McCoy on Movies: Angry Birds 2

THE BACK STORY: Following the events of the first movie, Angry Birds 2 once again stars the voice of Jason Sudeikis as Red, the town outcast turned hero when he – along with help from Chuck (Josh Gad), Bomb (Danny McBride) and Terence (Nolan North) – ended up saving Bird Island from the green pig egg-stealing invasion led by Leonard (Bill Hader). Now happily enjoying his role as the leader of the island, Red is enjoying life with little anger these days …

And that’s when Leonard returns to inform him of a third island where Zeta (Leslie Jones), the leader of the eagles, is plotting to take out both of their homes.

Being forced to work with Leonard – as well his assistant Courtney (Awkwafina) and his tech pig Garry (Sterling K. Brown) – would be bad enough for Red, but add Bird Island’s own Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage) and Chuck’s whiz kid sister Silver (Rachel Bloom) to the mix and you’ve got everything you need to make Red one very angry bird. Again. 

THE REVIEW: In a world where superhero movies have gone from pitiful to (usually) fantastic, the original Angry Birds movie was an OK adaptation of a video game to animated big screen adventure. It established the worlds of its pixelated counterparts where a story could be told, delivered enough family-friendly adventure and set the stage for future iterations of the franchise if it did well. Well, it obviously did well enough to result in The Angry Birds Movie 2, which for many people would seem to be easily dismissible as another unnecessary sequel probably best saved for little kids or anyone who really liked the first movie or the mobile game it was inspired by … And if you are in the former camp more than the latter, you’d likely be forgiven for your decision to ignore adding no. 2 to your watchlist.Once you see it, however, you’ll likely be pleasantly surprised to learn that Angry Birds 2 is a throwback to the days when Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs dominated 90s animated programming – for this Looney Tunes on acid affair features enough entertainment to make even the angriest movie goer laugh repeatedly.

Angry Birds 2 is one of those movies where everything nuance and detail clicks; whereas the first movie felt a little predictable and more about telling the story, Angry Birds 2 finds its vocal actors injecting each character with distinct personality, playing well off each other and walking the line between “did they just say that in a kids’ movie?!” to the point adults where the film feels entertaining enough for kids, but really made for adults. Jones shines as Zeta, delivering in your face quips that strike a good balance between traditionally cartoon silly and effective with the rest of the cast following suit as well. Director Thurop Van Orman keeps things moving along quite efficiently, his storyboards coming to life in a fashion where each scene feels like its own Saturday Night Live sketch in the frame of one giant story. Then again, that should come as no surprise given all the SNL alumni in the cast; whoever picked the film’s musical soundtrack should win some sort of award (or at least be given a bonus) as each song is placed in perfect accordance with the scenes, setting moods and/or enhancing jokes.

Throw in the Despicable Me/Minions-like B story involving the Hatchlings from the first film and one of them’s desperate, almost like Scrat in the Ice Age franchise-like pursuit to retrieve their baby sisters and you have a near perfect balance of entertainment for those 8 to 12 years old with those 18 and older. It all helps make Angry Birds 2 the funniest animated movie thus far in 2019 and one of the more entertaining to boot.

Just don’t get angry at anyone but yourself if you choose to skip it in favor of that app you keep playing with on your smartphone instead.

OVERALL RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):