The Angry Birds Movie

***The Angry Birds Movie*** (also referred to as ***Angry Birds*** and released in the United Kingdom as such) is a 2016 computer-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 it is the twenty-first Sony Pictures Animation film. It was directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly in their directorial debuts, and written by Jon Vitti. The film features 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.

## Plot[edit]

Red is an angry bird and has been an outcast from the others on 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. 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 become 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 where he finds more pigs hidden below deck, contradicting Leonard’s claim that he and Ross were alone. When he returns and shows everyone the other pigs, the birds refuse to believe his claim that the pigs are up to no good, and Leonard claims that he only lied to see if Bird Island was safe for his cousins, who he says are simple-minded.

Determined for help, Red recruits Chuck and Bomb to find Mighty Eagle, the protector of Bird Island and the only bird on the island who can fly, who has not been seen for many years. They find Mighty Eagle on top of Eagle Mountain, only to find that he has not flown for years, and that he is overweight, self-absorbed, and leading the life of a slacker. Red realizes that his suspicions were right when he discovers the pigs planting dynamite around the island, and realizes the pigs are planning to steal the birds' eggs while distracting the other birds, who seem unaware of the trio's absence, with a party. Red pleads for Mighty Eagle to help him, Chuck, and Bomb, but he refuses. Red admonishes Mighty Eagle before he, Chuck, and Bomb leave. The trio race back to try to sound a warning to the other birds and stop the pigs, but the pigs escape with the eggs and activate the dynamite, destroying the village. 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 slingshot to attack by launching themselves over the walls and into the city's buildings, destroying them. Red, Chuck, and Bomb infiltrate the castle and discover that the eggs are inside a net; 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. Leonard accidentally ignites the pigs' reserve of dynamite, and the giant pot that the pigs had intended to use to cook the eggs in collapses and lands on top of Red, shielding him and the egg he was holding from the blast as the dynamite explodes, destroying the city.

All the families, except for one, reunite with their eggs. Red emerges holding the egg, which has hatched, and returns the babies to their parents. Mighty Eagle approaches Red, Chuck, and Bomb, claiming he merely appeared lazy so they could lose faith in him and find faith in themselves, and takes credit for saving the eggs. Red discovers the other birds have rebuilt his house in the center of the village. Moved, Red allows Chuck and Bomb to move in with him. The pigs survive their home's destruction, with Leonard plotting a new plan.

In a mid-credits scene, the three blue birds use the slingshot to launch themselves out towards the ocean.

## Voice cast[edit]

* Jason Sudeikis as Red
	+ Aidan McGraw as young Red
* Josh Gad as Chuck
* Danny McBride as Bomb
* Maya Rudolph as Matilda, Poppy
* Kate McKinnon as Stella, Eva
* Sean Penn as Terence
* Tony Hale as Ross, Mime, Cyrus
* Keegan-Michael Key as Judge Peckinpah
* Bill Hader as King Leonard Mudbeard
* Peter Dinklage as Mighty Eagle
* Blake Shelton as Earl
* Anthony Padilla as Hal
* Ian Hecox as Bubbles
* Charli XCX as Willow
* Tituss Burgess as Photog
* Billy Eichner as Chef Pig, Phillip
* Hannibal Buress as Edward
* Ike Barinholtz as Tiny
* Max Charles as Bobby
* Jillian Bell as Helene, Yoga Instructor
* Cristela Alonzo as Shirley
* Danielle Brooks as Monica, Olive
* Kevin Bigley as Greg
* Adam Brown as Hug Trader
* Romeo Santos as Early Bird
* Geoffrey Arend as Day Care Teacher Bird
* Ava Acres as Timothy
* Alex Borstein as Sophie Bird, Peggy Bird
* Malena Brewer as Arianna Bird
* Vincent Oswald as Dylan Hatchling
* Samantha Cohen as Samantha Hatchling
* Josh Robert Thompson as Brad Bird, Dane the Saxophone Bird
* Matt McCarthy as Rodney Pig and John Hamm (credited as Acrobat Pig)
* Matt Taylor as Hamilton Pig and Oinky (credited as Acrobat Pig)
* Mckenna Grace as Ella Bird
* Ali Wong as Betty Bird
* Fred Tatasciore as Monty Pig
* Bella Laudiero as Maya Bird
* John Cohen as Johnny Bird
* Clay Kaytis as Clayton the Waiter Bird
* Fergal Reilly as Foreman Pig
* Catherine Winder as Billy the Sign
* Carlos Alazraqui as Earl's 2nd Brother
* Eileen Marra, Indra Raval, Joaquin Raval and Sofie Wolfe as Hatchling Singers

## Production[edit]

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 as part of its cast. Gad at first refused to star in the movie, feeling 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 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, 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.

## Release[edit]

### Theatrical[edit]

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.

### Promotion and tie-in games[edit]

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*.

### Home media[edit]

*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.

## Reception[edit]

### Box office[edit]

*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* (2020), *Detective Pikachu*, and *Lara Croft: Tomb Raider* (2001)), 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.

### Critical response[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 43% of 159 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.94/10. 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." According to the review aggregator Metacritic, which sampled 27 reviews and calculated a weighted average of 43 out of 100, *The Angry Birds Movie* received "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".

## Triviaedit | edit source

* Although it has a rotten rating, *The Angry Birds Movie* is the fourth highest-rated video game movie on Rotten Tomatoes, with the third being *Tomb Raider,* the second being *Pokemon: Detective Pikachu* and the first being this very film's sequel.
* In the scene where the chandelier with Leonard and Red is falling down in Leonard's castle, the *Piggy Tales* episode "Dr. Pork, M.D." can be seen briefly on a TV in the Living Room. When the pot falls through the castle, another *Piggy Tales* episode, "The Catch", can be seen briefly on the TV in the room.
* The novel and movie *Fifty Shades of Grey* is parodied in the Porkchop Express scene in which a book is titled "*Fifty Shades of Green*".
* Directorial debut of Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly.
* Josh Gad and Peter Dinklage's third time working together in the same film, as well as their second animated one; they previously worked on *Ice Age: Continental Drift* and *Pixels*.
	+ Recently, they appeared in the movie *Artemis Fowl*, however, Gad had a major role, while Dinklage only has a small cameo.
* Chuck is shown to be left-handed in this film. This is proven from when he paints with it, raises it, and does other things with his left hand.
* Red's line, "Hey, that's my toothbrush! Get it out!!" is a reference to the film *Horrible Bosses*, where Jason Sudeikis' character Kurt Beckman says this line to his manager.
* There are two instances of in-game sounds in the movie. In the opening credits, when Red kicks away the Soccer Boy Bird, he makes Matilda's battle cry. When Red, Chuck, and Bomb find the pigs in the boat, the pigs make the noise that plays when the player fails a level in the game.
* At one point at the beginning of the film, Red asks Edward and Eva, "On a scale of 1 to 3 stars, what would you say about my performance?", referencing to the star-scoring system in the game.
* Chuck says "It's Chuck Time!", referring to the *Angry Birds Toons* episode of the same name.
* In the scene where Chuck opens all of the doors in Leonard's castle, Red opens a door and sees two pigs wearing blue, frilly dresses, having black rings around their eyes, and holding each other's hooves. Two seconds later, these pigs say "Redrum..." in unison, which when reversed spells "murder". Then, a reflection of the Grady Pigs is shown in Red's eyes while he says, "Uh… Never mind", and closes the door. These pigs are clearly a parody of the Grady Twins from the famous horror movie, *The Shining*.
	+ Coincidentally, *rubrum* in Latin means Red, which the word could reference this fact in a modified way.
* A pig holds a sign that says "Green Ham and Eggs!", which is a parody of the Dr. Seuss book *Green Eggs and Ham*.
* The painting that Terence paints during Matilda's anger management course is a parody of the painting *The Creation of Adam*.
* King Pig would have been an important character in the movie, but he was cut and is only on storyboards. It's unknown if he has an appearance in it. It's possible that he is the Top Hat Pig, due to them having the same shape and he appears with Leonard all the time. He is fancy and King Pig has a costume in Bad Piggies that is exactly like that pig.
* In the movie, there are various references to the game's physics and objects, some examples are the Grappling Hook and Boxing Glove of Bad Piggies. A complete list can't be made because it would be immense.
* The name ***Oswald,*** the last name of Pete Oswald, appears on Mighty Eagle's record player.
* Bomb ruining John Woodpecker's image is a joke on Photo **Bomb**ing, which is ruining a photo that a person will take.
* When The Porkchop Express is arriving, a bird says "*Look at the size of that thing!*" which is a line said by Luke Skywalker in the *Star Wars: A New Hope*, which is one of the movies *Angry Birds Star Wars* is based on.
	+ The line is also said in the console versions of *Angry Birds Star Wars*, in the Death Star achievement description.

### **Goofs**edit | edit source

* When Early Bird gets shocked as Red says that he is horrible, his crest disappears.
* Officer Bill Beakins's mustache disappears when Ross hugs him. However, it could be only for comical relief.
* As Red *and* Bomb dangle from the net of eggs stolen by the Pigs, who are making their escape via boat, Leonard incorrectly tells his minions to "Get *him* off of there!" instead of the plural "Get *them* off of there!*"*
* The nameless purple bird sitting next to Cyrus automatically morphs into a gray bird when the camera focuses on Red and Cyrus.
* At Anger Management Class, there’s nothing beside her, but just as Matilda introduces Terence, she picks up his file which was not there before.

#### Continuity Errors with the *Angry Birds* Gamesedit | edit source

In this film, there are many plot points that are inconsistent with the games and their lore.

* The film implies that The Blues are the youngest birds, even though in the games Bubbles looks younger.
* Bubbles not only seems to be a fully grown adult, but he also has no affection for candy. It is also shown in many books that Bubbles is only able to communicate in Childlike babble, while the film shows him speaking in full sentences.
* *The World of Angry Birds Official Guide* states that King Pig's ancestors ate many eggs, but the movie says that Leonard is the first to even find the eggs.
* King Pig is never even mentioned in the film, let alone shown. Since the characters didn't seem to age that much between the films and games, it wouldn't be possible for King Pig to be born and grow up. As mentioned above, it is possible for Top Hat Pig to be King Pig, however.
* Bird Island itself contradicts the games' plots, where the birds are of unpopulated kinds and all live on either Piggy or Golden Island. The concept of Bird Island shows that the birds are very common, and live on this developed island.
* It is shown that the birds don't know about any other place than Bird Island, but Terence's cousin, Tony, comes from Finland.
	+ It is also implied in the sequel that the pigs don't know any place outside of their boundaries either, but they went to the Arctic and Finland in *Angry Birds Seasons*.
* The games show the birds gradually build up their limited Flock, but the movie shows that they all knew each other from the start.