Film Name: 愤怒的小鸟 / The Angry Birds Movie
Given the film’s numerous plot holes—such as its failure to connect the central theme of anger with the hero’s growth; or how the green pigs’ invasion is initially portrayed as deception, only for the birds’ retaliation to devolve into pure violence, elements that are both unhealthy and environmentally unsound; or how the spiritual leader, the Eagle, awakens his own consciousness and transmits the hero’s spirit to Red—none of these are clearly defined.
Not to mention the flood of interpretations about the film’s “ideological” conspiracy theories already swarming across major websites. Undoubtedly, these interpretations originate from the Western world; our audience merely reads them, then translates, retells, and exaggerates them. This is something Chinese people particularly love to do: parroting others’ interpretations. In contrast, we rarely engage in original thinking.
Given these two points, I feel further discussion of the film’s narrative merits is largely pointless. This is a popcorn movie that doesn’t prioritize logic. This is a soap opera that doesn’t delve deeply into character arcs. This is a lowbrow comedy where gags and gimmicks hold more value than the plot itself. Take the iconic scene where the eagle pees—have you ever seen a truly wholesome, family-friendly Disney animation pull off something like that? This inherent irreverence dims the emotional high point of the birds incorporating Red’s house into their village—an otherwise solid creative choice.
However, the film does offer one aspect particularly noteworthy for animators: its character design.
This is an easily overlooked detail. Having grown accustomed to cartoonish, anthropomorphized animal designs, we’ve lost our innate sensitivity to the inclusion of eyebrows on characters. Looking back at animation history, most cartoon birds lack eyebrows. Take a look at “Rio,” “Happy Feet,” or even “Chicken Run” and “Zambezia.” These bird-centric works never deliberately add eyebrows to their avian protagonists. Except for one type of bird—the owl.
From the game’s inception, “The Angry Birds” made a significant creative leap in bird character design. Not only did they introduce eyebrows, but they amplified their function—expressing emotion, particularly rage. Red and Bombus’ seaweed eyebrows are unforgettable, and the image of their feathers standing on end when enraged remains vividly etched in memory. In truth, it’s impossible to conjure another bird-and-eyebrow pairing quite as vividly in your mind. Throughout the film, every other bird also sports uniquely shaped—and even uniquely textured—eyebrows.
Actually, I quite like the design of the birds in the movie—three-dimensional with elongated bodies. They’re fluffy and adorable. But in reality, this texture hides a truth: these three-dimensional birds are no longer what the original Angry Birds looked like. In both the game and the TV animation series shorts, Angry Birds were footless, with their entire bodies simplified into a single, perfectly circular shape. This simplicity and clarity were precisely what made these characters stand out and leave a deep impression on people’s minds.
In the movie, however, the character designers added feet and wings to the birds—even giving the villainous pigs bodies and legs. Walking birds certainly enhance anthropomorphic realism, yet they lose their bouncy charm and rhythmic appeal. Wings on the birds blur a fundamental premise of the Angry Birds universe: if they have wings, why can’t they fly? The wings, which could be implied in the game and TV animation, reinforced the birds’ reliance on slingshots for flight—a motivation entirely absent in the film.
Ultimately, this fluffy texture and realistic design represent a compromise by the director. He lacks the skill to handle—and the inclination to depict—the intricate movements of simplified birds. The more minimal the design, the more complex the motion becomes. He needed birds with long limbs to execute their actions more easily. This simplification isn’t necessarily a mistake, but it certainly fails to deliver the authentic flavor of Angry Birds.
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