Remember when the Angry Birds were everywhere? That was about six years ago. Well, those times are coming again, as mobile gaming smash Angry Birds is hitting cinemas with an all-star cast to back it up.
Prepare yourself with our three-minute primer, no-bird-puns guaranteed.
Jason Sudeikis poses with Red at the premiere of The Angry Birds Movie in Los Angeles. Photo: Reuters
Who’s in it and what’s it about
Leaning heavily on comedy talent for its US voice cast, The Angry Birds Movie is led by Jason Sudeikis of 30 Rock, Horrible Bosses, and The Cleveland Show, who becomes plump Angry Birds mascot Red.
It’s Red who tells the story of how he learned to deal with anger and frustration, along with classmates Chuck (Josh Gad of Pixels and Frozen), Bomb (Danny McBride, of Eastbound And Down like Sudeikis), and Terence (the award-winning Sean Penn), with the no-longer-angry Matilda (Maya Rudolph of Bridesmaids and Big Hero 6) as their teacher.
For when unexpected piggy visitors arrive on the birds’ island, Red thinks they’re up to no good, and decides to find out what’s really going on.
The cast list extends to include Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele, Keanu), Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live, The Awesomes), Peter Dinklage (Game Of Thrones), Tony Hale (Veep), Titus Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and the two hosts of YouTube channel Smosh.
Who’s behind it
Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly may be making their directorial debuts, but both are well experienced Kaytis comes from animation on Disney’s Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph, Tangled and more, with Reilly a storyboard artist on Hotel Transylvania, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, The Iron Giant and even Space Jam.
Writer Jon Votti has worked on everything from The Simpsons and Alvin And The Chipmunks to Saturday Night Live and Da Ali G Show.
Is it any good
While it’s not exactly on the same skyscraping level as Disney’s Zootopia, Angry Birds is turning out decently enough according to Rotten Tomatoes’ 50% approval rating and Metacritic’s 49% average score, with 258 IMDb users giving it a 6.6/10 average rating as of May 10. – AFP Relaxnews
