Free Bird (2013)
Director : Jimmy Hayward
Writers : Jimmy Hayward, Scott Mosier, David I. Stern, John J. Strauss
Stars : Woody Harrelson , Owen Wilson , Dan Fogler
Release Date : 01 November 2013
Two turkeys from opposite sides of the tracks must put aside their differences and team up to travel back in time to change the course of history - and get turkey off the holiday menu for good.
movie Reviews :
Owen Wilson lends his voice to Reggie, a purple-plumed, free-range turkey who is smart, skinny and self-serving. The casting director should be commended for uniting Mr. Wilson with Woody Harrelson in an animated buddy comedy. Yet, while Mr. Harrelson is successful precisely because he disappears into the role of the dimwitted and fearless turkey, named Jake, Mr. Wilson plays a stifled caricature of his persona from his live-action films. The script even recycles a joke from his role in“Zoolander.” And worse, little else in the film is funny.
The plot follows the turkeys as they travel back in time to alter the first Thanksgiving menu. It is, quite accurately, I think, as if someone said, “Let’s make ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ starring turkeys!” Some of the same visuals and plot points from that 1980s classic are copied here, without any of its inventiveness and singular tone. It takes a certain brilliance to do dumb well, but the makers of “Free Birds” have not displayed this quality.
Instead, the film is stuffed with violence. Some children may be frightened by scenes involving horror-style attack dogs, relentless fighting and even the love interest’s lazy eye. Most disappointing is that the 3-D animation is smooth but visually uninteresting in this first feature from Reel FX, an animation studio with a track record in commercials.
The movie’s pro-vegetarian, pro-fast-food message is nutritionally dubious — and notably sponsored by Chuck E. Cheese’s. (This might be a good occasion to explain to your child what “product placement” means.) The movie subversively suggests not only that we should avoid the traditional foods at Thanksgiving, but also that we should have that meal delivered. Never has a holiday film seemed to hate the values of the event it’s celebrating so much. In the end, as after a junk food binge, “Free Birds” is likely to leave audiences fuzzy-headed and vaguely nauseated instead of nourished and satisfied.
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