The Angry Birds Movie

The Angry Birds Movie (also known simply as Angry Birds) is a 2016 animated comedy film based on Rovio Entertainment's video game series of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures and Rovio Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film was directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly (in their feature directorial debuts) from a screenplay written by Jon Vitti and a story by Mikael Hed, Mikko Pöllä, and co-producer John Cohen. It stars the voices of Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, Sean Penn, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Bill Hader, and Peter Dinklage. The film follows Red (Sudeikis), an outcast in an island of anthropomorphic flightless birds, as he suspects a newly arrived crew of pigs led by Leonard (Hader) of plotting an evil plan, and attempts to put a stop to them with the help of his newfound friends Chuck (Gad) and Bomb (McBride).
After the success of the Angry Birds Toons webseries, Rovio subsequently began development on an adaptation of the Angry Birds video game series, and would proceed to make a proper announcement in December 2012.  The first image from the film was revealed in October 2014, with Sudeikis, Gad, McBride, Hader, Rudolph Dinklage revealed to be part of its cast at the same time. Rovio and Sony Pictures announced that they would spend roughly €100 million for the marketing and distribution of The Angry Birds Movie, surpassing the €8.5 million budget of Big Game (2014) to become the most expensive Finnish-produced film up to that point. Sony Pictures Imageworks was responsible for handling animation services for the film.
The Angry Birds Movie was released in the United States and Canada on May 20, 2016. The film received overall mixed reviews from critics and grossed $352 million worldwide. A sequel, The Angry Birds Movie 2, was released on August 14, 2019, co-produced by Sony Pictures Animation, who were not involved with this film.
== Plot ==
Red, an angry bird, has been an outcast from Bird Island ever since he was a hatchling due to his short temper and his huge, jet-black eyebrows. When he accidentally causes a premature hatching of another bird's egg, he is sentenced to anger management class, which is the highest penalty allowed on the island. Two of Red's classmates, Chuck, who is hyperactive and can move at hypervelocity, and Bomb, who can cause explosions with his anger and fear, try to befriend him, but he avoids them.
One day, a boat docks at the island's shore, damaging Red's house. The birds greet two green-colored pigs, the captain Leonard and his assistant Ross, who claim to be peaceful explorers bringing offerings of friendship. They introduce the birds to various innovations, including a giant slingshot, but Red becomes suspicious of the pigs' motives and sneaks into Leonard's boat. He finds more pigs hidden below deck, contradicting Leonard's claim that he and Ross are alone. When he returns and shows everyone the other pigs, the birds accept Leonard's explanation that he only lied to see if Bird Island was safe for his simple-minded cousins.
Still suspecting that there is something off about the pigs, Red recruits Chuck and Bomb to find Mighty Eagle, Bird Island's missing protector and the only bird who can fly. They find Mighty Eagle on top of Eagle Mountain, but he has become an overweight, self-absorbed slacker who has not flown for years. Red discovers the pigs planting dynamite around the island. He realizes that the pigs are planning to steal the birds' eggs while the birds are distracted by a party. When Mighty Eagle refuses to help them, Red admonishes him. Red, Chuck, and Bomb race back to sound a warning to the other birds and stop the pigs, only for the pigs to start destroying the village by blowing it up with the dynamite. Chuck goes to warn the other birds while Red and Bomb give chase to the pigs. They try to untie the ropes to drop the eggs in the water, but it doesn't work, so Red tells Bomb to blow up the chain, but the pigs escape with the eggs and leave the village destroyed. The other birds apologize to Red for not listening to him. Red forgives everyone and under his leadership, they organize an army and build a boat from the rubble to follow the pigs to Piggy Island.
The birds discover the pigs living in a walled city ruled by Leonard, whose full name is King Leonard Mudbeard. Deducing that the eggs are in the castle at the center of the city, the birds use the pig's giant slingshot to attack by launching themselves over the walls and into the city's castle. Most of the birds miss the castle but destroy other buildings. Red, Chuck, and Bomb are successfully shot into the castle; the pigs plan to lower the eggs into a giant pot, cook them, and eat them. Mighty Eagle arrives to retrieve Red's group and the eggs, having had a change of heart. One egg falls out of the net and Red battles Leonard for it, but learns to control his anger and distracts him long enough to retrieve the egg. After they fall into a dynamite room, Leonard accidentally ignites the pigs' reserve of dynamite. The giant pot in which the pigs had intended to use to cook the eggs collapses, falls and lands on top of Red. The dynamite explodes, destroying the city, but Red and the egg he was holding are shielded by the pot.
All the families, except for one, reunite with their eggs. Red emerges holding the egg, containing the Blues (Jay, Jake, and Jim), and returns the brothers to their parents. Mighty Eagle approaches Red, Chuck, and Bomb, claiming that he merely appeared lazy so that they could lose faith in him and find faith in themselves, and takes credit for saving the eggs. Red discovers that the other birds have rebuilt his house in the center of the village. The pigs survive their home's destruction, and Leonard plots a new plan.
== Production ==
The film was officially announced in December 2012, although IGN noted that this was "after months of speculation". The success of the Angry Birds Toons series, according to Rovio employee Jami Laes, "validated" the idea of creating a feature film. The first image from the film was revealed in October 2014, with Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, and Peter Dinklage revealed to be part of its cast. Gad at first refused to star in the movie, feeling that it was too similar to his role as Olaf in Frozen (2013) but the director eventually convinced him to sign through a 30-minute "visual pitch". The film's budget is estimated at $80 million (€75 million). Rovio and Sony Pictures announced that they would spend roughly €100 million for the marketing and distribution of the film, giving it the largest budget in the film industry in Finland, outvaluing Big Game's (2014) €8.5 million. Despite the massive budget, Rovio CEO Mikael Hed stated that "it is the one that I don't ever lose any sleep over", calling it "tremendously strong as a story". During August 2015, Rovio announced that they were expecting to cut 250 jobs equaling 40% of the company, the only sector spared being personnel working on the movie.
When multiple major studios approached Rovio to discuss the production of the film adaptation in 2010, Hed eventually decided to have Rovio establish its own in-house animation studio and have it work on the film, rather than risk losing creative control in allowing a third-party studio to produce it. David Maisel, the founding chairman of Marvel Studios, offered to help Hed and Rovio produce the film, as well as John Cohen from Illumination Entertainment and Catherine Winder from Lucasfilm, who later served as the film's producers. Animation services were handled by Sony Pictures Imageworks in Vancouver, while Skywalker Sound handled audio post-production services.
The Angry Birds characters were not depicted in their anthropomorphized cinematic designs until the film's announcement so as to avoid spoiling it for audiences.
== Marketing ==
The film's marketing budget was an estimated $300 million, which, along with its production budget of $400 million, was the biggest budget at the time for an animated Sony Pictures film. Tie-ins with McDonald's, Citroën, Ziploc, Panasonic, and a series of six Lego sets were used to promote the film. A balloon themed after Red debuted at the 2015 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. During the film's marketing campaign, the app icons for most Angry Birds games were changed to depict the cinematic version of Red. A series of free-to-play tie-in games were also produced: Angry Birds Action!, Angry Birds Evolution, and Angry Birds Match.
== Release ==
=== Theatrical ===
The film was initially scheduled to be released on July 1, 2016, but was later moved forward to May 20. The film was released in Finland on May 13, 2016, and in the United States on May 20, 2016 in RealD 3D and 4DX. An animated short film titled The Early Hatchling Gets the Worm was shown alongside the film in selected theaters.
=== Home media ===
The Angry Birds Movie was released on digital HD on July 29, 2016, and on Blu-ray, 4K/3D Blu-ray, and DVD on August 16, 2016 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, with four "Hatchlings" shorts included. The film topped the home video sales chart for the week ending on August 21, 2016.
=== Box office ===
The Angry Birds Movie grossed $107.5 million in the United States and Canada and $244.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $352.3 million. It is the fourth highest-grossing video game film of all-time both worldwide (behind Warcraft, Detective Pikachu, and Rampage) and domestically (behind Sonic the Hedgehog, Detective Pikachu, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider), and is also the most successful Finnish-produced film of all time. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $72 million.
In the United States and Canada, the film opened on May 20, 2016 alongside Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016) and The Nice Guys (2016), and was projected to gross $35–40 million or as high as $45 million from 3,932 theaters in its opening weekend. Deadline noted that the film had the benefit of being the only animated movie in theaters until Finding Dory (2016) on June 17. The Angry Birds Movie was the top selling film for the weekend, and grossed $800,000 from Thursday night previews and $11 million on its opening day. In its opening weekend it grossed $38.2 million, finishing first at the box office and marked the third biggest Sony animated opening of all time, behind Hotel Transylvania (2012) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015). It also scored the second-best debut weekend ever for a video game adaptation, behind the $47 million debut of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. It dropped 51% in its second weekend, against X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016), grossing $18.7 million.
== Reception ==
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 44% of 160 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Angry Birds Movie is substantially more entertaining than any film adapted from an app has any right to be—which may or may not be much of an endorsement." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Lindsey Bahr of the Associated Press gave the film a positive review by writing, "Ultimately, The Angry Birds Movie does a decent job exploring the merits of anger. It's no Inside Out, but it has heart and life, which isn't too shabby for any film—app or not." Variety's Guy Lodge called the film: "A fast, fizzy and frenetically entertaining extension of the manic gaming franchise that, at its zenith, had children of all ages glued to their smartphone screens". While Rafer Guzman of Newsday found the film's plot to be "pretty thin gruel," he thought the script was quite funny and that the animation was brightly colored and appealing.
Glenn Kenny of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, writing, "The kids of today deserve better. So do I, come to think of it." In his review for TheWrap, Alonso Duralde wrote, "Let's be clear, then: The Angry Birds Movie isn't pointless because it's based on an app. It's pointless because it's pointless."
== Future ==
=== Follow-up media ===
* IDW Publishing launched a comic book miniseries, titled Angry Birds: Flight School and situated after the events of the film, on February 22, 2017.
* Rovio Entertainment has released a new online video spin-off miniseries that takes place sometime after the events of the film, titled Angry Birds Blues, and focuses on the mischievous antics of the newborn Blues. The first episode premiered on Toons.TV on March 10, 2017.
* In the summer of 2017, GoComics announced that it will be running a comic strip series based on the world of The Angry Birds Movie, with each issue available to view on its website. The strip ran for over a year, from August 3, 2017 to September 20, 2018.
=== Sequels ===
Main article: The Angry Birds Movie 2
In August 2016, Rovio had begun working on a sequel to the film. The sequel, titled The Angry Birds Movie 2, was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on August 2, 2019 and later on August 14 in the United States, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the original game. It was directed by Thurop Van Orman and John Rice. Cohen returned as producer, with Peter Ackerman, Eyal Podell, and Jonathon E. Stewart as writers. Sudeikis, Gad, Hader, McBride, Dinklage, Rudolph, Hale, and Padilla returned to voice their roles, with Nicki Minaj, Rachel Bloom, Sterling K. Brown, Eugenio Derbez, Zach Woods, Awkwafina, Lil Rel Howery, Dove Cameron, Beck Bennett, Tiffany Haddish, Brooklynn Prince, and Leslie Jones joining the cast.
On April 30, 2020, Geeks WorldWide exclusively reported that a third film is in development at Sony, with production planned for 2021.
Category:Angry Birds
Category:Animated Films
Category:May
Category:2016
Category:Rovio Entertainment
Category:Sony Pictures
Category:Columbia Pictures