Free Birds (2013)

Free Birds is not really a good or great film, nor is it terrible. If there was a word to sum it up it would be mediocre. Is it the worst animated film of the year? No, that dishonour goes to Sir Billi(which was billed as Sean Connery's comeback!). Is it the best? Again, no, that's so far been between Monsters University and Despicable Me 2(have high hopes for Frozen, and that is looking like that will be even better than these two). Free Birds does have a few things that came off well. The animation has some nice bright colours and attention to detail(though the character designs could have been smoother in places), the soundtrack is catchy, the scene with the hunters destroying the turkey's nest is indeed tense and the voice acting has the right amount of zest and energy, Woody Harrelson is almost unrecognisable and is clearly having fun, Amy Poehler should do voice acting more often because she is born to do it and Owen Wilson brings some distinctive quirkiness as well(if at times on the one-note side). George Takei while bringing dignity to his part is very underused though, and it does feel like a waste. There are a lot of flaws as well unfortunately. The script lacks crispness and wit and has an overkill of turkey jokes that are both contrived and dumb, some gags are stretched out to pointlessness while the slapstick is heavy on predictability and over-broadness and light on fun and invention.

With the target audience too, children may enjoy it if they understand the humour but it is likely to go over the heads of adults. If that is the case, considering that Free Birds is a family film(NOT a kids' film) the film only does half its job well, if children are not amused it's a failure. Where I was, the reception from both children and adults were largely the latter, but then again it will be different with you. The story is well-intended but is far too simple- even for a family film- and predictable, while it also doesn't do anything with the time travel idea(which had great potential) that comes at the expense of the humour, which very little hits the mark really. The message is good if clumsily and heavy-handedly incorporated(likewise with the few emotional parts that were more manipulative than heartfelt), and there's no better about the characters unfortunately who suffer from flat personalities(some like Jake irritating too) and dealt with far too simplistically to the extent we know little about them. Non-US viewers may also find that because the film is so rooted in American customs and their early history that that is a further reason why the humour is likely to be lost on them. In conclusion, the potential and intentions are there, and it is not as bad as others have said- because the animation, music and voices are good and one scene came off well- but it was lacking in a lot of areas- mostly the humour and the story- and had a lot of wasted potential(doing little with the time travel idea and under-using George Takei). Despite how this sounds, it isn't terrible but rather mediocre, and this is not being said with vehemence but with a heavy heart from a 21-year old animation fan(to avoid over-generalising that defending of panned family films are prone to). 4/10 Bethany Cox

Fmovies: Bear in mind, I am writing this from the perspective of a parent who just shelled out for kids tickets, my ticket, concession stand, and it wasn't cheap, and then to have this movie be SO awful and SO boring (yes, my kids called it boring!), well, I am very disappointed.

All of the funny-seeming parts were in the trailer, and when you see them in the context of the movie they aren't very funny either. I was in a packed theater and there was hardly any laughing going on at all - that is a very bad thing. Laughter is contagious, but not in this film!

The voice acting was average at best, although Owen Wilson was good, but one turkey cannot carry an entire movie, especially when the plot was so lame.

The animation itself was OK, but without a decent story and characterizations, a movie is going to fail, and this one did big time! We didn't expect factually accurate obviously, you'd have to be crazy to think it was, but we were hoping the humans wouldn't be portrayed as either total morons OR really evil and vicious. Pixar doesn't show humans that way in Toy Story, neither did Turbo or Despicable Me 2.

This movie is a definitely wait for it in Redbox etc, or even wait for it to come on TV. If you have 2 kids or more, you're going to be paying out a lot of cash for a trip to the movies to see this and you will be horribly disappointed.

Highlight of the movie was the trailers BEFORE the movie - which showed us a couple of upcoming animated movies that might actually be good.

The one thing I will say for the movie is they had great marketing - they suckered us in on election day in VA when we had nothing better to do, but let this review be your warning, go see SOMETHING ELSE!

I was not expecting great things from this movie but I was pleasantly surprised. It was actually quite hilarious, lame but laugh out loud funny. The jokes were on point the whole way through and it was adult funny not just kid funny.

Honestly if you can't relax and just enjoy a movie then give this one a miss and if you regularly use words like cinematography in your reviews then get over yourself nobody wants to hear your review as you shouldn't have watched this movie to begin with. Stop trying to drag ratings down for a harmless animated children's film. Back to the movie...

Free Birds has all the same concepts as your typical feel-good movie but who's ever seen a movie about a Thanksgiving turkey. It's certainly a new one for me. And shout out to the baby turkeys, they were adorable. The whole way through I was rooting for the turkeys to succeed even though they're completely delicious. But I guess you'll just have to watch to see what happens.

Free Birds fmovies. 1st watched 11/23/2013 – 8 out of 10(Dir-Jimmy Hayward): Hilarious & inventive animated movie about two turkeys who go back in time to try to change the fate of future turkey's ending up on the dinner table during this festive time of year. The writing in this comedic tale is spot on -- while the voice performances and animation are very well done. The only downside to the movie, in my opinion, is the lack of inclusion of the song Free Bird…but seriously this was a laugh-out-loud movie that really only slows down during an attempt to throw in some romance. Owen Wilson is the voice of the one-of-the-kind turkey in a stupid current flock as the only one who knows they are getting fattened up to enter their death. The president pardons him from being the main course on Thanksgiving and he is living the good life until he runs into a wild turkey searching out a time machine to turn things around for his kind. Woody Harrelson is the voice of the wild one and the time machine, "Steve", leads them back to before the first Thanksgiving. There is some amazing and hilarious animation done between Woody's character and the leader of the pack in the old world when they try to outdo each other in a macho contest. I was wildly surprised with this movie with it's lame idea but the humor and pacing was great --- the turkey love part was a little much – but other than that this animated movie was excellent. If you are looking for a satisfying and fun time at the movies where you and the kids can enjoy it at the same time see this movie!!

Sorry this is a film that doesn't deserve the bad reviews it got because if you cant find this film funny you are miserable as hell with no sense of humor because this is a extremely funny with slap stick humor, compared to most animated film this is so worth watching.

The writing in this comedic tale is spot on with the humor -- while the voice performances and animation are brilliantly done. The only downside to the movie, is the lack of inclusion of the song's that normal come in to animated film'sÂ…but seriously this was a laugh-out-loud movie that really only slows down during an attempt to throw in some romance. There is some amazing and hilarious animation done between Woody's voice acting for the character Jake

and the leader of the pack Chief Broadbeak voiced by Keith David in the old world when they try to out do each other in a macho contest, with some hilarious outrageous laugh out loud moments.

Owen Wilson voices of Reggie, the only sain turkey among a dumb pack of turkeys was brilliant to show a unsung hero of the bird world, i like that they gave his character that romance element as well which was funny with Jenny voiced by Amy Poehler, who his character just acts like a love sick puppy but it just brilliant done. Through this whole film you just find yourself laugh because the level of the slap stick humor you just cant help but laugh your head off, i really don't know why some people can find this film funny, because I've never laugh so hard in my life at an animated film, special even more so with the angry birds reference, it just a classic animated film that all the family will love, you just cant go wrong with this animated film chicken run was good, just turkeys do it better.

My kids and I loved this movie, so I was surprised to see the low rating on IMDb. The negative comments seem to center on three things:

(1) "Cultural insensitivity," chiefly for portraying 17th century turkeys like Indians. I don't get this one. They are put in opposition to pilgrims, who are trying to eat them, and the Indian association seems natural. (2) A "vegetarian" message. I am relatively sensitive to such message (e.g., I thought it was rather heavy-handed in "Jurassic Park"), so I can say that there simply isn't one here. It's about turkeys trying not to get eaten, not that people should never eat meat. (3) "disregard for time-travel paradoxes" (quoting from Wikipedia here). It's a movie about talking turkeys, and this guy is bothered by inconsistencies in time travel? If this bothers you, it's time to take off the bow tie and unfasten the suspenders, you need to loosen up.

Okay, the plot is not great, and there really isn't a message (at least not much of one). The joy of this movie and others of its ilk is in the presentation. There are a lot of funny lines, and the animation is amazing. I love seeing how cartoonists can elicit the most focused emotions simply by depicting a turkey's face.

If you are looking for a deep movie, this one is probably not for you. If you are looking for a great way to spend 90 minutes, you will enjoy this one.