It’s mind-boggling how Hollywood has reached the point of making a mobile game-inspired movie, especially about birds being flown into the air to destroy pigs. I’ve definitely played the games as a kid, and they were fun and addicting, but it doesn’t mean I think it should be a movie. Though I’m curious about how you can build a story out of a video game that doesn’t have one.
The answer is simple: make it as random and enjoyable as possible and hope for the best. So, certainly, turning Angry Birds into a film is definitely one of the riskiest decisions ever. However, with over 12 million downloads worldwide, it perfectly makes sense from a financial standpoint.
How to Stream or Download The Angry Birds Movie
You can stream it or you can download the film from a number of digital stores. Click on the Download button at the end of the review and choose.
The Movie Review
On Bird Island, all the flightless birds live happily, except Red. Red is an outcast and lives in a beach house, away from the other flightless birds. As a kid, he was bullied for his huge eyebrows, so he never had friends.
After hatching a premature egg because of his anger issues, Timmy’s family sends Red to court where Judge Peckinpah sentences him to anger management classes. There, he meets the hyperactive Chuck, and the exploding Bomb, the closest thing he’ll find to family. However, a ship with green pigs has come to invade their island. Do the angry birds have all it takes to stop them?
The Angry Birds Movie has promising directors, Clay Kaytis was the former head of animation at Walt Disney Animation Studios and Fergal Reilly has worked for Stuart Little, The Haunted Mansion, and Spider-Man 2. Another impressive addition is its screenwriter Jon Vitti, who previously worked on Ice Age, Horton Hears a Who, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and is one of the writers for The Simpsons Movie.
The Angry Birds Movie has the largest budget in the film industry in Finland, with an estimated budget of $80 million. Rovio and Sony Pictures also announced they would spend roughly $113 million for its marketing and distribution. And that money did pay off, the film ended up grossing $352 million worldwide.
Surprisingly, The Angry Birds Movie does a lot of things right. They know the formula in making a smartphone game movie successful: an ensemble of popular actors and good animation. The producers pretty much nailed it. We have Jason Sudeikis as Red, the film’s main angry bird.
Josh Gad (Frozen’s Olaf) as Chuck and Danny McBride as Bomb were also excellent choices for their roles. Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, and Peter Dinklage round out an ensemble cast that is flawless. The animation was great too, the character design is spot-on, and the vibrant color palette seems appealing enough for children. However, voice acting and animation aren’t the only important ingredients in this mix, you also need an engaging story.
For The Angry Birds, they’ve kept the story simple but not to the point where it’s generic. It definitely has some interesting takes on male anger, and it’s the one thing I expected the least in the movie. Overall, the studio does an excellent job taking the video game and turning it into a new, more complete world, giving personalities to once lifeless characters.
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, The Angry Birds Movie is good enough for a kids’ movie. While it’s not as touching or has the replay value of Disney, Dreamworks, or Pixar animated movies, it’s still entertaining enough to bear in one sitting.
My main issue is that the movie was released seven years after the game was relevant, but it’s understandable considering the hard work it takes to create an animated film. Now kids have something to rave about other than Kiddie Meal toys, Lego sets, plushies, and tons of other outrageous marketing this franchise has.
