CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 10: Singer Timur Rodriguez, actor Omar Sy, producer John Cohen, actors Josh Gad, Maccio Capatonda and TV presenter Raya Abirached attend 'The Angry Birds Movie' Photocall during the annual 69th Cannes Film Festival at JW Marriott on May 10, 2016 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Luca Teuchmann/Getty Images)

By Bill Wine

KYW Newsradio 1060

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — It began as a video game and became a smartphone app and now it’s a movie.

If that doesn’t sound like a red flag being flown, it should.

But the big-screen spinoff, The Angry Birds Movie, turns out to be audience-friendly animated entertainment, brimming with snickery sarcasm and funny one-liners, that focuses on a population of birds.

Happy, flightless, colorful birds.

So, given the title, why are these birds angry, you might ask. Because the’re angry birds, that’s why, you might answer.

And just as that explanation would get by with a nine-year-old, it’s good enough for me as well. Besides, that’s all the movie offers.

These birds populate the peaceful Bird Island, which stops feeling peaceful when it is suddenly, for some reason, visited – that is, invaded – by boatloads of green piggies who have come from neighboring Piggy Island.

Which means it’s more or less up to three outcasts – Red, voiced by Jason Sudeikis, the one raging bird who isn’t happy; speed-freak Chuck, voice compliments of Josh Gad; and bombastic Bomb, sounding a lot like Danny McBride – to figure out just what the piggies’ dastardly hidden agenda is and what they are up to.

With grumpy Red’s problems controlling his temper, Chuck’s super-speedy-hither-and-thither behavior, and short-fused Bomb’s tendency to live down to his name – remember, this furious threesome meet at an anger management class — these are the unlikeliest of heroes.

And yet here they are coming to the rescue.

Their first task is to recruit the reluctant Mighty Eagle, voiced by Peter Dinklage, the only feathered friend on the island with the gift of flight, to join them in their effort.

And they’ll need his airborne help if they are to find their way off their island and all the way to the pigs’ home so they can carry out their desperate plan.

Debuting directors Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly, working from a flimsy-premised script by Jon Vitti (who has written for television comedy series including The Simpsons and The Office), don’t have much to work with in the way of narrative. So, yes, the film does feel padded out and, no, the animation isn’t particularly engaging even if it is comfortably watchable.

The directors have dutifully included elements from the smartphone app – for example, a slingshot and some eggs — to satisfy any surface expectations of game addicts in attendance.

But, in this case, vibrant colors, brisk pacing, and a peppy, wacky sense of humor do the trick, with Looney Tunes-ish sight gags always at the ready and puns that the little ones won’t catch that sit there for the grownups in attendance like so much tasty, low-hanging fruit.

This translates into upbeat, silly fun, a pleasurable distraction for the target audience of youngsters and oldsters accompanying youngsters.

The makers receive plenty of help from a game, enthused comedy cast that includes Kate McKinnon, Bill Hader, Sean Penn – yep, Sean Penn; can you believe it? – Keegan-Michael Key, Maya Rudolph, Tony Hale, and Titus Burgess. And there are some big laughs to be had.

The film even manages – as the time flies by even if the birds don’t — to embed an agreeable and familiar-in-kidflicks message about the importance of family and friendship, as well as the much less familiar kidflick message regarding the occasional usefulness of anger.

So we’ll exceed eggs-pectations with 2-1/2 stars out of 4. The sluggish plot may be for the birds, but the zippy and trippy The Angry Birds Movie takes comedic wing anyway.

More Bill Wine Movie Reviews

CBS Philly Entertainment News

Area Movie Events