http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1985949/?ref_=nv_sr_1

In the 3D animated comedy, The Angry Birds Movie, we’ll finally find out why the birds are so angry. The movie takes us to an island populated entirely by happy, flightless birds – or almost entirely. In this paradise, Red (Jason Sudeikis, We’re the Millers, Horrible Bosses), a bird with a temper problem, speedy Chuck (Josh Gad in his first animated role since Frozen), and the volatile Bomb (Danny McBride, This is the End, Eastbound and Down) have always been outsiders. But when the island is visited by mysterious green piggies, it’s up to these unlikely outcasts to figure out what the pigs are up to.

IMDb: 6.3

From the great movie producing country of Finland comes an animated movie NOT made by Pixar or Disney. As if that  wasn’t refreshing enough, Angry Birds does indeed stray a bit off the usual formula of animation. That’s pretty cool on one hand but also puzzled hubby and me both. Why? Because we had to ask ourselves for whom was this movie made? For most of the movie it’s just a silly kiddies slapstick comedy … which got its biggest laughs with more or less adult jokes. Please don’t get me wrong here, not talking about sexual innuendos but about mature topics, ranging from yoga poses, anger management, human failure, problem handling and all that stuff we supposedly adult persons have to deal with on a daily base.

But as far as I could see that was more or less AB’s only problem. The scenes were colourful, the animation flawless, the pace was upbeat, same as the overall mood of the movie. And the jokes were plenty and really good. Far above the level of the average 5 y/o audience.

The other problem one could see arising, a thing many other movies stumbled over and failed at, namely that of making a real movie out of a singleminded video game, didn’t materialize in AB. The plot was – although not super creative – gripping enough to have us paying attention for all the 97 minutes of its playtime.

Oh, now I get it, maybe AB was neither aimed at kidz, nor adults, it was probably a family film. Whoa, weird! Families, as if such a strange thing still existed. Those Finns are very naiive, are they not? 🙂

I really gotta say it here: Hubby and me felt very well entertained and laughed a lot, prolly more than we were supposed to. That’s because AB was a truly charming film, with a super voiceover cast. I don’t know if it was a planned joke in itself that Peter Dinklage, of all people, had to voice Mighty Eagle – the biggest and meanest and only flyable bird on Bird Island. Anyway, he did his job very well and played Mighty Eagle just right as the ageing, potbellied playboy with to much testosterone and grandeur. Yes, he perfectly mimicked his role from Game of Thrones. 😉

The story was very easy to grasp and, although dramatic, still light enough to make for nice brainless family entertainment. The bad and evil pigs were still soo fukn cute, we couldn’t really be angry at them and even the always grumpy Red was a totally symphatic guy. No wonder, he’s our main protagonist so we feel with him. Which is made very easy for us.

And don’t get me wrong again: When I stated AB would touch mature problems I didn’t mean to say this was an arthouse movie or a psychodrama. It flosses over those adult topics with a very juvenile grandezza and carelessness. It’s just a joyfull movie full of laughter and stupid slapstick.

Yes, light hearted it is indeed … but don’t assume for a second AB would be stupid. There are some very sharply observed moments that were also very nicely set in scene .

So, CONCLUSION time again, ya? You might have figured out by now that we liked Angry Birds very much. It’s not one of those great movies, not an instant classic and academy price winner, but it’s a flawlessly made light comedy and a very nice addition to the steadily growing oeuvre of animated movies. And for an kinda outsider project it’s not just on par but in the upper ranks of the genre. At least we liked it better than many others, particularly the later Ice Age flicks. And easily better than the heavily overrated Inside Out! And it’s much better than its meagre 6.2 rating implies.

WATCH IT in every mood, with many people around or completely and totally alone. You may even watch it with your … family, if you can’t avoid it. You’ll have a very good time watching Angry Birds.

WHAT DOES KERMODE THINK?

Mhm, me nods wisely, just as I thought. What a great mind and critical thinker my friend Mark is. He arrives at the same conclusion as me. Slowly I’m getting good at this game. 😉