My entire life with children has been spent flinging birds in slingshots at towers of cubes and pigs. Then came the Star Wars versions, the go kart versions, the Transformers versions, the tshirts, the stuffies, the board games, the .. … the .. the .. The spin-offs of Angry Birds have been littanous since they dominated the iOS market immediately after being released in December 2009.
Honestly, I would have thought an Angry Birds movie would have been better timed 3 years ago, when peak Angry Birds was hit, but this simple little video game has embedded itself so tightly with preschool culture, that I guess it didn’t matter when it came out frankly.
As with many of the movies I am dragged along to with my boys, I fell asleep in this one. The beginning drags a bit as we get the set up of why Red is angry, why the other birds aren’t, and why the pigs want eggs, etc
I woke up in time to see the Bad Piggies land on Angry Bird Island and start a classic traveling snake oil salesman / Trojan Horse schtick to set the birds up to steal all their eggs. It’s actually quite clever.
The cast draws heavily upon Saturday Night Live‘s talent pool with Maya Rudolph, Jason Sudeikis, and Bill Hader leading the performances. Hader as the Pig King, Leonard, is genius. There is so much snark, cynicism, and ‘who, me?’ mixed in to his performance.
The funniest part of the movie relies on some potty humour as Mighty Eagle takes a very long pee into the Lake of Wisdom. Potty humour works every time, I guess. The script isn’t Simpsons-esque in its ability to mix adult nods with the childish jokes, but there are many “flocking awesome” references to bird-isms.
Younger kids might find themselves scared at the climax, as the 3 yr old next to us was crying and scrambling into his mom’s arms as Leonard was about to enact his evil plot to eat all the eggs. Traveling to another land and stealing an entire generation does have a certain genocidal bent to it, I can see why you got freaked out, kid.
SEE IT OR SKIP IT?
The kids are going to want to see The Angry Birds Movie. You don’t need to make a complete family event of it, one parent can escort the kids and offer to bring a few of their friends along for a fun 90 minute movie that … has already laid foundation for a sequel.