My daughter and I decided to head out and see Angry Birds. This movie had lots to get over in order to be good. Video games to movies usually don’t work. Licensed products have to be relevant, and I’m not sure Angry Birds really is anymore. So, needless to say, we went in with low expectations and walked out having had a great time at the movies. My daughter and I both give Angry Birds the rating of Not Quite Golden, Ponyboy.
We’re not Angry Birds about this movie!
Red (Jason Sudeikis) lives on an island populated by birds that can’t fly and feels like an outsider. His anger lands him in an anger management class where he meets Terence (Sean Penn), Matilda (Maya Rudolph), Chuck (Josh Gad) and Bomb (Danny McBride) who also have some anger issues. When Pigs arrive on the island, Red suspects they’re up to something, but no one is willing to listen to the odd bird with anger issues. Red, Chuck, and Bomb begin looking for answers to prove the Pigs are up to no good.
The film manages to take a game that has very little story and create a character of whom could relate. Red is a flawed character who seems to just be looking for acceptance and logic. He doesn’t know how to deal with people who disrespect him or disagree with him. Sudeikis does a good job of really making the character have a personality and directors Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly or whoever managed to make a Limp Bizkit cover of “Behind Blue Eyes” actually carry weight in an animated video game adaptation is impressive as Red is at his saddest.
Josh Gad brings the animated sidekick character to life as Chuck, the yellow bird from the game franchise, and manages to get a cool sequence that parodies an amazing scene from a superhero franchise that I’ll not name to avoid spoiling it. Bill Hader as Leonard the Pig is fantastic as usually. That guy nails voice acting every time I’ve seen him in a film. The cast is pretty impressive overall with Keegan-Michael Key, Peter Dinklage, Kate McKinnon, and Hannibal Buress. As noted in other reviews, Hannibal makes movies funny.
The film doesn’t really bring anything new or revolutionary to storytelling, but it does manage to tell a solid story with fun characters and a great protagonist. Angry Birds brings the funny and some great voice acting so it’s fun for the family. I went in expecting little, but walked out with some larger eyebrows and a smile on my face.
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