Columbia Pictures and Rovio Animation present The Angry Birds Movie, featuring the voices of Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, Sean Penn, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, with Bill Hader and Peter Dinklage, which is directed by Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis, produced by John Cohen and Catherine Winder. Executive Producers are Mikael Hed and David Maisel, screenplay by Jon Vitti, music by Heitor Pereira, and animation by Sony Pictures Imageworks. 

Why So Angry?

In December 2009, people around the world downloaded a game to their phones and started a phenomenon. Little green piggies had invaded, intent on stealing the eggs of some flightless birds – and these birds were… well, there’s only one word for it. How would you feel if someone came to your home and took your kids?

The most downloaded mobile game of all time – Angry Birds and their various editions have been downloaded over three billion times – comes to the big screen and moviegoers will finally learn how the Angry Birds got their name.

According to producer John Cohen (Despicable Me), the classic game was a great starting point for the movie the filmmakers wanted to make. “Inside the game’s core concept were the seeds of what we believed could grow into a fantastic animated comedy,” he says. “We had the chance to expand on the game characters, developing the birds into fully fleshed out characters with distinct personalities and fun, unique powers. But there’s also a strong, emotional idea at the center of the movie: at the heart of the games is a story of angry birds who have had their eggs – their children – taken by these green piggies. And the birds must launch a search-and-rescue operation to get their kids back.” 

Working with the Rovio team, the filmmakers developed and expanded the basic ideas from the game. In fact, Clay Kaytis, who directs the film with Fergal Reilly, says that the built-in audience of the game allowed them to subtly subvert audiences’ expectations.

So, out of the basic premise of the game, the filmmakers created a new story – a character-based comedy. “Red is certainly an angry bird, and Chuck and Bomb have their problems, but actually, they’re just a bunch of misfits,” says Reilly. “You really care about these guys – because not only do they have their own problems to deal with, but then they’re dealt the larger problem of the pigs. They have to save their civilization, even though they’re the most unlikely guys you could ever pick.”

As the characters took shape on the page, it came time for the filmmakers to cast the actors who would bring them to life.

“It’s a magical moment when you hear these actors for the first time in their characters,” says executive producer Mikael Hed. “That’s when the characters start to properly come to life. The actors inject part of their personality into the characters, and they become so much more real than they’ve ever been before that.”

The first conversations about turning Angry Birds into a movie began back in 2011 with Hed and David Maisel. Executive producer David Maisel, who had previously been the founder of Marvel Studios and an architect of its plans to begin a slate of movies including Iron Man, Thor and Captain America was looking for a new challenge.

Maisel contacted Mikael Hed, the founder of Rovio and now executive producer of the movie. “I got a phone call from Hollywood, asking whether they could create a movie around Angry Birds. And that was really the first time that it dawned on me that a movie could really actually happen. That was the starting shot for this adventure.” 

For these birds’ home, the goal once again was to build on the foundation of the game, to but to create a full, lush, visually rich environment, one that production designer Pete Oswald calls “stylized with a touch of realism” and, for fans of the game, “familiar, yet unexpected.” “We wanted to bring a new dimension to the world of Angry Birds – from the look of the film to the color to the textures to the animation, we could build on the story and the comedy that the writer laid down.”

Of course, the filmmakers built two major locations – the lush, organic world of Bird Island, and the off-kilter, teetering world of Pig Island. And into these worlds, the artists were able to let their comic imaginations fly. “There’s a ton of visual jokes,” says Oswald. 

About the Production

For the animation team at Sony Pictures Imageworks, the primary challenge was the immense scope of the film. In contrast to the game, famous for its graphic characters and simple backdrops, the filmmakers sought to design characters and a world that were rich in detail and worthy of a feature film.

The first challenge was to make the transition with the characters from the flat, graphic icons to fully formed characters that could be animated in three dimensions on the big screen. “The characters in the game are really simple. They don’t walk or talk. I had to bring some complexity to these characters, so they could live up on the screen,” says character art director Francesca Natale, who designed most of the major characters. “The goal was to find a character that could be complex enough to perform for the film but still feel recognizable for the audience and three billion fans.”

Red, naturally, is a good example of a character who had to make the transition.  Even before a computer model could be built, Natale did 100 possible designs for Red with ink and paint. “We had so much to figure out – at the beginning, it was whether the birds should look like real birds or if they should have a more anthropomorphic feel. The first drawings were very far from where we ended up.  But you never want to limit or censor yourself – it could happen that during the process you’ll find things that you’d never have thought about before on purpose.” 

In the end, it was determined that Red (and the other characters) would indeed be more anthropomorphic than looking like real birds. “We found a design of a bird-like creature, with the feeling of a bird,” explains Natale. “The stance, the acting, and the look of the character all look anthropomorphic. Similarly, they don’t have actual wings, instead, they have arms that have the feel and look of wings in the silhouette and shape.”

About the Music

In addition to the hilarious performances by some of the biggest names in comedy, The Angry Birds Movie is loaded with fun, original musical performances to the film.

Country superstar Blake Shelton not only co-wrote and performs the original song “Friends,” but also voices a role in the movie, as Earl, a cowboy pig. 

Shelton says that when he was approached to do the song, he was excited by the challenge of writing for a film – something he’s never done before.

“One of the very first things John was able to show me was his idea of what my character would look like, and I was pretty much hooked from that point on,” Shelton continues. “Here’s this fat green pig that had on chaps, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat. But the thing that sealed the deal for me was that they had put in my tattoo on this pig – but they had taken the time to replace the deer tracks with bird tracks.  They put a lot of thought into it.”

“Blake Shelton’s song ‘Friends’ has two very important meanings,” says Cohen. “Of course, it’s the song that the pigs sing to the birds when they show up on their island and try to lull the birds into trusting them and being their friends. But more importantly, it beautifully sums up the central relationship of this entire movie – chronicling the unlikely friendship that develops between Red, Chuck and Bomb.  It’s extraordinary that Blake and Jessi were able to write lyrics that so perfectly serve both the immediate and larger story of the film, and it is also just a fantastic song!" 

Pop star Charli XCX joins in with “Explode,” electro house musician Steve Aoki provides the new track for a rave scene, Matoma’s “Wonderful Life” is featured, and the audience will get up and dance as Demi Lovato brings down the house with her brand new rendition of the classic “I Will Survive.” “Demi Lovato’s brand-new rendition of the classic ‘I Will Survive’ is so fantastic,” says Cohen. “She’s managed to reinvent the song while also honoring and paying tribute to the original.”

Synopsis

In the 3D animated comedy, The Angry Birds Movie, we'll finally find out why the birds are so angry.

The movie takes us to an island populated entirely by happy, flightless birds – or almost entirely.  In this paradise, Red (Jason Sudeikis, We're the Millers, Horrible Bosses), a bird with a temper problem, speedy Chuck (Josh Gad in his first animated role since Frozen), and the volatile Bomb (Danny McBride, This is the End, Eastbound and Down) have always been outsiders.  But when the island is visited by mysterious green piggies, it’s up to these unlikely outcasts to figure out what the pigs are up to. 

Featuring a hilarious, all-star voice cast that includes Bill Hader (Trainwreck, Inside Out), Maya Rudolph (Bridesmaids), and Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), as well as Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele), Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live, next year's Ghostbusters), Tony Hale (Veep, Arrested Development), Ike Barinholtz (The Mindy Project, Neighbors), Hannibal Buress (Broad City, Why? With Hannibal Buress), Jillian Bell (22 Jump Street), Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black), Latin music sensation Romeo Santos, and YouTube stars Smosh (Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla), the Columbia Pictures/Rovio Entertainment film is directed by Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis and produced by John Cohen and Catherine Winder.  The screenplay is by Jon Vitti, and the film is executive produced by Mikael Hed and David Maisel.

The Angry Birds Movie

Directed By: Fergal Reilly, Clay Kaytis

Produced By: John Cohen, Catherine Winder

Screenplay By: Jon Vitti

Dubbing Cast(English): Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Keegan-Michael Key, Tony Hale, Ike Barinholtz, Hannibal Buress, Jillian Bell, Danielle Brooks, Romeo Santos, Smosh (Ian Andrew Hecox & Anthony Padilla)

Dubbing Cast(Cantonese): Louis Cheung, Pakho Chau, Stephy Tang, Tyson Chak

Genre: Animation, Comedy

Language: English

Running Time: 97 min

Rating: I

Trailer Link: http://youtu.be/lL14lcPR5TI