Storks review

STORKS:

NOT WHAT I WOULD PICK AS A MOVIE TO FOLLOW THE LEGO MOVIE UP WITH, BUT IT OFFERS ENOUGH CREATIVITY, HUMOR, AND HEART TO MAKE FOR SOME FAMILY FUN!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

A stork delivering a little trouble in Storks

            Here it is, the second film in Warner Animation Group’s library following the massive success of 2014’s The Lego Movie, as well as the movie that breathed life back into Warner Bros. Animation feature film releases after several box-office bombs such as Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, The Iron Giant, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Thanks to The Lego Movie’s success, Warner Bros. stepped back into the animated movie competition to compete with Disney once again as well as Pixar, DreamWorks, and all the other animation studios that have been created recently.

            And how does Warner Bros. follow-up the surprise success of The Lego Movie? With Storks, which at first, judging by the trailers, seemed like a pretty standard concept, a stork delivery system for babies? Come on, this doesn’t look nearly as creative as the wild imagination of The Lego Movie, sorry Warners but I’ll wait for The Lego Batman Movie.

            Thankfully the movie surpassed my expectations, one thing Warner Bros. Animation was always great at was comedic animation, and this movie was no exception. I don’t know what it is but the way the characters are drawn and animated reminds me a lot of the animation you would see in classic Looney Tunes cartoons, except in 3D.

            Storks may be a little more restrained when it came to crazy animation compared to The Lego Movie but the animators take full advantage of including wacky and inventive animation whenever it’s needed. Add lots of creativity and heart, plus a strong moral for both kids and parents to relate to, and you got a fine family film, though I don’t think it stands as tall as The Lego Movie.

            Since we were children we all probably asked our parents where do babies come from, and a lot of the time we would hear about myths and stories about storks delivering babies to family homes. Well, after so many years of delivering infants, the storks decide to turn it into a business.

            The storks literally have a baby making machine where they take a letter written by parents requesting a baby and put it into the machine and the letter transforms into a human baby (Which I found absolutely brilliant when watching this film, FYI!). After countless stress and incidents, the storks decide to retire from baby delivering and move on to a postal service business called Cornerstore and deliver products to humans such as new phones or other goodies (Think of it as if Amazon.com was managed by a bunch of birds!).

            The CEO of Cornerstore, Hunter (voiced by Kelsey Grammer-Toy Story 2, X-Men franchise, Transformers: Age of Extinction) sees a bright future for the company as he begins to promote his top delivery stork, Junior (voiced by Andy Samberg-Saturday Night Live, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania) to the new boss of Cornerstore.

            Only one thing stands in Junior’s way of becoming the boss, the only human worker at Cornerstore and the last baby that failed to get delivered many years ago, Tulip (voiced by Katie Crown-Total Drama, Adventure Time, Clarence), if he fires her, he’ll get promoted. Meanwhile a young boy named Nate (voiced by newcomer, Anton Starkman), whose parents are complete workaholics are barely have enough time to spend with their son, desires a baby brother so he could have someone to play with.

            One night Nate writes a letter to the storks requesting a delivery of a baby brother who apparently must have ninja skills (K?) so he won’t be lonely anymore. The letter makes its way to Tulip, working in the mail room and accidentally puts it in the baby making machine and creates a new baby.

            So Junior and Tulip embark on a journey to bring the baby to Nate’s family, along the way they encounter a hungry wolf pack led by their Alpha (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key-Key & Peele, Hotel Transylvania 2, Keanu) and Beta (voiced by Jordan Peele-Key & Peele, Wanderlust, Keanu), a psychotic pigeon named Pigeon Toady (voiced by Stephen Kramer Glickman-Carpoolers, Big Time Rush, Workaholics), and an army of menacing penguins. Meanwhile Nate, his father, Henry (voiced by Ty Burrell-Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Muppets Most Wanted, Finding Dory), and his mother, Sarah (voiced by Jennifer Aniston-Friends, The Iron Giant, Bruce Almighty) prepare their home for the arrival of the new baby in one of the greatest family bonding experiences they have ever had.

            Overall, Storks is a very entertaining family movie, the animation is very colorful and leads to decent comedy. The creativity surpassed all my expectations, the way the stork delivery service is designed and animated, it actually reminded me a lot of the bee world from the movie, Bee Movie, just overflowing with imagination.

            The chemistry between Junior and Tulip is decent, Tulip as the hyper teenage girl who wants to find her real parents and accompanies Junior on the ride, while Junior is kind of a jerky character who just wants to be the boss, but he slowly realizes he has a good heart. You want to see them succeed in their adventure to bring the baby to its family.

            Then there’s the wolves, just gonna leave it at that.

            For a second movie from Warner Animation Group, it feels like a step backwards from the wildly imaginative, The Lego Movie, I personally wouldn’t have made this their second theatrical release. But with that’s said, the movie as a whole is decent, it’s colorful, funny, heartwarming, and it’s a movie I think both kids and parents can relate to.

            It’s a stork delivery system that’s definitely worth making an order to for family fun.