This is based on a puzzle-solving video game introduced in 2009 by a Finnish game company called Rovio. Kids found it quite addictive and it has spawned a popular series of cartoon shorts, so they now cook up a backstory for a full length movie to explain why the birds are angry.
The story is set in a bright and sunny island populated by birds who can’t fly. The main character is Red (voice by Jason Sudeikis), a red cardinal with a short temper and erupts so easily that he is sent to anger management class. He meets Chuck (Josh Gard), a yellow canary, and Bomb (Danny McBride), a big blackbird.
Both are oddballs and Red being a loner, he doesn’t want to be with them, but he has no choice but for them to all work together when green piggies invade their island to steal the eggs of the bird population for a sinister motivation. These three outcasts later become the unlikely heroes who save the eggs from being eaten by the piggies.
We’re wondering why they got Sudeikis as the voice of Red. He’s better known for his smart ass characters in raunchy comedies like “We’re the Millers”, “Good Old Fashioned Orgy” and “Horrible Bosses”, so he doesn’t work very well in a movie like this clearly intended for young children, delivering one liners that tot viewers cannot be expected to comprehend.
The story is understandably very simplistic, with a fast procession of supposedly funny bits. But the characters are mainly caricatures who are required to deliver mediocre jokes that seem to be lost to their target audience, like the gags involving the classic Kubrick horror movie “The Shining” (especially the twins and redrum).
The story is clearly not in the same league as the animated features made by Disney or Pixar. But despite the silliness, still, the very appealing candy colored visuals and sight gags, spiced up with a lot of frenetic action scenes involving the energetic fight between the birds and the pigs, are enough to keep the eyes of kid viewers glued on the screen.
Our grandkids surely enjoyed it, but Lolo felt drowsy in some scenes and drifted off to slumberland. Until the closing credits when we suddenly hear Demi Lovato singing a perky version of “I Will Survive”. The next video game to be made into a movie is “Warcraft”. Here’s hoping it will be more involving for adult viewers than this one about war freak birds.
