Angry Birds is now on DVD.

There may be no introduction needed for The Angry Birds Movie (2016, USA). It is based on a computer game.  You may know it.

This film adaptation has numbers of flightless birds on an isolated island. The central character is Red, who has ‘anger issues’. Also featured are Terrence, a huge bird who speaks mainly in growls, and Red’s ‘closest’ friends (at a juvenile level) Chuck and Bomb.

When green pigs come to the island by ship, Red and his friends do some investigating about what the pigs are about. They think they could be up to no good.

The story kicks in at this point—when mysterious pigs come to the island—but there are still gags and attempted gags aplenty.

The delivery is so loud and brisk, that Angry Birds is at risk of being overtaken by its own bombast, but we have come to expect this from some animations. Compare the Angry Birds and Finding Dory trailers and we’ll see the difference.

The first half is populated with jokes and a montage devoted to angry bird humor. Who else makes films about birds with chinks in their glory? Who has made films about birds going to anger management classes? And they mince it for much of its worth (though I have a feeling it could have been more).

My mind did wander in the middle section, which is what a film shouldn’t do to you, but I found myself reengaging even when I thought the grand finale smacks of a phony.

The angry birds

Red is angry though he is more grumpy at times. He has special skills, for snooping around and sensing a bad egg in the basket.

He is told by the magisterial judge Peckinpah to take anger management classes for an incident that caused him to fly off the handle when clowning for a birthday party.

There are plenty of anger management class jokes in the first half, as Red and fellow classers Bomb and Chuck rub the facilitator of the group up the wrong way. But there is a thematic side to it that comes through about loneliness, happiness and of course, anger. It is not the big thing in this movie, and may put you off if we’re dependent on skittish-jokes.

There is an underlying theme it seems. Red is also the kind of bird who needs others for his happiness, but is so often let down. When they don’t accept him, Red gets angry. Then we see an angry bird learn a lesson about what it takes to be a healthier, happy personage, I mean, bird. He won’t find that from others.

Angry Birds is now on DVD

Featuring voices of Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Sean Penn, Peter Dinklage; written by Jon Vitti