The New ‘Angry Birds’ Trailer Is Urine-Drinking Fun For the Whole Family
Even as video games go, the mobile app Angry Birds is pretty conceptually thin. There are birds. They are angry, ostensibly because green pigs have constructed elaborate castles all over their bird-world, and nobody likes developers. The birds live only to slingshot themselves at high speeds into said castles, destroying them and hopefully eliminating all pigs in the process. Like most iPhone games, it’s kinda fun, kinda infuriating, and mostly just a great way to keep your kid occupied for eight minutes while you grab a much-needed smoke break. Either way, when Sony Pictures revealed that they planned on expanding this barebones premise into ninety minutes of narrative film, the obvious question concerned the direction in which they could take this brand. Aside from birds, anger, and possibly slingshots, what could an Angry Birds movie really be about?
As the previously released teaser trailer suggests, there’s not a whole lot more to it than that. But today’s newly unveiled trailer gives audiences of eager children and fearful parents a clearer impression of what to expect from the film when it debuts on May 20. Jason Sudeikis takes the lead as Red, a bird who is angry, and red. He lives his furious bird life on an island populated by other flightless birds with varying degrees of anger, including his pals Bomb (who is voiced by Danny McBride, and is a bomb) and the less self-evidently-named Chuck (Josh Gad). When the literal imperialist pigs plant their flag on Flightless Bird Island, or whatever it’ll be called, it’s up to this scrappy group of pals to save the day and resolve their temper issues.
The cast list rolled out at the end of the trailer dazzles, and the roster of second-billing talent includes such fine performers as Tituss Burgess, Hannibal Buress, Ike Barinholtz, Jillian Bell, and Danielle Brooks, all of whom hopefully bought a lovely summer home with the checks they cashed off this gig. But strong cast notwithstanding, the trailer doesn't inspire too much confidence in the upcoming film. I'm referring specifically to the repulsive, neverending gag in which it’s revealed that Red’s bird pals unknowingly gargled with the urine of a massive eagle. Unless viewers leave the theater with a new appreciation of the intricacies of the cloaca-based avian excretory system, that’s probably something children were better off not seeing.