Review of The Angry Birds Movie (2016) by Leon B — 21 Oct 2016

Review:

I quite enjoyed this fun and joyful movie, mainly because of the various characters and the way that the director introduced a lot of the concepts of the game, to the big screen. The witty script was a bit corny in places but it's great for a family day out and the vibrant colours and attention to detail was pretty good. The film is based on Red, who is sent to anger management because the head of his village, Judge Peckinpah, thinks that he has severe anger problems. Whilst attending the anger management classes, he meets Chuck, Bomb, and Terence, who all have there own personal issues. When a mysterious ship arrives at there village, a green pig, Leonard, comes ashore and brings joy to the village but Red thinks that he has a hidden agenda, so him and his new friends investigate the unknown newcomers. They then find out that Leonard is no good, so they try and get help from the infamous Mighty Eagle, who has been in hiding for some time. After spending time with Mighty Eagle, they realise that he isn't going to be any help, so Red uses his resources to try and save the village with his crew of misfits. I liked the various references to movies and the whole "saving the eggs" element gave the film a meaning. It wasn't in the class of a classic Pixar movie but I did like Chuck and Terence, who was surprisingly voiced by Sean Penn, even though he only mumbled through the whole film. Its definitely one of those films that you have to watch a couple times to get all of the jokes and weird face expressions because there is so much going on at once and the pace is quite fast. Anyway, I thought it was a decent watch, and the bonus material on the DVD was well put together.

Round-Up:

It always surprises me when I see the budget for these animation movies, because I wonder were all of the money goes! I know that it takes many people to create the characters, which can take years but the amount of money they use is mind blowing. Anyway, this is the first movie directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly. Reilly has done the storyboards for Space Jam, the Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones, Stuart Little 2, The Haunted Mansion, Spiderman 2, The Longest Yard, Open Season, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the Smurfs and Hotel Transylvania, so he has had a lot of experience in the artistic preparation of movie making. Kaytis has been an animator for Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan, Fantasia, The Emperor's New Groove, Treasure Planet, Chicken Little, Meet The Robinsons, Bolt, Tangled, Wreck-It-Ralph and Frozen, so his impressive experience must have made a big difference to this movie. I'm sure that there is going to be more Angry Birds movies in the future but there is nothing in the pipeline as yet. With Red now leading the village, it will be good to see were they take this franchise, if they decide to bring these characters back to the big screen.

Budget: $73million.

Worldwide Gross: $348million.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their animation/action/comedies, voiced by Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Sean Penn, Keegan-Michael Key and Kate McKinnon. 6/10.