Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness: Review
This year has already seen some critically acclaimed animated films released on Netflix, including Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, The House, and Bubble. But it doesn’t mean that the streaming service has hit the mark every time as they did have some disappointing releases, most notably the recent Marmaduke film.
Chickenhare – which was pitched at last year’s CARTOON Movie – is the latest animated feature on Netflix for the whole family to enjoy. But with nWave Pictures and Sony Pictures International producing the film, could this be the next big hit for the studios and for the platform?
Chickenhare Poster
Loosely based on the Chickenhare graphic novel series by Chris Grine, the story sees Chickenhare (voiced by Jordan Tartakow) attempting to find the Hamster of Darkness, an ancient artifact that holds great powers, before his villainous uncle Lapin (Danny Fehsenfeld) can use it to take over the kingdom. Along his journey, Chickenhare will meet some unfriendly brutes, encounter deadly boobytraps, and befriend the confident treasure-hunting skunk Meg, who teaches him to embrace who he is to become the adventurer within him.
While adults will be familiar with the tropes and beats from older treasure-hunting films, this very much acts as a great entry point for younger audiences. But as entertaining as it is to see animals swinging with a whip through the trees and encountering a tribe of cubicle piggies, Chickenhare’s adventure does act as a good setup to tell a message to children about accepting yourself and embracing everyone’s unique qualities.
It’s just a pity that despite a fairly straightforward, familiar, and sometimes fun adventure, it does get impacted by some unnecessary comedic side characters that unnecessarily pad out the film and make some quick cringe-worthy moments. While some of Lapin’s henchmen are only there to create some scenes to cause him frustration and create some funny moments, one of Chickenhare’s allies Abe (Joey Lotsko) is constantly sarcastic. These characters do become repetitive to their tropes quite quickly and can often become more annoying than funny.
Chickenhare and Meg
As for the animation, nWave Pictures and Sony Pictures International Production did a good job to adapt the pages of the graphic novel, trying to redesign the characters to fit the world that they created. While some character models don’t look too different from most animated anthropomorphic animals that audiences have been used to, there are some that do stand out. Most notably, Chickenhare, as he slowly reveals more of his unique features of chicken and hare attributes and a design that stands out as he embraces more of who he is.
And the animation quality is well done too, especially as it has a smaller budget than what audiences expect from Pixar, Dreamworks, and Walt Disney Animation productions. With a budget of twenty million euros, the animators were able to make a colorful and fun adventure, even if it doesn’t look and feel too different from other animated adventure films that have come out before it.
While Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness is not the best film to be released on Netflix so far compared to their other titles in 2022, it is still a fun adventure that families are guaranteed to enjoy. Let’s just hope that the hero will have another adventure that will be a bit more experimental next time.
Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness is now available to watch on Netflix UK.