Film Review: ‘Angry Birds’ Is Surprisingly Entertaining

“Angry Birds” is directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly, and written by Jon Vitti. It stars Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Sean Penn, Keegan-Michael Key, Kate McKinnon, Tony Hale, Hannibal Buress, and Billy Eichner.

There was no reason for this not to be a complete disaster. We live in an age when one of the main complaints about mainstream film is the lack of original content. Everything is a sequel or a re-make or a prequel or what have you. Angry Birds, when first announced, appeared to represent the nadir of this trend. This is a feature film based on a disposable, plotless mobile game whose cultural moment has come and gone (this film feels about two years too late, at least from a business standpoint). However, the counter-point here is that Angry Birds’ plotlessness and general lack of “movie-ness” could actually be a strength. It reminds me of when Battleship came out in 2012: with source material so removed from narrative convention, isn’t it effectively an original screenplay anyway? While the game provides the bare bones of a premise (green pigs steal birds’ eggs, birds must retrieve eggs/murder pigs), writer Jon Vitti had to construct everything else pretty much from scratch here. None of this is to claim the film is some glorious and original vision transcending its source material (it’s no Lego Movie, not even close). Angry Birds is very much a product, cynically conceived. It never rises above that or makes you forget that entirely, but it’s a pretty well-made product, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have fun with this thing.

First things first: this film is a visual feast. If you’ve seen the trailer you know just how good this movie looks. Granted, every mainstream, big-budget animated film released these days is a technical marvel (I am never not taken aback by the sheer dedication and craft of quality animation), but Angry Birds has a look. The colors in this movie just pop. Every onscreen surface looks as though it has an artificial fruit flavor that you can instantly call to mind. There’s a lot of great, subtle detail-work as well (in certain lighting, you can make out the hair on the pigs’ chinny-chin-chins). And the film’s inevitable climax, in which a round of the game is depicted cinematically, is a wonder to behold with some glorious destruction rivaling recent superhero films. The film is almost worth recommending for this reason alone.

And whoa daddy take a look at that voice cast. There are even a couple of household names I had to leave off of it. It’s crazy how much talent is in this movie. Basically if you’ve watched any TV at all in the past three years you know who half of these people are. In practice, these voices all sort of blend together, few of them being obvious or immediately recognizable, which is probably for the best. Peter Dinklage does the best here, voicing the character the Mighty Eagle, a legend in the bird community who has long since gone to seed. Dinklage has a great, recognizable voice, but still manages to serve the needs of the film and lend this character some humanity (avianity?).

I’ve gone on a while without digging into the story, which is…interesting to say the least. The script is by no means a train wreck. The plot moves along briskly enough, and there are enough good gags to keep you smiling periodically (though occasionally it falls into the “Dreamworks trap” in which it tries a bit too hard to appeal to the parents in the audience).

The essential message of the film is that you can’t rely on your heroes to get things done: you have to take matters into your own hands. Red, our protagonist, is angry at the beginning of the film, which is framed as a problem which he must overcome. Everyone around him urges him to “deal with it” however he can, and after an incident early in the film he is sent to anger management. In 90% of family films Red’s arc would be his overcoming his anger problem. In Angry Birds, however, Red’s anger is validated by the plot. It is necessary to defeat the pigs. The other birds strive to learn from Red’s example. This is refreshing and perhaps of some value (more questionably, the film validates unprovoked suspicions about immigrants, contriving a scenario, where…well…bombing their homeland into oblivion is the inevitable solution. To be sure, this is one of the funniest aspects of the movie, but probably not in the way the filmmakers intended…).

So yeah, it’s fun. And if the exclamations in my theater were anything to go by, kids will like it for what it is, not because it’s an Angry Birds movie.

The film hits theaters this Friday.

We screened the film at a special WSJ+ event at Regal Union Square with special guests Edie Falco, Patrick Wilson and Rachel Dratch. A party followed at Dylan’s Candy Bar.

-Anthony Calamunci