Storks (2016)

In 2016, Nicholas Stoller (Get Him to the Greek & Neighbors) and Doug Sweetland (Presto) presented Storks, an animated film from Warner Bros. Animation Group (The Lego Movie). While it had a mixed critical reception, it's definitely a movie that typical movie-goers and families may find adorable and funny?

The main plot centers on a stork company that delivers packages and babies. When the top delivery stork, Junior, becomes boss of the workers, he is told to fire the only human working there, Orphan Tulip. Instead of firing her, he sends her to the defunct mail room. Meanwhile, the son of two workaholic parents, Nate Gardner, sends a letter to the company asking for a baby sibling to play with. When the letter arrives, it creates a baby, so now Junior and Tulip have to deliver the baby to it's guardians while going through many obstacles like avoiding getting noticed by the company's CEO Hunter, a pack of hysterical wolves, and trying to care for the baby itself.

In concept, the film has all the right ideas to make a charming comedy for the whole family, and it mostly succeeds in it's execution. Even though the journey Junior and Tulip go on feels similar to almost every Pixar film (e.g. Inside Out and Finding Nemo), the film gives the characters enough time to develop off each other, where they came from, and what each other's goals are, even if their quirky eccentric personalities don't always contrast that well. The subplot featuring Nate and his family, however, does come off as rather straightforward and it's easy to guess what will happen since all his goal is to have a baby sibling. It doesn't help that the movie itself does come with some tired film clichés, not just the duo who overcome each other on their obstacles, but also the workaholic parents who try to make their son happy, the big promotion from one job to another, the side villain finding out where the heroes are, and even how the main villain tries to get rid of the protagonists.

As for the rest of the characters, the CEO of the company Hunter at first comes off as a trustworthy boss, but there's quite a nerve he has with babies which presents him as threatening and cunning. The pigeon Toady can either be amusing or annoying with his exaggerated "bro" voice, but he's also a decent deuteragonist as he only follows his orders to make the most of his job. As stated before, the Gardner family have the same trope of the little kid who wants his busy parents to spend more time with him, so they decide to bond with him more to make him happy. And then there are the wolves led by the alpha and beta, who deliver the absolute funniest parts of the movie due to their personalities constantly shifting from menacing to energetically adoring the baby, as well as performing the best visual gags in the film.

However, if there are two things this movie really nailed in the execution, it would be the heart and the humor. The filmmakers definitely knew when to have cute sentimental moments with the baby, and they always come off as adorable instead of schmaltzy. Also, when the movie's main characters have their moments of relief and sentimentality, it gives the film a lighthearted tone that never comes out randomly, and portrays the scene with just the right emotion to make the audience feel for them. However, the humor would have to be the highlight of the movie, as there's plenty of one liners, visual gags, surprisingly decent pop culture jokes, slapstick, subversion and line deliver

Fmovies: I love this movie just happened to come across it by chance and ended up loving it! My 3 year old loves it and she also thinks it's funny. My husband and I laughed so much...we all quote it randomly and laugh. I can't believe ther reading isn't higher. So much better than some of the Disney movies I've seen that have gotten better reviews and shouldn't have. Seriously the comedy and sweet storyline are solid.

Storks tells the story of Junior(Andy Samberg), who is a stork. Storks used to deliver babies but, they stopped. Now, they deliver packages to various people around the world. However, an unfortunate mishap causes a baby to appear in the stork headquarters. Now, it is up to Junior with the help of the human girl Tulip(Katie Crown), to deliver the baby before any other stork finds out.

Storks is a brilliant film. Director Nicholas Stoller has successfully made the transition from hilarious adult comedies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall(2008) & Neighbors(2014), to equally funny family-oriented fare, like this movie. The animation is top notch. The 3D is immersive & has some duck-worthy moments. One minor flaw with this film is that, the humor is mainly slapstick-oriented. However, this is my personal opinion. Kids & their parents will thoroughly enjoy this film. The babies are the highlight of the movie. They are cuteness personified. The voice acting is flawless. Andy Samberg is outstanding as Junior. Katie Crown is spectacular as Tulip. Kelsey Grammar is mind blowing as Hunter. Jennifer Aniston is great as Sarah Gardner. Ty Burrell is amazing as Henry Gardner. Anton Starkman is awesome as Nate Gardner. Keegan Michael-Key is hysterical as Alpha Wolf. Jordan Peele is hilarious as Beta Wolf. Danny Trejo is excellent as Jasper. Stephen Kramer Glickman is unforgettable as Pigeon Toady. Storks is a must watch, particularly for families. Go, have a jolly good time!

Storks fmovies. I loved how the movie reflects family values. The problem of modern times is that we can fall into the trap of working for no purpose and all the time. This movie makes me appreciate the miracle of life. The wolves formation were really unbelievable but definitely entertaining :)

Storks wasn't specifically on my watch list. I had seen ads here and there, but it seemed to get overshadowed with the release of other movies. When i got the chance to watch it on a flight, i took it. Mostly because there was nothing else to watch. I ended up laughing out loud a couple of times and being charmed by some of the characters.

The movie was cute and a little awkward at times, and had a fun and not too serious premise. The awkwardness is especially what drew me in. This movie might not be for everyone, the comedy might be a bit too obvious and cringy, and kids might not understand the humor at times. I personally don't think those are bad things, since i enjoy that type of humor. The voice acting was okay. I mean Andy Samberg was Andy Samberg and Ty Burell was Ty Burell. I enjoy both actors very much, but it made it hard for me to get into their characters. Stephen Kramer Glickman, Kelsey Grammar and Danny Trejo were outstanding in their performance.

Overall this movie was a fun ride, and took me by surprise. I got a little lost in the storytelling sometimes, and wasn't sure what 'message' they were trying to convey. But overall it was enjoyable and cute, and not every movie needs a 'message'. I'm not sure if every kid will enjoy this movie, but i think adults who like awkward humor and great animation (I forgot to mention that) will enjoy this movie. This movie is definitely underrated and got drowned out by other (hyped) animated movies that got released around the same time.

7,5

Saw it on a long flight, had never even heard of this movie before despite us watching anime and cartoon regularly. What happened there WB?? So I ended up seeing it more by coincidence - the same as many other adults on the 5 hour flight. And the plane was full of laughter. One of the most absurd and hilarious movies I've seen in a long time. It is very fast paced, lots of word play and verbal humor, slightly evil in touching all kinds of topics from career-nuts adults, over-ambition and sacrificing it all, bullying, casual nastiness to people. Delivered by a fast-talking, bright, very cheeky teen girl with a big heart and a stork trying to keep up and sorting it all into his very structure perspective on life. Go watch it!