By JOHN BILLINGER
Tiger Media Network
Last month, I spotlighted a few notable film anniversaries. After all that, I wondered what anniversary I could cover for the month of November. Well, how about the 10th anniversary of a film that no one remembers except for weirdos like me, and even I didn’t see it when it was released?
“Free Birds” was released on November 1, 2013, and I remember seeing ads for it on TV and thinking to myself, ‘Well, that looks terrible.’ For context, I was in a bit of a cynical phase at the time. Critics at the time also thought it was terrible, as it scored a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes. The public also wasn’t kind to it. It underperformed at the box office, and a few weeks later “Frozen” came out. People pretty much forgot about “Free Birds” after all was said and done. But, perhaps 10 years later, we’ll rediscover a hidden gem.
Depends on who you are but for me, I’d say no.
“Free Birds” plot concerns a turkey named Reggie (played by Owen Wilson). He hates being a turkey as every year, they’re liable to become a meal for Thanksgiving. But luck comes across him, as the President of the United States picks him as the pardoned turkey. Thus Reggie gets to live carefree, eating pizza and watching TV. Things soon change when a crazy Turkey named Jake (played by Woody Harrelson) shows up to fulfill a prophecy about how they will free the turkeys from being on the menu. To make a long story short, they come across a time machine and go back to the first Thanksgiving in 1621, in order to prevent Turkey from becoming part of the menu.
The first thing to mention is the animation. It simply does not look good. Cheap is probably a better word to describe it. Most of the time, it resembles a mobile game from back in the day, like “Clash of Clans.” Some of the time, it looks unfinished. I read the film was originally set to be released in November of 2014, but it was moved to being released a year earlier. I think they needed the extra time. As it is, nothing about it seems theatrical. It looks more direct-to-video.
Second, despite being a comedy, the film is unfunny. Every joke feels random and forced. It‘s probably the worst kind of comedy imaginable, the kind where almost every joke falls flat. It makes for a rather boring experience. I did chuckle once or twice, but these were few and far between. I think the only reason I even did chuckle was because of how random the jokes were. They had a potentially funny idea for a premise, but they did not do anything with it that I would call clever.
The third thing to mention is the voice cast, and this aspect is actually positive. It seems that the producers had some decent blackmail information, as they had an all-star voice cast. Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Amy Poehler, Keith David, George Takei, Colm Meanly, Dan Folger, etc. Like, wow. They certainly went all out. Anyway, all these people did a good job delivering their lines, giving them personality, and trying to make them funny. But I don’t think it’s enough to save the film.
Overall, I don’t really have much else to say about “Free Birds.” It’s pretty forgettable in my eyes. But I will say that even though I didn’t enjoy it, the film does seem to have grown a cult following 10 years later. Despite my thoughts on the film, I don’t find this surprising at all. The film’s oddities certainly give it the potential to gain some form of popularity or appeal. I can’t really recommend it, but if you watched the trailer and you thought it looked funny or decent, give it a watch. But if you didn’t like the trailer, you probably won’t like the movie.