The Angry Birds Movie

I don’t know if there is a movie I can think of that was less called for. I don’t think anybody was scrolling through all the movies of the world late at night and said to themselves, Something is missing and it’s a movie based on this stupid game I play on my phone.

Now I’m not naïve. I know that Angry Birds is one of the most popular mobile games ever created. Hell I have it on my phone now. And since we live in a world where capitalism is a thing and franchises are more profitable than individual IPs, I totally get why they expanded Angry Birds from behind just a mobile game. It was a logical choice. But when I saw the trailer for Angry Birds The Movie, I don’t think I could think of anything else I would want to see less and I get the feeling a lot of people felt the same way.

But now that a year has passed and The Angry Birds Movie is available for free streaming on Netflix, I thought I would scratch that small itch of curiosity how they are able to make a film out of mindless mobile game, and if there’s a chance it’s any good.

The Angry Birds Movie centers on a community of flightless birds. Why they can’t fly, I don’t know, they never really explain that but what did I expect? It’s Angry Birds. The story centers on a red bird by the name of Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis). He is a bit of a social outcast because while everyone in this community is very happy and nice to one another, Red has anger issues.

After an incident with another bird and his family, Red is mandated by a bird court to go to anger management with a cast of your “favorite” angry birds from the mobile game. You’ve got Chuck (voiced by Josh Gad) who is your Yellow super-fast bird. Then you’ve got Bomb (voiced by Danny McBride) who is a bird who explodes when he gets too excited. Then you’ve got Terrence (voiced by Sean Penn, probably the easiest money Sean Penn has ever made because I think Terrence says one line in the entire movie) who is your large red bird. And the entire class is taught by Matilda

(voiced by Maya Rudolph) who is the white bird who can shoot exploding eggs out of her butt. This of course becomes the main cast of characters but the entire town of birds is populated by a whole cast of celebrity voices like Kate McKinnon, Keegan-Michael Key,  Tony Hale, Hannibal Burress, and the list goes on. It’s actually a little bit impressive that they were able to afford all this group of really good talent. And the entire island of birds of course herald an Eagle as their hero by the name of Mighty Eagle (voiced by Peter Dinklage).

But one day, a boat comes to the island of the birds and the birds soon greet a boat full of pigs. Their leader, Leonard (voiced by Bill Hader) of course plays it off like they are no threat to the birds and all they want to do is be friends and put on a cowboy show. But Red is immediately suspicious of the pigs and starts investigating them with the help of his friends from the anger management class.

What follows is kind of exactly how you’d expect it to happen, especially if you’ve played the mobile games. You know that eventually it comes down to birds versus pigs and there’s slingshots, explosions, TNT, flying pigs, buildings collapsing, all in the world that you’ve come to know from your mobile phone.

My first disclaimer with this film is that, from the get go, you need to realize that this is a movie for kids. I think a lot of people, especially people my age have warmed up to the idea that adults can enjoy cartoons and animation as well. And with movies like Inside Out, we almost expect these movies to be catering towards adults more than they do kids. The Angry Birds Movie is not that case. There are a lot of adult jokes in this movie, probably more than there should be, especially with how

directed at kids this movie is in general. It’s like they really wanted to make this a more mature cartoon but the execs over at Sony and Rovio were like, WE NEED TO SELL TOYS, MAKE THIS A KIDS MOVIE!

So the story is pretty simple and very directed at kids. You would think that that would make it worse. But to my surprise, I actually laughed at this movie a lot more than I thought I was going to. I wasn’t on the floor laughing with tears in my eyes, but I actually chuckled a few times that were actually created by enjoyment of the joke at hand. Some of the visuals and some of the jokes they have are legitimately funny. Now this is coming from someone who will laugh at potty humor jokes a few more times than a normal person before calling a movie out for it but the jokes in Angry Birds, though juvenile, were pretty harmless and actually got me a chuckle here and there.

Like I said, I was pretty surprised on how many popular names they got to voice the cast for this movie. Maybe it’s because I knew how stacked the cast was when I first started the movie, but I didn’t think the voice acting was very good. When Red talks, I never felt like Red was talking, I more felt like Jason Sudeikis was talking and a bird was moving his mouth. Oddly enough, I think that Seth MacFarlene probably would have been a better voice for Red in this current situation, but there was no way they were going to get MacFarlene and keep this movie Rated PG. I really liked Peter Dinklage in this role and I thought he worked perfectly for the voice of Mighty Eagle. I was still yelling MIGHTY EAGLE after I finished the movie, I can only imagine anybody with kids after they were done with that film. Overall, the voice cast is fine. Like I said, I had a little bit of a disconnect with them and didn’t feel like they did a great job, but let’s be honest, how many kids are going to take notice of that when they watch this movie? IT’S ANGRY FREAKIN BIRDS!

Now that doesn’t make the story any good. If you’ve played the mobile game, you know the story and it’s very simple and straight forward. Now that actually wasn’t the case when the movie first started, but the end is really where they kind of gave up and just turned it into a video game movie that needed to fulfill one purpose, getting birds in a slingshot and sending them careening towards structures created by pigs. That’s all they needed to do and that’s all this movie boils down to. The beginning starts on something that could be pretty clever and funny with him going into anger management, but that really goes out the window when the pigs show up and at the end of the day, any of the emotional traction they made in the beginning is really lost.

Angry Birds is a cute movie, again, it’s for kids. This movie is for the kids that play the mobile game on your phone in order for you to get some quiet time and now they have a movie to keep them entertained for more quiet time. But that doesn’t mean it’s the worst movie out there. I think some thought was put into it and it is pretty tongue and cheek. Again, the adult jokes are in there enough to give a wink and a nod to the parents being forced to watch this. Another thing I noticed is how  many “Easter eggs” are in this movie referencing the game. Easter Eggs is a stretch because that usally insinuates there’s things that the movie is making a call back to when it’s just gameplay mechanics and funny nudges that people who play the game might chuckle and say, “HEY That was in the game!”. And as stupid as that sounds, the winks and nods to the game are actually kind of funny and dare I say it, cleverly sprinkled into the movie.

Again, I am not saying this is a good movie. It’s cute. It’s clever at times, and I didn’t hate it as much as you think I did. I don’t have kids, but I’m trying to see this movie through the lens of someone with kids. I am by no means going to show my kids Angry Birds the way I would show them something classic like The Muppets or Sesame Street. But because we live in a marketing world, if I had kids, they would probably the pretty colors and funny characters of the Angry Birds movie and be drawn to it. And if my kids beg me to watch Angry Birds, after watching this movie, I think the movie is pretty harmless. It’s a movie that can entertain kids and I can get an adult chuckle here and there.

I’m sure that’s a really confusing explanation for a property that started with just pulling birds back on a slingshot with your finger, but as much as I want to shit on this movie, I can’t. I didn’t think it was terrible. I didn’t think it was very good, but I didn’t think it was terrible. It’s harmless marketing candy for kids.

But I’m interested in seeing if anybody agrees or disagrees with me. What did you think of The Angry Birds Movie? Did you enjoy it? If you have kids, would you show this to them? Why? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. It's actually a little bit amazing how much of a franchise they have created with something that is so simple and actually kind of stupid. If this movie can come out and be a minor success, what other apps can become a movie? Just something to think about. Anyways, here's them expanding this mobile game universe more. Enjoy!