The Angry Birds Movie: Trailer Flies Online
It’s been quite some time since Rovio and John Cohen announced that they would be making The Angry Birds Movie. Back in 2012, the project was announced, after much speculation following the incredible success of six different versions of their mobile app game, including a crossover with Star Wars. Since then, Rovio has gone on to create an extra six versions including a second Star Wars crossover and a Transformers crossover. As of July 2015, there have been over 3 billion downloads of all editions of Angry Birds among all platforms and it is said to be “the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far”. So it seems only natural that a film would be coming along.
The film features the regular characters that you can play in the game but now we get to see them with a personality instead of just the little screams they make when they’re slung out the slingshot. And with those personalities comes voices! The film features a strong comical cast including Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader, Josh Gad, Keegan-Michael Key, Maya Rudolph, Danny McBride, Jillian Bell, Hannibal Buress, Danielle Brooks and Peter Dinklage. This is without a doubt one of the strongest comedic voice casts for an animated film in quite some time. And from what the trailer reveals – it works really well.
The film is being co-directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly whose filmographies speak for themselves. Kaytis has a strong background with Disney – Frozen, Tangled, Tarzan, Mulan, Pocahontas, Hercules, Chicken Little, the list goes on and on. Whilst Reilly has a strong background in Art Direction including but not limited to Hotel Transylvania, The Smurfs, Spider-Man 2, The Iron Giant, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and so on. So both directors come from a background in animation and art design which is one of the reasons the film is looking so good. As well as this, it’s script and story is in good hands with Jon Vitti’s writing. Vitti has an accomplished background in writing, particularly comedic writing with The Office, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Saturday Night Live and more filling up his résumé.
Rovio will really be banking on this film to bring in some strong revenue after recently cutting over 250 jobs however box office predictions are stating high numbers so far and Forbes magazine recently predicted that this film could become the game changing film of 2016. Stating that:
The successes of Batman v Superman, Captain America: Civil War, Independence Day: Resurgence, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will do little more than reaffirm the strength of the respective franchises and/or already established sub-genres in the blockbuster sandbox. But The Angry Birds Movie, if it becomes a big hit, has the potential to basically create a new subgenre from whole cloth.
As far as first trailers go, this looks really strong. Comedic, punchy, colourful and fun and avoids looking simply like a forced Hollywood adaptation and instead a witty, charming film. There is still some time to go before the films release. It won’t be heading to cinemas until May 2016 so expect more trailers and clips before then.