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has made some of the most transcendent films ever made, animated or otherwise. They’re films like My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away that have crossed oceans and cultures to remind audiences of what storytelling can be. They’re films that casual movie fans and diehard cinephiles alike can enjoy, and they provide a much-needed rebuke to the often predictable storytelling mechanisms of Western animation. His latest, and possibly last film, The Boy and the Heron, feels like the film that he’s been building towards his entire life, a culmination of a lifetime’s philosophy in a beautifully rendered package.