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Welcome to 2016’s initial summer line-up. It is a wacky season where even popular mobile apps get their own movie. Ready for August yet? Thought you might be. And with all these green pigs stealing eggs from wingless birds, well, it’s really not a fun place for humanity to be.
Directors Clay Katis and Fergal Reilly arm themselves with an all-star voice cast for their first feature but, largely, Angry Birds The Movie fails to rise above anything other than a cash-grab. It’s a movie based upon a cheap video game app that is far past its prime in popularity. And the cynicism that laces the script suggests that even the filmmakers would rather be playing the game than making the movie.
Bird Island is an island of peaceful tranquility, but there always has to be one spoiler. Poor Red. Poor, poor Red. He’s a very unhappy bird; a very, very unhappy flightless bird. Annoyed by everything and everyone, Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis) finds himself in an anger management class taught by Matilda (Maya Rudolph), a self-described “free rage chicken”. Groaning yet? Because the screenplay by Alvin and the Chipmunk’s Jon Vitti is just getting warmed up when it comes to puns.
Charmed by Chuck (Josh Gad), Bomb (Danny McBride), and Terrence (Sean Penn), Red joins their ranks and finally gets his support team in order. Maybe at long last he can become one with the population of flightless birds. Unfortunately, he’s on his own when he discovers that the growing green pig population pretending to be their friends, led by Leonard (Bill Hader), are really after all their eggs.
Even Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage) is of little help but when the other birds discover the truth about the invading oinkers, whom do they turn to first for protection? That’s right. Good ol’ Red and his misfit friends. Kids might gobble this one up. They might. It’s bright and sometimes funny but never really escapes the fact that, if the studio was serious about the film, this should have fallen out of the nest years ago.
Angry Birds The Movie wants so much to be in the same league of animated films like The Lego Movie. It’s not. It isn’t even close to the wit and overall charm of that picture and the talented voice actors do not, unfortunately, give the animated tale the push it needs to get over that steep hill. It’s sad, really. While it is indeed a silly time at the movies, its ambition burns out all too soon because it has none of the intelligence that seemed to come so wickedly easy for the cast and crew of The Lego Movie.
Angry Birds The Movie is targeted at kids. The game was made for adults. The movie, being a wacky experiment, is strictly for the pre-school aged audience. They will more than likely laugh themselves silly at the rote slapstick shenanigans and Minion-like antics of these strange birds. You, feeling mostly grounded by all the inane Mom and Dad jokes, will not be amused.
If you are over the age of 7 (and have a choice in the matter), fly away from this one.
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[tab title="Film Details"]
MPAA Rating: PG for rude humor and action
Runtime: 97 mins
Director: Clay Kaytis, Fergal Reilly
Writer: Jon Vitti
Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride
Genre: Animation | Comedy
Tagline: Meet Chuck
Memorable Movie Quote: "This is the house of horrors!"
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Official Site: http://www.angrybirds-movie.com/en/
Release Date: May 20, 2016
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: No details available
Synopsis: Adaptation of the popular mobile game takes us to an island populated entirely by happy, flightless birds – or almost entirely. In this paradise, Red (Jason Sudeikis, We're the Millers, Horrible Bosses), a bird with a temper problem, speedy Chuck (Josh Gad), and the volatile Bomb (Danny McBride) have always been outsiders. But when the island is visited by mysterious green piggies, it’s up to these unlikely outcasts to figure out what the pigs are up to.
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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
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