The Angry Birds Movie, also known as Angry Birds, is a 2016 animated comedy film based on the Angry Birds video game series. It was directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly, written by Jon Vitti, and stars the voices of Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, Sean Penn, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Bill Hader, and Peter Dinklage. The film follows Red (Sudeikis), an outcast on an island of flightless birds, who suspects a newly-arrived crew of green pigs of plotting an evil plan, and attempts to stop them with the help of his newfound friends Chuck (Gad) and Bomb (McBride).
After having received offers from Hollywood studios since 2010, franchise owner Rovio Entertainment announced an Angry Birds film adaptation in 2012. In 2013, Sony Pictures won the distribution rights in an auction. Rovio produced and funded the film themselves while Sony Pictures Imageworks provided animation. The Angry Birds Movie is the most expensive Finnish film, as roughly $400million was spent on the marketing and distribution on top of the $73million production budget. To promote the film, Rovio collaborated with numerous brands and released the mobile game Angry Birds Action! as a tie-in.
The Angry Birds Movie premiered at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles on May 7, 2016, and was released in the United States on May 20, 2016, by Sony Pictures Releasing through its Columbia Pictures label. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $352million, becoming the second highest-grossing film based on a video game and the highest-grossing Finnish film of all time. It was followed by two sequels: The Angry Birds Movie 2 in 2019 and The Angry Birds Movie 3 in 2026.
Plot
Red, a bird with a short temper, is an outcast who lives on the outskirts of Bird Island, an island inhabited by flightless birds unaware of other islands. When a bird family berates Red for delivering their son's hatchday cake late, Red snaps at the father, resulting in Red accidentally prematurely hatching their baby. Red similarly argues with Judge Peckinpah at his hearing and is sentenced to anger management class, taught by reformed anger convict Matilda. Red meets his classmates: Chuck, a hyperactive speedster; Bomb, who detonates uncontrollably; and Terence, a threatening, gargantuan bird who only communicates in grunts. Chuck and Bomb try to befriend Red, but he avoids them.
The following day, a boat docks at the island's shore, damaging Red's house. The birds greet two green pigs, the captain Leonard and his assistant Ross, who claim to be peaceful explorers offering friendship. They introduce the birds to various innovations, including a giant slingshot, but Red becomes suspicious of the pigs' motives and sneaks onto Leonard's boat. Chuck and Bomb follow Red, and they find more pigs hidden below deck, contradicting Leonard's claim that he and Ross are alone. When Red returns to expose Leonard, everyone accepts Leonard's explanation that he only lied to see if Bird Island was safe for his simple-minded cousins.
Still suspicious of the pigs, Red recruits Chuck and Bomb to find Mighty Eagle, Bird Island's missing protector and the only bird who can fly. They find Mighty Eagle on the island's tallest mountain, but he reveals himself to be an overweight, self-absorbed slacker who has retired from flying. Red witnesses the pigs planting explosives around the island and stealing the eggs while the birds are distracted by a party. Mighty Eagle refuses to help them, and Red admonishes him. Red and Bomb try to stop the pigs while Chuck warns the other birds, but the pigs destroy the village and escape with the eggs. The entire bird community, devastated and disoriented by the theft of their eggs, turn to Red for guidance, and Red rallies them to embrace their anger. They build a raft from the rubble, using the pigs' slingshot as the sail, and follow the pigs to Piggy Island.
The birds discover the pigs living in a walled city ruled by Leonard, known to the pigs as King Mudbeard. Deducing that the eggs are in Leonard's castle, the birds use the slingshot to launch themselves over the walls and into the castle. Most of the birds—including Matilda and Peckinpah—miss the castle but destroy other buildings and cause chaos on the streets; Red, Chuck, and Bomb are the only ones successfully shot into the castle before Terence accidentally breaks the slingshot. The pigs lower a net containing the eggs into a boiling pot, planning to cook and eat them. Mighty Eagle has a change of heart and arrives to retrieve Chuck, Bomb, and the eggs. Leonard sends a fleet of pig planes to attack the birds; Matilda and Terence lead the other birds out of the city as Bomb stops the fleet by purposely exploding for the first time. One egg falls out of the net and Red battles Leonard for it. They fall into a room containing the pigs' reserve of explosives, which Leonard accidentally ignites. The room explodes, destroying the city, but the empty pot falls on top of Red, shielding him and the egg from the blast.
All of the families, except for one, reunite with their eggs. Red emerges with three blue hatchlings and returns them to their parents. Mighty Eagle takes credit for saving the eggs, claiming that he appeared lazy to Red, Chuck, and Bomb so that they could lose faith in him to find faith in themselves. While restoring the village, the birds rebuild Red's house and relocate it into the village. Red happily welcomes Chuck and Bomb inside. Meanwhile, the pigs survive their home's destruction, and Leonard plots a new plan.
Voice cast
Jason Sudeikis as Red, a red bird with a short temper Aiden McGraw voices young Red. Josh Gad as Chuck, a hyperactive, fast-talking yellow bird with superspeed abilities Danny McBride as Bomb, a black bird who suffers from intermittent explosive disorder, causing him to literally explode uncontrollably Maya Rudolph as Matilda, a white hen who runs the anger management class Kate McKinnon as Stella, a friendly and knowledgeable pink bird McKinnon also voices Eva the Birthday Mom, whose younger son is accidentally hatched by Red. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information. Sean Penn as Terence, a large bird who only communicates non-verbally, such as with grunts Tony Hale as: Ross, a pig who serves as Leonard's loyal but clumsy assistant Mime, a mute mime artist bird Cyrus, a sneezy bird whom Judge Peckinpah stands on top of Keegan-Michael Key as Judge Peckinpah, the short-statured judge of Bird Island Bill Hader as Leonard, the leader of the green pigs from Piggy Island Peter Dinklage as Mighty Eagle, the legendary protector of Bird Island and the only bird capable of flight Additionally, Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox—an internet comedy duo known for Smosh—voice Hal, a green bird with boomerang-like abilities, and Bubbles, a small orange bird who can inflate his body to a massive size, respectively. Hannibal Buress voices Edward the Birthday Dad, Eva's husband. Blake Shelton voices Earl, a country musician pig. Charli XCX voices Willow, a turquoise bird.
Production Development In 2010, Rovio Entertainment received offers from several Hollywood studios and agencies with interest in a film adaptation of their 2009 video game Angry Birds. The company's CEO and founder, Mikael Hed, envisioned a stop motion film similar to productions by Aardman Animations. While Peter Levin and Russell Binder helped them set up entertainment deals, Rovio would focus on producing successors to Angry Birds to "make sure the brand is relevant when the movie comes out".
The film was officially announced as a computer-animated film in December 2012, on the game's third anniversary, after "months of speculation"; Justin Davis from IGN called the announcement "the culmination of Rovio's multimedia ambitions". John Cohen, who previously produced Despicable Me (2010), had signed on to produce alongside Catherine Winder and David Maisel, the latter of whom signed on as executive producer. Winder recruited talent who "understood the vision of the project". Maisel had previously been addicted to the game, and helped Rovio maintain creative control over the film. Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis were brought on as co-directors in 2013, marking their directorial debut after having worked in animation for several years. The duo got along well as they had a "shared comedic sensibility and creative vision for the film."
The success of the Angry Birds Toons television series, according to Rovio employee Jami Laes, "validated" the idea of creating a feature film. When discussing the project in 2011, it was agreed upon that the birds should not be depicted as they are in the film until its release. This was to give the film "a chance to be really special in a world where there's a lot of games and other animation out there."
Rovio developed, financed, and produced the film themselves, while Sony Pictures won the distribution rights in a 2013 auction. Skywalker Sound handled post-production audio services. The Angry Birds Movie was produced at a cost of million, giving it the largest budget in Finland's film industry, exceeding the €8.5million budget for Big Game (2014). In August 2015, Rovio announced that they were expecting to cut 250 jobs, equaling 40% of the company, leaving the only sector spared being personnel working on The Angry Birds Movie.
Writing The Angry Birds Movie was written by Jon Vitti, who had previously written for the animated sitcom The Simpsons. Reilly and Kaytis were both curious and sceptical of the film upon receiving the offer from Cohen, but were convinced after reading Vitti's script. Using it as a starting point, the duo heavily reworked the latter half of the film to strike a balance between entertaining action and comedy.
Rovio granted them strong creative freedom with the character's personalities, telling them to "create something special for us — something that stands on its own, apart from the game, and that's a whole new world, a whole new canvas to illustrate all these characters and bring them to life." The character's abilities from the video games influenced their backstories on how they ended up in anger management. Red's frustrations were inspired by real-life experiences to make him relatable; the duo tasked the crew to "go observe what annoys [them] over the weekend and bring it back." Bomb's explosions were given a "twist" in which he cannot control them; the duo dubbed this as intermittent explosive disorder.
Casting In October 2014, Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, and Peter Dinklage were revealed to have been cast in starring roles. Kate McKinnon, Keegan-Michael Key, Tony Hale, Ike Barinholtz, Hannibal Buress, Cristela Alonzo, Jillian Bell, Romeo Santos, Anthony Padilla, and Ian Hecox were announced as additional voice cast members. Cohen was "extremely proud of this cast," stating that the stars are "surrounded by an all-star ensemble of emerging comedic talent — these are some of the funniest people out there today, and we're thrilled to have them all on board."