The Angry Birds Movie

It's the game almost everyone's played in one form or another. And now, Angry Birds has its own movie, "creatively" titled The Angry Birds Movie. The end result is one of the better video game adaptations out there.

Red (Jason Sudekis) hates his life on Bird Island. And yet, he's a party clown. At least he was, until he botches a gig and gets sentenced to anger management class. The class is hosted by Matilda (Maya Rudolph) and attended by Chuck (Josh Gad), Bomb (Danny McBride) and Terence. Matilda's goody-goody attitude makes Red feel lousier.

A ship of green pigs drops anchor on Bird Island - specifically on Red's house. Their leader, Leonard, brings the birds good tidings and gifts, like a slingshot. But that doesn't make Red any happier. Red's distrust is confirmed when he discovers Leonard and the Pigs are after the Birds' precious eggs.

And so, Red and his flightless neighbors must aim and shoot at the Pigs to get them back. And thus, I have described the entire movie.

The best thing going for it is its artistry. The animation, character detail and scenery are pretty good. I didn't mind that the characters now have limbs; the birds are still unique and the pigs are still green. Chuck's speed effects were pretty fun. This was pretty artistic for a budget of around $75 million.

It's story isn't as jumbled as Ratchet & Clank', but there are some issues. The film's 97 minutes are slowly paced; the first two paragraphs of my summary are about the first hour of the film. Red has a legitimate grievance with the Pigs that no one cares about. Then Red turns into the Chicken Little who really saw the sky fall. The toilet humor wasn't something I cared for, especially since one gag was unreasonably stretched out. Fortunately, the climactic assault on the Pigs was the best part.

The voice cast makes the most of their characters. They make their characters all lovable, even the bad guys. Special mention goes to Terence, whose deep growls are by Sean Penn, whose casting might be the film's best surprise.

The search for the great video game movie continues. But for now, The Angry Birds Movie, adequately fits the niche for video game movies. It could have been better, but let's not imagine how it could get worse.