The Angry Birds Movie


The Angry Birds Movie 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 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, Bill Hader, and Peter Dinklage.
The Angry Birds Movie was released in the United States and Canada on May 20, 2016. The film was a box office success, grossing over $352 million worldwide and becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of all time to be based on a video game, behind Warcraft, Detective Pikachu, and Rampage. A sequel was released on August 14, 2019, with Sony Pictures Animation co-producing.

Plot

Red, a bird who has been an outcast ever since he was a hatchling due to his temper, lives on Bird Island with other flightless birds. When his temper causes a premature hatching of another bird's egg, he is sentenced to anger management class, which is the maximum 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 are greeted by two green-colored pigs, the captain Leonard and his assistant Ross, who claim to be peaceful explorers bringing offerings of friendship. The pigs introduce the birds to various innovations, including a giant slingshot, but Red becomes suspicious and sneaks onto Leonard's boat where he finds more pigs hidden below deck, contradicting Leonard’s claim that it was just him and Ross. When he returns and shows everyone the additional pigs, the birds refuse to believe 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.
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 discovers the pigs planting dynamite around the island, and realizes the pigs are planning to steal the birds' eggs while the other birds are distracted 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 depart. The trio race back to try to sound a warning to the other birds and stop the pigs, but their efforts are in vain: The pigs escape with the eggs and activate the dynamite, destroying the village. The other birds apologize to Red for not believing him and under his leadership, they organize an army and construct 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 a pot 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, save for one, are reunited with their eggs, while Red is thought to have been killed. 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, now a hero, 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 are revealed to have survived 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.

Cast

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 the 2013 film Frozen but the director eventually convinced him to sign through a 30-minute "visual pitch".
The film's budget is estimated at $80 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 €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.
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.

Music

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack, titled The Angry Birds Movie: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released on May 6, 2016.

Track listing

released the score on May 12, 2016.
"Wonderful Life" was replaced in international screenings of the film in English with "You Should Be Dancing" by the Bee Gees.

Release

The film was initially scheduled to be released on July 1, 2016, but was later moved forward to May 20. On September 23, 2015, the teaser trailer for the film was released, followed by the second trailer four months later. An international trailer made its debut in March 2016.
The film was released in the UK on May 13, 2016, and in the United States and Canada on May 20, 2016. in RealD 3D and 4DX.

Promotion and tie-in games

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

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

Box office

The Angry Birds Movie grossed $107.5 million in North America 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 and domestically, 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 North America, the film opened on May 20, 2016 alongside ' and The Nice Guys, 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 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 and Hotel Transylvania 2. It also scored the second-best debut weekend ever for a video game adaptation, behind the $47 million debut of '. It dropped 51% in its second weekend, against ' and Alice Through the Looking Glass, grossing $18.7 million.
Internationally, The Angry Birds Movie was released in the Philippines on May 11 and in 74 other markets on May 13, at least a week ahead of its US release. It finished first in 37 territories and second overall at the international box office behind '. Benefiting from the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, it grossed $43 million. In its second weekend, it added 9 additional territories including China, South Korea and the Netherlands and grossed $55.5 million from 83 markets. Overall, the top openings for the film was recorded in China, Russia, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Germany, Mexico, and Brazil. It opened next in Italy on June 15 and Japan on October 1.
In terms of total earnings, the biggest markets for the film outside North America are China, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Germany.

Critical response

The Angry Birds Movie received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 43% based on 159 reviews and 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." On Metacritic, the film has 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". Varietys 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". Stephen Whitty of the New York Daily News gave the film one out of five stars, writing, "The Angry Birds Movie is just fowl".

Accolades

Future

Follow-up media

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 video 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, Brooklynn Prince, and Leslie Jones joining the cast.