THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE (Fergal Reilly, Clay Kaytis, 2016)

-

"The Angry Birds Movie" is a film that obviously took careful planning and execution. Sure, it just primarily aims to elicit laughs and provide pure escapism, but at its core is a well-constructed world inhabited by lovable characters, each with their own unique characteristics.

Fans of the mobile game will delight in how much the film's second half captures the joy and nostalgia of destroying buildings and blowing up pigs. When the birds begin flying into the pigs' buildings to recover the stolen eggs, everything is endless joy.

The film bears resemblance with the Aesop fable "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," with Red (Jason Sudeikis) as the boy, or rather, the bird. Red is a troublemaker; he gets angry real quick, and; most of the other characters hate his follies. But Red is a sympathetic character. Despite being hugely known as a never-do-well, he is also an outcast and a loner. His house is planted outside the community. But what Red lacks in charm or responsibility, he makes up for boldness.

Which is why when the invading pigs arrived dressed as friendly immigrants, no one was skeptical, except Red. Red's cynicism and skepticism became his strength when the community needed help. He quickly became the ringleader, from being a mere laughingstock.

Despite "The Angry Birds Movie" being an animated comedy, it also hints at subtexts of colonialism and xenocentrism, maybe even racial segregation. I could be overthinking the film, but I strongly believe that beneath the humor and the spectacle, it carries a rather strong message to respect people's differences and cultures. It subconsciously tells children to stand up for what they believe in, and to learn the value of cooperation in achieving endeavors.  And yes, control your anger. 

A strong lineup of voice actors helps make the film a showcase of remarkable talent, as comics Josh Gad, Danny McBride and even SNL's Kate McKinnon serve one wonder after another. 

I am seriously in the belief that "The Angry Birds Movie" was created for adults to enjoy, more than children. Kids will still love the animation and the hijinks, and it's still a family film, but all the other pop culture references (hello, Stanley Kubrick!) as well as the biting sarcasm is unmistakably for grown-ups.

RATING: 5/5


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ANINO SA LIKOD NG BUWAN (Jun Lana, 2015)

-
Image
* English title "Shadow behind the Moon" The best term to describe Jun Lana's latest film would be a cinematic charade- a game of identities, of motives, of suppressed passions, and of uncertainty. Or the film equivalent of a Russian doll, if you will. "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" only has three characters- husband and wife Nando (Anthony Falcon) and Emma (LJ Reyes) and military man Joel (Luis Alandy). What started as a seemingly routine banter among friends gradually and intensely escalated into an examination of society, where the definition of immorality is blurred during a time of insurgency.  And in fact, the film does discuss the subject of immorality from various paradigms. When does adultery become acceptable, and to whom? Is sexual liberation more heinous than murder? Why is immorality always a double standard? The film plays out the ideas in endless games. Or are they really games at all? Lana could have stopped there, but he didn...
Read more

TUHOG (Jeffrey Jeturian)

-
Image
Film within a film-structured movies are always interesting watch. Not only do they provide a much-needed deconstruction of form and content of cinema itself, but also that much-needed emotional punch a cinephile would surely love.  Like in BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar, 2004), we witness the characters tell the back story via montage, as if we are part of the cast of characters watching an actual movie. The form was successful in evoking pain and regret, and also of empathy. In TUHOG, Jeffrey Jeturian and screenwriter Bing Lao tackles sensational media in the Philippines, especially in cinema. The film opens as a film producer hears a pitch for a possible movie- a story of a grandfather who rapes his own granddaughter.  The director of the film soon after visits the victim of the crime, Floring (Ina Raymundo). Coercing both she and her mother, Perla (Irma Adlawan) to sell them the movie rights to their story, we witness as exploitation cinema unfolds. To think of it, capitaliz...
Read more

BIGKIS (Neal Tan, 2014)

-
Image
As an advocacy film, BIGKIS (INTERTWINED) gets its message across. The state of maternal healthcare in the Philippines is downright depressing, with mothers seated on the floor of public hospitals due to shortage of beds, medical equipment and hospital staff. The baby better be gaping through the birth canal before the mother receives serious medical attention.  Such social issue has been featured countless times in local documentaries and even in a feature film (2011's BAHAY BATA), but BIGKIS pushes the envelope further by bridging a connection between mother and child by means of breastfeeding, and in doing so, promoting breastfeeding in the process.  As a drama, the film tends to squeeze too much tragedy from the downtrodden lives of its characters that a lot of the dialogue feels staged for us to feel sorry for their countless miseries. Mariel (LJ Reyes), a teenage mother deals with an unwanted pregnancy and worse, the abandonment of her baby's father (Pancho ...
Read more