Angry Birds

'ANGRY BIRDS': Three Stars (Out of Five)

Hit animated kids'flick, based on the immensely popular app video game series. It tells the story of three misfit flightless birds, with anger issues, that must defend their island from mischievous green pig visitors. The film stars the voice talents of Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, Keegan-Michael Key, Tony Hale, Sean Penn and Blake Shelton. It was directed by Clay Kaytis (a veteran animator) and Fergal Reilly (a veteran storyboard artist, of animated films); both in their feature film directorial debuts. It was written by Jon Vitti, Mikael Hed, Mikko Polla and John Cohen (all veterans of animation). The movie was a big hit at the Box Office, and it received mostly positive reviews from fans (but not so much from critics). I liked it.

The film takes place on 'Bird Island'; an island inhabited by mostly happy, but flightless, birds. Red (Sudeikis) is a loner bird, with anger issues. After he accidentally causes an egg to hatch early, he's sentenced to anger management classes. There he meets three other bird outcasts; named Chuck (Gad), Bomb (McBride) and Terrence (Penn). Chuck and Bomb try to make friends with Red, but Red refuses. Then a ship arrives, filled with strange green pigs; that claim they just want to be friends. Red is suspicious of their true intentions, right away; and he reluctantly enlists the help of Chuck and Bomb, to figure out what the pigs are really up to.

The movie is a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be; I was really expecting to hate it. It's definitely simple, silly and made primarily for kids; but the animation is kind of cool, and it's funny (the voice cast is awesome). I love Sudeikis, Dinklage, McBride, Hader, Gad, Key and the rest; and I think they made the film a lot more enjoyable. It's definitely nothing that special, but it's not bad (or annoying) either.

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I think that because my expectations were so low going in, I ended up really enjoying this movie. The promotional footage and images with the bright colors and goofy character designs made me think that this movie was being targeted for really little kids, but DON'T BE FOOLED. This is definitely aimed for the 10 and older demographic, as evidenced by all the pee jokes and innuendos. That being said, I was delightfully surprised by the clever humor, beautiful animation, and insanely fun climax. I must say, though, that this movie's greatest achievement is having one of the best voice casts I've ever seen. Jason Sudeikis is a strong center to the film, and his deadpan delivery makes me upset that he is no longer attached to that Fletch reboot. Bill Hader creates a Gregory Peck, George C. Scott-like persona as the villainous Leonard. Peter Dinklage almost steals the show as the a flawed icon of the birds. There's also some great work being done by the likes of Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, Keegan Michael-Key, and, of all people, Sean Penn, and it's fun to hear some great TV actors like Tony Hale, Danielle Brooks, Ike Barinholtz and Tituss Burgess in smaller roles. The highlights, though, are Josh Gad and Danny McBride, who help create two of the most memorable sidekicks in modern film animation. While watching this movie, I kept comparing it to Zootopia. While Zootopia had a much more original premise and all-around creativity, Angry Birds was stronger in terms of humor and all-around enjoyment, which I think comes from the simplicity of the story and characters.

This is a movie that I was ACTUALLY looking forward to see. I've been a fan of the game from it's inception and I've played it a lot ever since. I would never call myself a die hard fan, but I enjoy the games enough to watch any animations that come out of this product. Saying that, the angry birds toons were wonderfully made, that one Star Wars short they did was beautifully animated, so for this movie, I was at the very least expecting great animation with striking visuals. That is EXACTLY what I got, and that alone would put this movie on a 6 out of 10.

Animation wise this movie is BEAUTIFUL, probably the best animated movie in the sense that the visuals have been the most interesting I've seen so far this year. Surpassing Kung Fu Panda 3 and Zootopia, I find this movie so colourful and pleasant to watch, I could watch this movie on mute and STILL enjoy it to it's fullest

In story it is very weak. Mighty eagle in particular felt very cliché, do they do play around with his cliché character a bit, but not enough to be very funny. Also very predictable storyline, you can pretty much guess what's going to happen by just watching the trailers.

However, what elevates this from a 6 to 7 for me is the character of RED, whom I found surprisingly relatable. Keep in mind, I was just expecting this movie to make me laugh and entertain me a bit, but I found myself really identifying with RED's cynicism and arc. Being a grump because of how people treat him and have treated him in the past but still desiring to hang out like a normal bird with everyone else, even though he's unable to open up to start a relationship with anyone. So I was very pleased with his resolution.

Overall, if you like the game, watch the movie. Worst case scenario, you'll enjoy it but never want to watch it again

Having never played the app/game, it was going to be interesting to see whether 'The Angry Birds Movie' was going to make something interesting out of it and how it was going to be succeed.

'The Angry Birds Movie' is not perfect, but this reviewer was really surprised at how much she enjoyed it. There are better animated films out there and there were better released this year (i.e. 'Zootropolis' aka 'Zootopia' in some places), but also far worse on both counts. From the two animated films seen recently at the cinema, 'The Angry Birds Movie' is the superior film of the two. The other was 'Ratchet & Clank', which is not as bad as critics made out (personal opinion of course) and could have been much worse considering video game adaptations' dubious track record, but also had too many flaws to be considered a good film.

Getting the flaws out of the way, the story in 'The Angry Birds Movie' is somewhat flimsy and has a tendency to be thin on the ground with a couple of unnecessary parts and parts that don't really go anywhere. It does occasionally feel rushed too, and while the film entertains hugely a vast majority of the time there are a couple of gags that misfire. This is especially true with the quite tasteless, awkwardly placed and too overlong urination gag, that was also really quite out of place.

However, the animation in 'The Angry Birds Movie' is great. The colours are sumptuous and brightly vibrant, the characters are well-modelled and never look stiff or ugly and there are some very colourful and meticulously detailed backgrounds. There are also some very imaginative visuals in the action sequences. The music never makes the mistake of being stylistically jarring or over-bearing, and has a lot of infectious personality and energetic verve.

While not hilarious as such and unashamedly but endearingly silly, the script has some very funny moments, is tonally balanced with very little that's inappropriate or distasteful, is solidly balanced without being disjointed or muddled and there are some clever and witty lines. The action sequences are beautifully animated and thrilling, the message is a great one, gives the film a surprisingly emotional core without being over-sentimental or preachy and the climax is quite the knockout and the highlight of the film.

'The Angry Birds Movie's colourful characters carry the film beautifully, with a protagonist that is easy to relate to and Mighty Eagle despite being a marmite character is great fun. The villains do pose a reasonable threat though are not particularly interesting. The voice acting, including actors who you wouldn't expect to work as well as they did in voice acting, is excellent, with the best contribution coming from Peter Dinklage.

All in all, surprisingly very entertaining and much better than it had a right to see considering what it was based on. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I absolutely loved this family friendly cartoon because it made me laugh out loud! The animation in this movie is exquisite. It is so detailed that you can clearly see all the feathers on the birds and tiny waves of the ocean. When they show scenes of the town you can see the patch work on the houses and the real looking scenery. Each character is unique because the creative animation matches their personalities.

This movie is about, Red (Jason Sudeikis), a red bird who never fit in and has anger issues. One day, he has to go to an anger management class and meets the birds Bomb, Matilda, Chuck and Terence, and they all become friends.

Then, pigs come to the island on an unexpected visit. They have parties with the birds and they give the birds weird gifts like trampolines and motorcycles and generally cause havoc in the town. A horrible turn of events happens and Red and all of the other birds need to save the day.

My favorite scene is when Red attends anger management class. Matilda, the instructor talks with all the birds about their issues. They participate in many funny exercises such as poetry writing and yoga. This is a funny scene. Red has the wrong attitude and is definitely negative and Matilda the instructor demonstrates some anger issues too.

My favorite character is Terence (Sean Penn), a giant red and black bird who doesn't really talk as much as he grunts. His facial expressions are particularly funny. Terence gets a lot of laughs from the audience and appears to be a crowd favorite.

The Angry Birds Movie is definitely a comedy. Almost every scene, even the sad ones, have funny lines. There is some humor that would make sense to older kids and adults but not little kids. There are some parts that some adults might not feel comfortable with some of the content. For example, when the pigs slap their butts and joke about reproducing.

I rate this movie 5 out of 5 stars because of the humor and recommend it for ages 4 to 18. It is a fun and silly animated movie about angry birds. Who doesn't love angry birds? If you like the game Angry Birds or just want to have a good laugh, then The Angry Birds Movie is the movie for you. It opens in theaters nationwide May 20, 2016 so, go check it out.

Reviewed by Mia A., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic.