Chickenhare And The Secret Of The Groundhog (PG)

Chickenhare, acrobatic skunk Meg and Galapagos tortoise Abe return to the kingdom of Featherbeard to celebrate their latest escapade with King Peter. Triumph turns to despair when one of the archivists, Gina, reveals that she is Chickenhare's long-lost sister and a tree of life that sustains their bloodline's island home is under threat. The only way to save their unique kind from extinction is to track down the fabled Groundhog With the Backward-Facing Face.

LondonNet Film Review

Chickenhare And The Secret Of The Groundhog (PG) Film Review from LondonNet

The opening visual gag in director Benjamin Mousquet’s sprightly sequel to his 2022 animated fantasy Chickenhare And The Hamster Of Darkness is a resourceful skunk turning her back on a swarm of angry bees and neutralising the winged throng with a toxic outburst from her anal glands. Fart jokes are alive, well and wafted more than once in Chickenhare And The Secret Of The Groundhog so take a big whiff…

The half-hare half-chicken explorer (voiced by Jordan Tartakow) embarks on a daredevil treasure hunt for the Holy Spork in the company of acrobatic skunk Meg (Laila Berzins) and wise Galapagos tortoise Abe (Joey Lotsko). The trio stumble upon the glittering prize only for Meg’s one-time associate, scheming lynx Crolloq (Odessa Lurlean), to swoop in with her tiny hench-chameleons, Miggie (Dino Andrade) and Rolf (Todd Haberkorn), to try and steal the prize. Chickenhare and co return to the kingdom of Featherbeard to celebrate with the eponymous hero’s adopted father, King Peter (Wally Wingert). Triumph turns to despair when one of the archivists, Gina (Xanthe Huynh), reveals that she is Chickenhare’s long-lost sister and a tree of life that sustains their bloodline’s island home is under threat. “You’re our only hope,” implores Gina.

The only way to save their unique kind from extinction is to track down the fabled Groundhog With the Backward-Facing Face, who can reverse the flow of time. Chickenhare, Gina, Meg and Abe are roused into immediate action but the quartet are propelled onto divergent paths. Chickenhare and Gina confront the ghosts of the past, Meg resolves her feelings for Crolloq after an ill-fated previous quest to locate the Fountain Of Middle Age and Abe encounters strange beasties in The Neverending Jungle.

Chickenhare And The Secret Of The Groundhog is a lively escapade with blatant nods to Indiana Jones, especially in the opening set piece. Hand-animated 2D flashbacks provide a pleasing contrast to colourful 3D computer-animated visuals and Mousquet maintains a brisk pace that doesn’t permit much time to dwell on narrative inconsistencies such as clawed and pawed protagonists being casually sucked down a giant plughole with a deluge of scalding hot liquid that threatened to broil them to death only a few seconds earlier.

Screenwriters Dave Collard and Chris Grine playfully populate this convoluted escapade with droll supporting characters (Queen Ingrid the Indecisive), quixotic locations (The Isle Of Idle Hands) and nonsensical artefacts that may never be found, and for good reason (The Boomerang That Never Returns). Wholesome life lessons about loyalty, honour and familial ties punctuate the gentle family-friendly humour and potent skunk eruptions. The Minions-like Piggies from the first film return to wreak hammy havoc on a grand scale. It’s all pleasantly diverting hogwash.

– Jo Planter