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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This film tells the story of an outcast bird in the bird community, because of his anger problems and because of his thick eyebrows. He saves the day when he recognises that pig visitors may have sinister intentions then they declare.

Yes I enjoyed played Angry Birds before, but when they announced an Angry Birds movie I thought it was rather silly. I thought there would be inadequate plot to fill up the screen time. Hence, I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the trailer. It actually made me want to watch the film! The film has a simple plot, that is basically given away in the trailer. Well, you might just be able to figure it out even not having watched the trailer. Nevertheless, it is a funny film with lots of laughs. I find the urination scene a bit tasteless and far too lengthy, but each to their taste. The ending is quite touching. I enjoyed watching it overall.

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

So I never played the game before. I should have done that before I saw it, but the movie actually gave me a pretty good run through on how to play the game as well as tips on how to get far in the game and how to use all the birds in the game, so that's cool. They did a better job at it than the movies Battleship and Doom.

Loved all the voice talent in the movie lead by Jason Sudeikis who plays the Red bird, with a hot temper whose force into anger management were he forms relationships with other angry birds, Chuck, played by Josh Gad, Bomb, played by Danny McBride, and Terrance who was played brilliantly by Sean Penn. They are the only one's who can help Red when he realizes the friendly Pigs that invaded their Island are up to something.

I loved the animation and the design of the characters. It's very funny and entertaining.

I've never played or cared about Angry Birds before, but I still decided to try this movie. And I'm quite glad I did, for it is a lot better than I expected. It is silly and hilarious but it still has a decent plot, moral, and some emotion. The animation is very lively and colorful.

The main character is a grumpy bird called Red whom I'm sure many people would find relatable. Life just doesn't treat him well and so he acts rather angry, leading others to believe he's a terrible bird when all he wants is some peace. The other characters besides Red are likable too and all have their own unique personalities.

Most of the gags in the movie didn't make me laugh out loud, but that's okay because there was still plenty of comedy to enjoy and most of it made me laugh on the inside. There were many adult jokes but most of them weren't blatant enough to be much of a worry if there's a young kid watching. The gross-out humor was distasteful of course but there wasn't as much of it as I thought there'd be; I expected more fart jokes but thankfully there weren't. The puke joke was unappealing but luckily it was only a few seconds; the pee joke is what really bothered me because it was really awkward and lasted way too long.

There are some heart-warming moments and character revelations throughout the movie, particularly near the end, but I shan't be specific to avoid spoilers. The movie mostly focuses on making viewers laugh but there are still other reasons to watch it, such as a nice moral about having faith in yourself and trusting yourself to do the right thing. Anyone who knows Angry Birds could have predicted the plot, and the moral's been done before, but it's still an enjoyable watch.