That's not to say directors Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly, both in their directorial debuts, are not above resorting to the usual parade of off-color humor. Many of the jokes are also meant for the adults in the crowd while the little hatchlings squirming in their seats are hypnotized by the wide array of colors energizing the screen.
Admittedly, the first hour of the movie is littered with various gags and witty quips to make the first hour tolerable ("Pluck my life!" a resentful Red wails during his sentencing). And even then, the war is over almost as quickly as it began, feeling rushed and as if tacked on at the last minute because suddenly the filmmakers remembered the point of adapting the game app. Unfortunately, for those expecting an epic battle with feathers flying everywhere and the squealing, oinking cries of the injured, 'The Angry Birds Movie' makes us wait until the last half hour. As any astute viewer is able to predict, especially after the pigs kidnap all the island's eggs, their rage soon becomes the source of strength and inspiration for a rescue mission. It's essentially used for introducing audiences to fellow angry feathered friends: the yellow speedster canary Chuck (Josh Gad), an explosively sociable black bird Bomb (Danny McBride) and a much larger, unfriendly red cardinal named Terence (a grumpily huffing and puffing Sean Penn). The first meeting instructed by Matilda (Maya Rudolph) is one of the production's more memorable moments. But in a clever twist, the birds of this island are all of the peaceful, non-angry variety taking issue with Red's easily annoyed personality, who's funnily sentenced to anger management after erupting to a family during a birthday party. Feeling a bit too scripted, he is the archetypal antihero with a bad temper, isolated from others and refusing to make friends with anyone. This little tidbit is used as the winsome reason for characters later requiring a slingshot, which was comically introduced by Leonard/King Mudbeard (Bill Hader) and his marauding ship of pigs.įor those familiar with the game, which I would imagine is many reading this given the app's popularity, the main protagonist is a red cardinal, aptly named Red and voiced by Jason Sudeikis. And it cutely, as well as smartly, reimagines the original premise as an isolated island inhabited by a variety of exotic birds that can't fly - and oddly, there aren't any chickens, ostriches or penguins in sight. From a story conjured up by three writers, the script is by Jon Vitti, whose long resume includes various episodes for 'King of the Hill,' 'The Larry Sanders Show' and 'The Simpsons,' including the movie adaptation. One of the challenges was expanding such a simple story into a more elaborate and involving plot, which I would argue the film mostly definitely does with amusing charm. Ironically, they invade huffing and puffing to blow the pigs' houses down - or more like, destroy them with their heads and a slingshot. A gang of hungry pigs steal eggs from birds, and unsurprisingly, they seek angry revenge for the outrage. The game itself doesn't come with much of a plot in the first place, though the storyline is pretty straightforward. There is definitely room for improvement, but it's a colorfully fun family flick with several shrewd gags just for the parents to delight in. It's too early to tell what it all entails and the damage, if any, it might have on the future of filmmaking, but if this is any indication of the quality it could give rise to, then the future isn't all that grim. But possibly even more wondrous, as well as mind-boggling, is the fact that we've reached a milestone when such devices and their programs are now the source of inspiration for major film productions. Living in an age where handheld devices exist is a marvel in and of itself, little computer apparatuses which have consumed a major part of our existence and have even become like an extension of ourselves - the world's most extensive film library at your fingertips. Movies based on video games played on traditional consoles seem dime a dozen, but this CG-animated production marks the first full-length adaptation of a smartphone app. 'The Angry Birds Movie' is evidence of how far we've come in the last three decades, that filmmaking has perhaps reached the pinnacle of its technological evolution.