THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE
Directors: Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly
Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Sean Penn, Keegan-Michael Key, Peter Dinklage, Billy Eichner, Tony Hale
Rating: (PG)
Two stars (out of five)
For some reason, someone decided that a phone app game would make the perfect jump-off point for an animated children's movie.
So here it is, The Angry Bird Movie, something that is essentially pointless unless you have a miniature human to keep occupied.
In fact, the birds on Bird Island are not angry at all.
Life is sweet on the predator-free island, although, as with all animations, the birds are oddly organised into a child-friendly American middle-class suburb.
Among all the brightly coloured happy birds there is one malcontent, Red (Jason Sudeikis), who finds everyone else's perkiness extremely annoying.
One day Red goes too far and is sentenced to anger management classes.
The classes are very new age and Red hates them, but he meets other birds who also do not fit in.
The game changer for the birds is when a ship sails over the horizon carrying green pigs.
The Chef Pig (Billy Eichner) talks of extending the hand of friendship to the birds and they believe him but Red is not so sure.
The arrival of the pigs also perks the film up.
The pigs are a not-so-subtle rip-off of the Minions, everyone's favourite anarchic creatures, and for me, most of this film's laughs were contained in watching the not-that-bright junior pigs carry out the Chef Pig's fiendish scheme.
- Christine Powley
