The Angry Birds Movie

While Rovio’s Angry Birds franchise may have dipped in popularity in recent years, it was a global phenomenon when the original game released back in 2009. For a few years after, you couldn’t escape its presence, especially once its popularity spawned a number of sequels, including crossovers with the Rio film duology and the Star Wars film series. Despite this popularity, the announcement of an animated film in 2012 came with some hesitation, as that would mean it could release years after the series had already peaked in relevance. This didn’t stop the film from finally releasing in 2016, however, to mixed response from critics while still making $352.3 million, nearly five times its $73 million budget. Though I was curious as to how it turned out, I wouldn’t watch the film until a recent flight, where I was forced to watch it on my phone (and the suboptimal conditions necessitated the use of subtitles). Considering The Angry Birds movie released years before Pokémon Detective Pikachu in 2019 and Sonic the Hedgehog in 2020, it’s certainly not one of the worst adaptations of a video game, but it’s definitely not flawless either.

Red (Jason Sudeikis) has been an outcast on Bird Island his entire life for both his short temper and appearance, to the point he lives on the beach far away from everyone else. After accidentally causing a premature hatching of someone else’s egg, Judge Peckinpah (Keegan-Michael Key) sentences him to anger management class, though he actively ignores classmates Chuck (Josh Gad) and Bomb (Danny McBride), who try befriending him. One day, a boat carrying two green pigs, captain Leonard (Bill Hader) and his assistant Ross (Tony Hale), docks ashore, damaging Red’s house in the process. Though the pigs claim to be peaceful explorers, Red is suspicious of their motivations, but none of the other birds believe him even after he reveals that they lied about their numbers. Desperate for aid, Red sets off with Chuck and Bomb in search of the legendary Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage), the island’s missing protector and the only one who can fly.

Red (Jason Sudeikis, center) searches for Mighty Eagle with
Chuck (Josh Gad, left) and Bomb (Danny McBride, right).

Considering how the main story of the original game was more of a motivator for the player than anything with real substance, The Angry Birds Movie effectively had a blank canvas to do its own thing free from most restrictions. While the story and themes they went with weren’t too original and had a pretty predictable plot, it’s honestly amazing it turned out as decent as it did. Red isn’t the best lead, since he manages to be at times simultaneously sympathetic and unsympathetic, the characters felt distinct from one another, with personalities clearly influenced by their unique abilities. Incorporating anger management class felt like one of the more inspired choices, making the leads “angry birds”, and the writers found ways to cleverly and organically insert the original game’s mechanics without feeling too much like watching someone play a video game. As an added bonus, some of the jokes were actually pretty funny and I actually felt bad for a minor character who was refused the free hugs they offered at every turn.

Speaking of the humor, it’s more of a double-edged sword, as for every good joke, there’s at least one that doesn’t land. Without going into too much detail, as whether or not a viewer would find certain jokes funny is much more subjective, I thought there was too much reference humor, including background posters and a random nod to Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining, and that a running gag of Mime Bird (Tony Hale) saying “Oh My God” was milked too much (it’s used four times throughout). As someone who isn’t the biggest fan of toilet humor, the worst joke was easily Mighty Eagle urinating, and the main trio reacting, for roughly 45 seconds (we timed it).

Unlike the humor, the animation is consistently good and actually pretty impressive considering Rovio worked on it in-house. The characters translate surprisingly well to 3D, though the original 2D art style is used for in-universe artwork as a clever nod. Various lighting and liquid effects are rendered very well and it was great to see more dynamic camera angles during the climax, as those clearly involved a lot more effort and coordination. Notably, the characters have limbs now, though I didn’t mind this change because it would have come off too cheap and distracting if they just plopped in the original designs wholesale without giving it any additional thought.

If nothing else, this scene has impressively realistic water effects.

Though the voice cast largely consists of comedians, they do a pretty good job with the material for the most part, with special mention to Josh Gad as Chuck, who occasionally gets to show off his great singing talent. Outside of a good use of the main Angry Birds theme, however, the original music isn’t too memorable. There are plenty of licensed tracks, though some feel a bit on the nose, like playing "Sound of da Police" by KRS-One during Chuck’s backstory.

While not one of the best film adaptations of a video game, especially a mobile game, The Angry Birds Movie isn’t the worst either. You could watch a better video game movie, but it’s not a complete waste of 97 minutes.