The Angry Birds Movie

On a cellphone or a tablet, Angry Birds is more addictive than most opioids. Every time a game ends, the defiant grunting from the pigs who've stolen eggs from flightless birds beckons a player to try again.

Having lost hours of my life to the game, I'm almost happy to report that the new feature-length cartoon based on it, The Angry Birds Movie, is not so habit-forming.

Unfortunately, this iPhone game crosses over to the big screen with all the creativity of its title. Neither animation veterans Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly, making their directorial debuts, nor writer Jon Vitti seems to have any idea how to flesh out the characters beyond the way they appear and act in the game. They look and move in ways similar to the way they do as they're being flung from slingshots, but even with different colors and sizes it's difficult to tell them apart.

A formidable cast picks up some quick paychecks providing voices, but none leaves much of an impression. If you have to wait for the credits to find out that Sean Penn provided the voice for one of the birds, perhaps a lesser known actor who didn't have two Oscars or an interview with El Chapo might have played the role just as well or better. (For those of you who are curious, Penn provides the voice of Terence, whom you won't be able to distinguish from any of the other flightless avian creatures who are the only occupants of a remote tropical island.)

These birds don't fly and haven't had any need to because the island is well populated but easily supports all of its residents. They can be forgiven if they think that the beaches around the atoll are the edge of the earth.

For much of The Angry Birds Movie, there is curiously only one bird who's even remotely cranky, and that's Red (Jason Sudeikis). Having been taunted for his large eyebrows, Red frequently loses his temper when things don't go his way. That means he has outbursts every few hours.

When one of his tantrums lands him in a group therapy session, Red meets some new feathered acquaintances named Chuck (Josh Gad), Bomb (Danny McBride) and Stella (Kate McKinnon). Chuck runs quickly, Bomb explodes and lives and Stella is female.

That's about all that Vitti seems to have devoted to character development, and he takes seemingly forever to introduce the film's porcine antagonists.

By the time we're introduced to Leonard (Bill Hader), the king of the pigs, we already know he's a duplicitous fellow with ill intent, so there isn't much in the way of surprise, even if you've never played the game.

While the island the pigs and the birds live on is nicely realized, the entire film is permeated with a sense of laziness. There's a surplus of avian puns, and no bodily function seems to be ignored. Thanks to The Angry Birds Movie, we no longer have to wonder if birds can produce phlegm. We even encounter a major character, Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage), while he's relieving his obviously taxed bladder. Yes, kids love the idea of animals sharing the same digestive functions as humans, but they also love movies such as Inside Out, which challenge them and their parents to appreciate more imaginative and better conceived humor.

Actually, Mighty Eagle, in part thanks to Dinklage, is the only character who has anything resembling a personality. He's a self-obsessed twerp, but the filmmakers have clearly devoted more care to him than the birds who frequent the game.

MovieStyle on 05/20/2016