The big-screen, animated epic based on the wildly popular bird-launching mobile game makes its debut on Blu-ray to delight the younger home theater aficionados in the family.
The Angry Birds Movie (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, rated PG, $38.99, 97 minutes) stars a team of flightless, furious fowls on an explosive mission to rescue stolen eggs from hungry porkers.
The story finds the hair-trigger-tempered birds Red, Chuck, Terrence, Matilda and Bomb (all plucked from the games) learning to quell their fiery emotions via anger-management therapy while living a fairly peaceful life on friendly Bird Island.
After piggies, led by King Mudbeard, show up to the island and steal the feathered citizens’ soon-to-be hatched offspring, the birds must band together and enlist the help of the Mighty Eagle to literally launch an attack on Piggy Island to get their eggs back.
For a film loaded with a first-class collection of funny and distinguished actors — including Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Kate McKinnon, Tony Hale and the Sean Penn (adding the method growling and grunting for Terrence) — it’s amazing the lack of humorous dialogue onscreen.
A valiant attempt to keep up with the recent efforts of Dora, Po Ping and those darn cute Minions partially succeeds through a screen-filling digital transfer (1:85-aspect ratio) highlighting a wide range of colorful birds, displaying intricate feathers and fuzz in varied textures and states of fluffy distress.
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The movie ultimately does not succeed because of a very uninspired script, never offering enough of a clever quotient to keep adults entertained while watching along with their eager youngsters.
However, targeting the pee-wee demographic, Sony beefs up the bonus features by not only adding shorts and activities for the “Angry Birds” fans but some help with those enamored with the latest mobile game.
Specifically, viewers get some extra screen time with the colorful cast via six deleted scenes and a focus on the cute hatchlings via a quartet of cartoons highlighted by a young chick becoming buddies with a worm.
Next, youngsters can take part in a Texas two-steppin’ dance along with the birds, pigs and a cute human cowgirl, or get a lesson on how to craft a real “Angry Birds” game using aluminum cans, cherries, plastic containers and rubber bands (parent supervision suggested).
Budding animators in the family learn about the making of the film through interviews with the computer artists and production staff as well as the visualization of the key bird and pig characters through almost 30 minutes of featurettes.
Also, music fans can appreciate composer Heitor Pereira explaining six of the themes in the film and some of the instruments he used or watch the Blake Shelton music video for the song “Friends.”
Better yet, they can watch the entire film with only the musical score playing with no dialogue or sound effects to obscure Mr. Pereira’s work. I can’t remember the last time I saw a feature like that.
Finally, download the “Angry Birds Action!” game to a smartphone or tablet. Use its microphone to unlock hatchlings to offer more rewards for successfully conquering 90 levels in this chaotic, pinball-inspired, egg-rescuing challenge.
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
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