When The LEGO Movie was announced, the near-universal reaction was that it was seizing on a well-known license for a nonsense cash grab of a movie that was almost certainly not going to be any good. It was a very pleasant surprise to get such a clever, well-thought-out feature that could play action, comedy, and genuine heart equally well. I bring up this example now because The Angry Birds Movie is exactly what we were all afraid The LEGO Movie was going to be: a soulless corporate cash grab that answers questions nobody was asking and achieves little beyond the technical.
Based on the wildly popular Rovio video game franchise, The Angry Birds Movie focuses on Red (Jason Sudeikis), a bird with anger issues in the otherwise idyllic Bird Island. His latest outburst dumps him into an anger management class, where he meets the hyperactive Chuck (Josh Gad) and the literally explosive Bomb (Danny McBride). Soon after, the island is roiled by the arrival of a boat full of green pigs, who seem friendly on the outside but who have a hidden agenda for the birds. Of course, it’s only Red who is suspicious of these newcomers. Of course nobody listens to him. Of course he’s the only one capable of saving Bird Island when the pigs reveal their true nature, and of course it’s Red and his friends who lead a motley band of birds on a big pig counterattack.
The Angry Birds Movie is such a paint-by-numbers exercise that it seems hardly worth typing out even that much of a plot synopsis, and there is even less return on time spent detailing why the movie is so listless. None of the characters end up beyond stock stereotypes, and the plot’s twists and turns feel like they’re mostly to pad time to feature length when they don’t feel like excessive contortions to tie-back to some game mechanic. The only laughs to be mined from this setup are from the occasional bouts of slapstick physical comedy or jokes around bodily function, and those are mostly of the variety that will cease to be funny after age 10 or so. Since the movie is tasked with telling the Origin Story (ugh) of the Angry Birds, it is also hamstrung by the need to keep Red angry even through to the end, which ensures he never manages to become truly likable. Chuck and Bomb end up more sympathetic than Red, but Chuck’s hyperactivity soon wears thin and Bomb’s wishy-washy nature ensure he’ll never step into the spotlight. So what’s left? The movie looks pretty good, and the soundtrack isn’t bad, I suppose, but this is the most praise I can muster.
The Angry Birds Movie comes to Blu-ray/DVD combo pack with a good selection of bonus features. The headliners are short films oriented around the Hatchlings: the baby birds that are a valiant stab at the cute zaniness of Despicable Me‘s Minions; they fall well short of the mark. There is one new short, “The Early Hatchling Gets the Worm,” along with several others that were released on the Internet before the movie. Beyond that, there’s a selection of deleted scenes (all in fully-rendered form); three behind-the-scenes featurettes that focus on the animation crew, the cast of Birds, and the cast of Pigs; a series of short featurettes digging into the music with composer Heitor Pereira; a “Dance Along” featurette that purports to teach the line dance of the Pig/Bird luau in the middle of the movie (it would be more effective if it didn’t keep jumping to split-screen views that only ensure we can’t make out the footwork of the spirited blonde in cowboy boots and a green pig nose who was corralled into this featurette); a “Crafty Birds” featurette that teaches kids how to make their own Angry Birds play set with stuff around the house; some music videos; and some other ads for Angry Birds video games and trailers.
The most disappointing thing about watching the bonus features on The Angry Birds Movie is how it shows the great amount of time, energy, effort, and money that went into this movie with so little to show for it. While I don’t always agree with John Carmack’s famous observation that “Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It’s expected to be there, but it’s not that important,” I definitely think Angry Birds would fit that assessment. I don’t think it ever occurred to me to wonder about backstory for the game, nor do I think what they came up with in this movie makes the game any more fun or interesting. If you need an Angry Birds fix, I’d suggest picking up any of the better games in the franchise over this movie.
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