Review of The Angry Birds Movie (2016) by Jorge A — 25 Apr 2017

Outside of considering the original video game to be a novelty I occasionally played to deal with boredom, none of the intertextual storytelling of the Angry Birds franchise has been of any interest to me. As such I didn't expect too much from The Angry Birds Movie, but it certainly scored a better reception than most video game films. I figured that at its worst the film would be a lame children's comedy, while at its best it could be a lighthearted and laughable experience. To put it simply, it was the former.

The Angry Birds Movie reveals that you really can't make a film about a giant slingshot throwing birds into pigs and their architecture. With a video game like Angry Birds, it's difficult to piss off fans due to the lack of any actual narrative in the source material. For the sake of this film, it is clear that the writers have had to create an actual universe and collection of characters for the narrative because neither such thing existed before. The writers clearly half-assed the process because nobody in the film is particularly interesting while any actual character development is generic, familiar and one-dimensional. But I wasn't expecting character development out of the film. I hoped there would be some fun in the process, but The Angry Birds Movie doesn't even begin to replicate anything related to the actual gameplay of Angry Birds until just beyond an hour into the film where the birds finally end up in conflict with the pigs. Two thirds of the film are little more than lame jokes and arbitrary plot dynamics which just emphasise a weakly-written script. It's not as if the language in the film is cringe-worthy, but I at least hoped I'd have a laugh somewhere along the way. Unfortunately, everything is too tame and simplistic elicit any actual laughter. The Angry Birds Movie has a low standard of humour which may appeal to children with its silly nature and animal puns, but there is no originality in it whatsoever. The effort to implement in adult-oriented humour is certainly ambitious, but the tone doesn't have the same smooth flow that Shrek (2001) was able to enable. It's less subtle and more juvenile, with the sporadic addition of pop culture references that young crowds won't appreciate all that much. Ultimately, aside from the fact that this film has the gimmick of being adapted from an iPhone application, The Angry Birds Movie is simply another recycled entry into the abundance of animated films about animals in shenanigans. It's not a particularly terrible movie, it's just a lame and boring one.

Nevertheless, the production values of The Angry Birds Movie are certainly worth commending. Despite stemming from an animation studio that isn't Disney or Pixar, The Angry Birds Movie really has some prestigious animated quality. The film experiments with 3D here and there without it being explicit, and the colourful detail in the characters and the universe is cartoony without feeling too simplistic. There aren't any particularly innovative uses of the animation as the narrative is very routine, but the experience is nevertheless a visual pleasure with strong production values to bolster. And the soundtrack is pretty awesome, given that it uses such tracks as Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and Limp Bizkit's "Behind Blue Eyes". The only downfall is Demi Lovato's cover of "I Will Survive" which was just fine in its original form and didn't need to be covered by another pop star.

And the voice cast from The Angry Birds Movie certainly contains some respectable names, even if they aren't give great characters to work with.

Jason Sudeikis is a pretty solid lead. The actor has proven himself a talented voice actor before with his strong work portraying Holt Richter on The Cleveland Show (2009-2013), and he brings the experience to The Angry Birds Movie. He has a good sense of energy and comic timing about him even if the material doesn't feed him the right chances to express all this, and his frustrated line delivery creates a nice contrast to the gleeful or melodramatic characters around him. Red is a very down to earth character and Jason Sudeikis captures the realism of the character with a very casual nature, making him a fairly likeable protagonist.

Josh Gad is an energetic presence. It took me a while to recognise who it was, but the similarity between the character he portrays in The Angry Birds Movie and the role of Olaf in Frozen (2013) soon becomes apparent. Yet rather than imitating the popular Disney character, he brings along just enough of the charm that popularised the character yet works to differentiate him at the same time. His over-the-top nature is full of life, even if the dialogue he deals isn't. Either way, he creates a nice contrast to the more downbeat nature of Josh Gad which gives them a nice flow of chemistry.

Unfortunately, several voice cast members don't end up being utilised. I had to check the credits to see that Danny McBride was one of the central voices, and yet when I think back on the film I still struggle to ascertain the role he actually played in the film. The juvenile humour is too subtle and simplistic to embrace his over the top nature, so it's a poor misuse of his talents. Yet what's even more disappointing is the fact that YouTube sensations Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla from Smosh aren't utilised in any notable form. Of all the names on the voice cast I was most excited about experiencing on screen, I thought that the team behind Smosh might bring some joy to the experience with The Angry Birds Movie. Unfortunately, I have no idea where they fit into the equation. And with a film that maintains such a low standard of humour, it's hard to care anyway.

The Angry Birds movie has some decent animation, but the lacklustre writing leaves audiences with an unfunny and one-dimensional cartoon which offers minimal resemblance of its video game source material.