Free Birds

Well, as we gear up for the holiday movie season, we have the first animated film in the offing. As we're approaching Thanksgiving all too soon, what a better animated flick to present than that of "Free Birds". Not to worry--there is also "Frozen" and "Walking with Dinosaurs" in 3D in December to help entertain us through the rest of the year.

In this irreverent, pretty funny, adventurous buddy comedy for most ages, two turkeys, Reggie and Jake (Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson) from opposite sides of the tracks must put aside their differences and team up to travel back in time to 1621 to change the course of history--and get turkey off the holiday menu for good.
After a government experiment of developing a time machine goes awry, Reggie and Jake decide, at the last moment, to board the time machine and instruct S.T.E.V.E. (George Takei), the machine on-board computer, to take them to the first Thanksgiving. Once they reach their destination, they meet Ranger (Jimmy Hayward) and his sister, Jenny (Amy Poehler)--two turkeys of 1621, and try to convey to them the urgency of their visit. Can they convince the turkeys of that time period in order to save all turkeys in history?

Others to round out the cast are Colm Meaney as Myles Standish, Keith David as Chief Broadbeak, leader of the turkeys, Dan Folger as Governor Bradford, Jimmy Hayward as Leatherbeak/President/Hazmats, Kaitlyn Maher as President's Daughter, Carlos Alaraqui as Amos, Jeff Biancalana as General Sagan/Hazmats, Danny Carey as Danny, Carlos Ponce as Narrator/Alejandro, Robert Beltran as Chief Massasoit, and Lesley Nicol as Pilgrim Woman.

Considering his small amount of directing experience, this was helmed very effectively by Jimmy Hayward ("Horton Hears a Who!" '08, "Jonah Hex" '10). He has a good deal of experience in the animation field, so it's not tough to believe that this guy couldn't pull this off. Unfortunately, the culprit here is the writing by Hayward and Scott Mosier, which is based on a story by David I. Stern and John J. Strauss. On the most part, the script is written for kids and adults alike, then, all of a sudden, it starts sounding hokey and corny and veering from a script that most adults would have trouble with. Hey, I get it--this is a kid film, but since it started with writing geared toward all, why would it resort to sounding like a kid would only appreciate it? But, where the script may slip, the animation by Reel FX made up for any other discrepancies in plot and script.

This is clearly a kid/family film which clearly we need more of. It's just too bad that the film couldn't have made that more clear as we are viewing it.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                          Rated: PG                           91mins.