[Movie Review] Angry Birds (2016)
Director: Clay Kaytis, Fergal Reilly
Writer: Jon Vitti
Runtime: 97 min
Main Cast:
- Jason Sudeikis as Red (voice)
- Josh Gad as Chuck (voice)
- Danny McBridge as Bomb (voice)
- Maya Rudolph as Matilda (voice)
- Bill Hader as Leonard (voice)
- Peter Dinklage as Mighty Eagle (voice)
- Sean Penn as Terence (voice)
Review: by Faith & Marie
I have to say we were a little disappointed with this film, but it did however keep our attention throughout the entirety of the film. Built from the exceedingly popular game, comes the loud and obnoxious film Angry Birds. I mean there are plenty of cinematic commercial ventures that are louder and dumber and so on than the well-meaning and annoyingly sold Birds. All this movie shows is some more puke, poop, and pee jokes for the kids in a not-so-agreeable fashion. This movie world of characters and objects jammed into a farce about birds fighting pigs.
The movie starts out with the audience meeting Red. He’s the mean-looking, bombing, limbless bird that doubles as the Rovio game’s protagonist. Jason Sudeikis, the Saturday Night Live alum is Red, the bird with the bad attitude. He has Scorsese eyebrows and a Joe Pesci style, fuming at every turn and left out by his fellow flight community. Red’s home at Bird Island is full of beady eyes, a kind of forced utopia.
When Red messes up a birthday by arriving late and accidentally imprinting himself onto a hatching chick, he’s ordered to anger management. Now, none of those details and occurrences makes much sense. Oh, and a reminder; these birds don’t fly, either. Extremely confusing we thought as well.
In therapy, Red meets the daffy, yellow Chuck (Josh Gad), the explosions Bomb (a disappointingly restrained Danny McBride), and the immense, brutish Terence (Sean Penn, grunting, for pretty much the entire film). Red doesn’t think he has a problem, and sassy remarks flesh out most of the next 90 minutes.
Famed Simpsons scribe Jon Vitti wrote this script, and offers fast pacing and a few creative, left-field jokes, even if he rarely finds a pun he doesn’t abuse. Red suggests “Bird Control” to a couple with too many kids. There are some punchlines like “cardinal sins” and “bird-watching.”
In the nick of time at the 30-minute mark, green hillbilly pigs come to shore on their ships and devise a scheme to steal all the bird’s eggs. Yes, the pigs want to eat the eggs. Which to us does not say great things in reference to this being a children’s movie? It’s up to Red and company to stop the pig’s in a way that resembles the original game’s style and physics for maximum brand synergy. The bird’s sling-shot their way into the pig’s castle, causing measurable property damage. All of this in attempts to retrieve their stolen eggs.
What We Liked:
With the excessive bright colors and nice animation this movie made us think of a kid’s favorite of ours; Rio and Rio 2. Movies which are bright and colorful are always bound to grab at anyone’s attention which brings a person to continuously watch the movie without fail.
What We Didn’t Like:
It was unnerving when yellow chuck as well as some other characters continuously showed off homophobic tendencies during the film. This made both of us extremely uncomfortable in regards to allowing our children to see this movie. There were moments where some birds or even the pigs were staring and making comments about another bird or pig’s back end and it was not funny even to the audience itself. It is a possibility that the types of jokes and innuendos may possibly go over a young child’s head, however, they can still see all of what is going on and to us it was just entirely too much for young eyes.
Summary
To the movies credit, the story has lots of bright colors and is easy on the eyes, plus the occasional odd gag lands, which is more hilarious towards the adult audience. But that’s not enough to mask the smell of homophobic comments, crude jokes and the grating attitude. This is definitely not a movie we would take our young children to watch.
Images Courtesy of IMDB
