The Angry Birds Movie review

THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE:

FUN FOR KIDS, NOT MUCH IN HERE FOR ADULTS!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** 1/2 out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES

(From left to right) Bomb, Red, and Chuck in The Angry Birds Movie

            The first thing you’re thinking pops into everyone else’s head too, why and/or how do you make a movie based on a game you play on your tablet or smartphone where you shoot birds out of a slingshot? Beats me but The Angry Birds Movie certainly tried and resulted in a mostly harmless kids movie. 

            I know it’d be impossible for them to adapt the movie straight from the game, because let’s be fair the Angry Birds game is not story heavy and doesn’t offer much meat to make an engaging story to put on the screen. There have been other examples of Angry Birds being adapted to other media most notably the animated series, Angry Birds Toons.

            And now Rovio Animation, the team behind the Angry Birds franchise has joined forces with Sony Pictures to bring The Angry Birds Movie. At best it's an occasionally funny distraction for your kids, but it's a crowd-pandering feature-length commercial that lacks the passion of The Lego Movie. 

            It thankfully isn't another Smurfs and there is at least some thought put into this movie, but aside from corporate marketing this is a pointless and forgettable movie. Angry Birds ironically isn't awful to the point of getting mad to your boiling point, but it doesn't really make much of an impression. 

            Ever since childhood, Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis-Drinking Buddies, Horrible Bosses, Epic) hasn’t always been a very happy bird, his classmates would make fun of him and his large eyebrows, he doesn’t feel respected by the other birds, and he’s just an all-around jerk with some serious anger management problems. After a meltdown at a little kid’s birthday, Judge Peckinpah (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key-Key & Peele, Tomorrowland, Keanu) sentences him to anger management class where he must manage his anger before he starts causing more trouble.

            On his first day of anger management Red meets fast running blabbermouth, Chuck (voiced by Josh Gad-Frozen, The Comedians, Pixels), Bomb (voiced by Danny McBride-Tropic Thunder, Despicable Me, This is the End) who has been known to “Blow Up”, and Terence (voiced by Sean Penn-Dead Man Walking, Mystic River, Milk) a giant red bird who doesn’t talk and only growls. However, what starts as a simple day of anger management turns into something huge as a ship of mischievous and mysterious pigs led by their king Leonard (voiced by Bill Hader-Superbad, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs, Trainwreck) shows up to bring peace and offerings of friendship to the citizens of Bird Island.

            All the birds seem to love partying with the pigs, Red however feels something suspicious is going on as he, Chuck, and Bomb investigate the pigs’ ship and finds out the pigs are plotting to steal all the birds’ eggs to make one giant omelet out of them for the pigs on Piggy Island. So it’s up to Red, Chuck, Bomb, and all the citizens of Bird Island to get angry, defeat the pigs, and save their eggs before they become a balanced breakfast.

            The film also features the voices of Tony Hale (Stranger Than Fiction, The Informant, The Heat) as Peckinpah’s servant, Cyrus, Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live, Idiocrasy, Bridesmaids) as the anger management teacher, Matilda, and Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Pixels) as the Mighty Eagle.

            Overall, The Angry Birds Movie is fun for kids but leaves very little for adults, the animation is colorful and some of the designs of the characters and buildings are a little humorous. But without a compelling story or characters, most of the movie falls flat. 

            Most of the voice acting is fine, Jason Sudeikis has portrayed great jerky characters in other movies and was a decent choice for Red, Josh Gad as Chuck is basically the complete opposite of his Olaf the Snowman performance from Frozen and pretty much a comic relief character for the little kids, Danny McBride as Bomb is basically Danny McBride with a bunch of explosives in his stomach and yeah he’s funny at times, but other times they make him a bit too dumb, Bill Hader as the evil pig king Leonard is humorous mostly because it's Hader doing the voice, he has this very distinct comical voice and even with the bad writing he'll make me crack a smile just by speaking.

            The Angry Birds Movie may entertain your kids and it's not an awful waste of time but a forgettable one. Aside from a few decent jokes and a talented voice cast, this egg is getting a bit rotten.