Review of Free Birds (2013) by Duncan P — 27 Oct 2017

Interesting for the lite eco-anarchist messages wrapped up in a pretty decently complex time-travel scenario. I'm not sure how I feel about the historical revisionist normalization of the overt, direct link between turkeys and Thanksgiving (an invention of a more recent era - especially since the holiday wasn't even widely celebrated until 242 years after the so-called "first" of 1621), which I have my own problems with that I won't get into. I've now probably used too many complicated words and ideas to analyse a dumb animated comedy movie now, so let's talk about it as entertainment rather than in sociopolitical terms.

It's fine, as animated movies go, I've seen far, far worse. I appreciated most that it didn't fall into the usual trap of the typical animated feature story structure (thanks largely to the time travel plot giving it room to try unusual plot developments). It's not mind-blowing, but it's clever enough to be worth at least a look that the reviews might put one off from making.

I've maybe overanalysed this. It's an above-average animated film with some pretty unusual ideas that raise it a bit. It's quite specific to American culture, but not something other people can't enjoy regardless.