The Angry Birds Movie

Having never played the app/game, it was going to be interesting to see whether 'The Angry Birds Movie' was going to make something interesting out of it and how it was going to be succeed.

'The Angry Birds Movie' is not perfect, but this reviewer was really surprised at how much she enjoyed it. There are better animated films out there and there were better released this year (i.e. 'Zootropolis' aka 'Zootopia' in some places), but also far worse on both counts. From the two animated films seen recently at the cinema, 'The Angry Birds Movie' is the superior film of the two. The other was 'Ratchet & Clank', which is not as bad as critics made out (personal opinion of course) and could have been much worse considering video game adaptations' dubious track record, but also had too many flaws to be considered a good film.

Getting the flaws out of the way, the story in 'The Angry Birds Movie' is somewhat flimsy and has a tendency to be thin on the ground with a couple of unnecessary parts and parts that don't really go anywhere. It does occasionally feel rushed too, and while the film entertains hugely a vast majority of the time there are a couple of gags that misfire. This is especially true with the quite tasteless, awkwardly placed and too overlong urination gag, that was also really quite out of place.

However, the animation in 'The Angry Birds Movie' is great. The colours are sumptuous and brightly vibrant, the characters are well-modelled and never look stiff or ugly and there are some very colourful and meticulously detailed backgrounds. There are also some very imaginative visuals in the action sequences. The music never makes the mistake of being stylistically jarring or over-bearing, and has a lot of infectious personality and energetic verve.

While not hilarious as such and unashamedly but endearingly silly, the script has some very funny moments, is tonally balanced with very little that's inappropriate or distasteful, is solidly balanced without being disjointed or muddled and there are some clever and witty lines. The action sequences are beautifully animated and thrilling, the message is a great one, gives the film a surprisingly emotional core without being over-sentimental or preachy and the climax is quite the knockout and the highlight of the film.

'The Angry Birds Movie's colourful characters carry the film beautifully, with a protagonist that is easy to relate to and Mighty Eagle despite being a marmite character is great fun. The villains do pose a reasonable threat though are not particularly interesting. The voice acting, including actors who you wouldn't expect to work as well as they did in voice acting, is excellent, with the best contribution coming from Peter Dinklage.

All in all, surprisingly very entertaining and much better than it had a right to see considering what it was based on. 7/10 Bethany Cox