The Angry Birds take a flight of adorability with a slap-stick lesson in loving your enemies.
As game adaptations go, The Angry Birds Movie has to be up there with one of the most successful, so it’s not surprising these cutesy birds are back for another adventure. Having to set aside their differences the residents of Bird and Pig Island have to unite against a new enemy, a female scorned and fed-up.
Reluctantly living side by side, the residents of Bird and Pig Island are living a quiet life although still trying to rub each other up the wrong way. Once the outcast of his kind, Red (Jason Sudeikis) is now immortalised in the hearts of the birds and classed as the Island’s hero after defeating the Pig immigrants from the previous film. When a new threat in the form of a Zeta (Leslie Jones) begins her plan to take over both Island’s they find themselves working together in order to stop her bid for domination.
Despite Red’s newly found adoration of the birds around him, he is still full of insecurities of reverting back to the outcast he once was. So, when Silver (Rachel Bloom), a female bird with a scientific and methodical brain, becomes part of the gang, he ramps up his quest of dominance. The returning characters of Chuck (Josh Gad) and Bomb (Danny McBride) are ever loyal to the grumpy Red but this time around there is an adorable charm to their presence, whilst Peter Dinklage’s Eagle is just a big coward despite his bravado.
Gone are the obvious references to xenophobia that plagued the first, and filled with the more contemporary issues of showing female characters to be a little more complex than the token love interest – although that subject is never far away. As with Ice-Age, there is also a little side story involving three adorable chicks that have their own little adventure trying to save three unhatched eggs.
The sequel comes with the catering of slap-stick comedy, one that appeals to adults as well as kids. With references to the 90s’ via a flashback and a soundtrack made up of tracks ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and ‘Turn Down for What’, there is a little something for everyone to enjoy.
The Angry Birds Movie 2 is out in cinemas August 2nd
