User reviews

"We have a Turkey situation"

"How should we address it?"

"With cranberry sauce." (HA, HA, HA,HA)

This was just a fun, silly movie -- perfect for a family outing. It has no pretensions to be anything more than just a goofy, romp through "history". No, it doesn't contain any riotously funny scenes. No, it doesn't contain any hidden agenda. No it doesn't contain a subtext of humor aimed at the parents/adults in the audience. And no, it is not a thinly veiled attempt by Hollywood to promote a "Vegan" agenda. (Seriously?!?)

It's not great art. It doesn't even really try to manipulate the heart strings.

It reminded me a lot of "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and even referenced it at one point.

It's just exactly that kind of a (again) fun, silly little movie.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Just take the kids and enjoy it.

My kids and I loved this movie, so I was surprised to see the low rating on IMDb. The negative comments seem to center on three things:

(1) "Cultural insensitivity," chiefly for portraying 17th century turkeys like Indians. I don't get this one. They are put in opposition to pilgrims, who are trying to eat them, and the Indian association seems natural. (2) A "vegetarian" message. I am relatively sensitive to such message (e.g., I thought it was rather heavy-handed in "Jurassic Park"), so I can say that there simply isn't one here. It's about turkeys trying not to get eaten, not that people should never eat meat. (3) "disregard for time-travel paradoxes" (quoting from Wikipedia here). It's a movie about talking turkeys, and this guy is bothered by inconsistencies in time travel? If this bothers you, it's time to take off the bow tie and unfasten the suspenders, you need to loosen up.

Okay, the plot is not great, and there really isn't a message (at least not much of one). The joy of this movie and others of its ilk is in the presentation. There are a lot of funny lines, and the animation is amazing. I love seeing how cartoonists can elicit the most focused emotions simply by depicting a turkey's face.

If you are looking for a deep movie, this one is probably not for you. If you are looking for a great way to spend 90 minutes, you will enjoy this one.

Thanksgiving isn't a big occasion this side of the world, but even those with a most rudimentary knowledge of it will know that turkeys – lots of them – are consumed on that very day (preferably with cranberry sauce). 'Horton Hears a Who's' Jimmy Hayward's 'Free Birds' plays on that holiday tradition by imagining the unlikely scenario where an independent-minded turkey unwittingly teams up with a plucky (pardon the pun) member of his species to go back in time and reverse the establishment of that tradition.

Like many such tales, our hero Reggie (Owen Wilson) is an underachiever who is looking for something more in his existence beyond being just another member of his species. So while the rest of the turkeys on the farm are immediately lured by food in the farmer's hand and think by extension that he is their friend, Reggie is all too aware that the farmer only intends to fatten them up so he can slaughter them - and no, he also isn't deluded that they will therefore end up in 'turkey heaven'.

Reggie's journey starts when he is chosen among millions of his ilk to be pardoned by the President of the United States and sent to a protected reserve. Unfortunately, it is also at that place where he meets Jake (Woody Harrelson), the President - and we might add, only member - of the Turkeys Liberation Front who claims he is answering a calling from the Great Turkey that visited him years ago to go back in time to the first Thanksgiving and stop turkeys from becoming the holiday meal. It's a classic case of mismatched partners, but thanks to some witty lines from Hayward and his co-scripter Scott Mosier, there is still some amusement to be had amidst the familiarity.

It isn't just make believe though - there is indeed a time machine to be found in the Government lab that Reggie and Jake break into, and with that, an actual time travel to the year1622. Oh, and did we mention that in between the mission of saving his species, Reggie finds additional motivation in the form of a love interest? That'll be Jenny (Amy Poehler), courageous where Reggie is terrified and altogether too attractive for the glib-tongued Reggie to resist.

As far as toons go, this one hardly pushes the narrative limits of imagination. You can almost predict that Reggie will be confronted with a crucial turning point whether to stay with his flock or return to the comfort of his old life back at the reserve - and for that matter, if he will rise to the occasion to be a better fowl. In fact, Hayward demands a fair bit of suspension of belief by playing it fast and loose with the conundrums of time travel, especially as he and Mosier try to make the disparate events across time and space tie together into one coherent whole. We warn you - it doesn't take anyone with more than a bird brain to tell that they are clutching at straws, so you'd be advised to simply accept the creative liberties they take with logic and just plain common sense.

To his credit, Hayward does a pretty fine job with the animation. The detail can't quite match up to established studios like Disney/ Pixar and Dreamworks, but this maiden effort from Reel FX Studios is colourful, energetic, and still visually captivating stuff to keep the young ones glued to their seats. Everything also moves at a pretty fast clip, and even if it does rely on familiar plot and character tropes, at no point does it get boring or repetitive. Hayward also has to thank his enthusiastic voice cast for that, in particular Wilson and Harrelson deliver their respective parts with much gusto.

And so even though Thanksgiving as a holiday doesn't quite resonate as much here as it does in the United States, the humour, fun and excitement that it offers for kids and less demanding adults is universal. The best reassurance we can give is that it isn't a 'turkey'; in fact, despite being entirely formulaic, it still is an entertaining diversion for families, especially for those looking for a cinematic equivalent of a babysitter.

I was not expecting great things from this movie but I was pleasantly surprised. It was actually quite hilarious, lame but laugh out loud funny. The jokes were on point the whole way through and it was adult funny not just kid funny.

Honestly if you can't relax and just enjoy a movie then give this one a miss and if you regularly use words like cinematography in your reviews then get over yourself nobody wants to hear your review as you shouldn't have watched this movie to begin with. Stop trying to drag ratings down for a harmless animated children's film. Back to the movie...

Free Birds has all the same concepts as your typical feel-good movie but who's ever seen a movie about a Thanksgiving turkey. It's certainly a new one for me. And shout out to the baby turkeys, they were adorable. The whole way through I was rooting for the turkeys to succeed even though they're completely delicious. But I guess you'll just have to watch to see what happens.

Free Birds is not really a good or great film, nor is it terrible. If there was a word to sum it up it would be mediocre. Is it the worst animated film of the year? No, that dishonour goes to Sir Billi(which was billed as Sean Connery's comeback!). Is it the best? Again, no, that's so far been between Monsters University and Despicable Me 2(have high hopes for Frozen, and that is looking like that will be even better than these two). Free Birds does have a few things that came off well. The animation has some nice bright colours and attention to detail(though the character designs could have been smoother in places), the soundtrack is catchy, the scene with the hunters destroying the turkey's nest is indeed tense and the voice acting has the right amount of zest and energy, Woody Harrelson is almost unrecognisable and is clearly having fun, Amy Poehler should do voice acting more often because she is born to do it and Owen Wilson brings some distinctive quirkiness as well(if at times on the one-note side). George Takei while bringing dignity to his part is very underused though, and it does feel like a waste. There are a lot of flaws as well unfortunately. The script lacks crispness and wit and has an overkill of turkey jokes that are both contrived and dumb, some gags are stretched out to pointlessness while the slapstick is heavy on predictability and over-broadness and light on fun and invention.

With the target audience too, children may enjoy it if they understand the humour but it is likely to go over the heads of adults. If that is the case, considering that Free Birds is a family film(NOT a kids' film) the film only does half its job well, if children are not amused it's a failure. Where I was, the reception from both children and adults were largely the latter, but then again it will be different with you. The story is well-intended but is far too simple- even for a family film- and predictable, while it also doesn't do anything with the time travel idea(which had great potential) that comes at the expense of the humour, which very little hits the mark really. The message is good if clumsily and heavy-handedly incorporated(likewise with the few emotional parts that were more manipulative than heartfelt), and there's no better about the characters unfortunately who suffer from flat personalities(some like Jake irritating too) and dealt with far too simplistically to the extent we know little about them. Non-US viewers may also find that because the film is so rooted in American customs and their early history that that is a further reason why the humour is likely to be lost on them. In conclusion, the potential and intentions are there, and it is not as bad as others have said- because the animation, music and voices are good and one scene came off well- but it was lacking in a lot of areas- mostly the humour and the story- and had a lot of wasted potential(doing little with the time travel idea and under-using George Takei). Despite how this sounds, it isn't terrible but rather mediocre, and this is not being said with vehemence but with a heavy heart from a 21-year old animation fan(to avoid over-generalising that defending of panned family films are prone to). 4/10 Bethany Cox

Watchable is the word that springs to mind for 'Free Birds'. This movie does enough to be mildly entertaining but contains few moments that will make you laugh, especially considering that this is supposed to be an animated 'comedy'.

The film is silly and perhaps the filmmakers were expecting to get laughs out of the plot alone, but this isn't the case. I can see younger viewers enjoying this film, obviously kids are the primary target audience, but even so I doubt they would choose this over the many other, vastly superior, animated comedies.

'Free Birds' is a sufficiently entertaining animated film, but it lacks the laughs to consider it a comedy success.

I can not describe how magnificent this movie is, cmon guys this is the movie where they go back in time to the first thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu, it doesn't get better than that. The comedy is amazing, the characters make me feel like my life is 1000 times better, the story is literally about them going back in time to the first thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu. When you think about it, not many movies can accomplish the amount of awesomeness this movie brings to everyone that watches it, Netflix should be ashamed for not having the movie where they go back in time to the first thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu.

Bear in mind, I am writing this from the perspective of a parent who just shelled out for kids tickets, my ticket, concession stand, and it wasn't cheap, and then to have this movie be SO awful and SO boring (yes, my kids called it boring!), well, I am very disappointed.

All of the funny-seeming parts were in the trailer, and when you see them in the context of the movie they aren't very funny either. I was in a packed theater and there was hardly any laughing going on at all - that is a very bad thing. Laughter is contagious, but not in this film!

The voice acting was average at best, although Owen Wilson was good, but one turkey cannot carry an entire movie, especially when the plot was so lame.

The animation itself was OK, but without a decent story and characterizations, a movie is going to fail, and this one did big time! We didn't expect factually accurate obviously, you'd have to be crazy to think it was, but we were hoping the humans wouldn't be portrayed as either total morons OR really evil and vicious. Pixar doesn't show humans that way in Toy Story, neither did Turbo or Despicable Me 2.

This movie is a definitely wait for it in Redbox etc, or even wait for it to come on TV. If you have 2 kids or more, you're going to be paying out a lot of cash for a trip to the movies to see this and you will be horribly disappointed.

Highlight of the movie was the trailers BEFORE the movie - which showed us a couple of upcoming animated movies that might actually be good.

The one thing I will say for the movie is they had great marketing - they suckered us in on election day in VA when we had nothing better to do, but let this review be your warning, go see SOMETHING ELSE!

This is the movie where they go back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu.

That's Right! This is the movie where they go back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu!

This is the movie where they go back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu.

That's Right! This is the movie where they go back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu!

This is the movie where they go back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu.

That's Right! This is the movie where they go back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu!

This is the movie where they go back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu.

That's Right! This is the movie where they go back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu!

This is the movie where they go back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu.

That's Right! This is the movie where they go back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu!

What else can I say, except: THAT'S RIGHT WE'RE GOING BACK IN TIME TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING TO GET TURKEYS OFF THE MENU!

That line delivery alone gets this movie a 9/10, I did not expect the jokes to be as funny as they actually were. The plot gets a little slow and boring in the middle but c'mon, they go back in time to get turkeys off the menu! That's the greatest plot of all time. Don't listen to the "critics" this movie is a masterpiece that every human being must experience at least once in their life.

JK it's like a solid 6 at best, I'm just goofing, it's not bad but it's not even that good, as comedy though it gets a 10/10.

7.5 of 10. The combination of intelligent, talking turkeys with time travel works to cancel out the nonsense parts of this cartoon like 2 negatives being multiplied in a math problem. The rest of the story is bordering on genius story telling to go along with impressive animation, covering subtleties like feathers to water to fuse burning.

Sadly, Disney bought its way into the Academy awards with Frozen, so the only way this was getting in was by replacing another genius story with less impressive animation like Ernest & Celestine. As both involve intelligent animal-based fantasies, we can at least look forward to them potentially working together to create a masterpiece that overcomes Oscar nominators being sold out.

All the award BS aside, one of the few great holiday cartoons that will be worth watching year after year far into the future.

Free Birds is like a freak accident happened at the local screenplay factory. Its like a mad scientist combined Back To The Future with Turkeys. This is a movie that made me go "Huh?" and "What?" for the next 87 minutes of my life. This movie is one of the most random, careless animated movies I have seen in a while (Something like Foodfight!) This movie is full of sexual and gay overtones for some reason. Don't know why but Im sure they have reasons for putting it in.

The movie is about a Turkey played by Owen Wilson who I will call Owen Wilson Turkey. He is adopted by the president who looks ugly (Animation isn't that good on him) and seems to be a Bill Clinton Sound alike. He likes to watch awful Spanish soap operas and eat pizza. When Woody Harrelson Turkey says he is chosen for a mission to stop thanksgiving. So they go in a time traveling machine where they see these annoying hazmat suit guys who have the more degrading laugh.

They go to 1621 a few days before the feast starts and they meet a bunch of other turkeys like Amy Poehler Turkey... *sigh* and looks like some creepy woman trying to look attractive in a turkey outfit. Obviously, Owen Wilson wants the girl so decides to help.

Im not going to talk about how stupid this movie sounds. Because everyone has. So lets get on to what is wrong with this film.

The jokes are not funny for one thing. No duh, thats obvious. The movie is full of butt and Peck jokes that are overused. The acting... um... well I can say this. The acting is not really good. Mainly because the Wilson, Harrelson and Poehler sound so uninterested in the content of the script.

Also... I began to notice at the end that this movie seemed to resemble this one other movie. The highest grossing movie of all time. Nominated for Best Pic- OH RIGHT AVATAR! This movie is basically a rip off of Avatar except with no aliens, but with a vegan message. They live in a tree also with rituals and stuff. How can you not see that this is Avatar? Aside from that, characters are not used enough. There are two stupid characters who we barely see. I know they are side characters, but they should at least have enough time as other characters! The movie breaks time itself and yet the universe doesn't implode. Had the writers even watched Back To The Future? One of my favorite films? Nope. I guess they haven't.

Oh. You want to know what the worst joke in this entire movie is? SOMETHING THATS POP CULTARE? HERE IT IS!: "Those Are Some Angry Birds." AAAAAAAAH! *SLAMS HEAD AGAINST A WALL AND HEAD GOES THROUGH IT* Oh god. Now that Im over that line. The villain is non threatening and I do not care about anyone in the movie. They are just one note characters with no personality or any sense of humor.

There is one plot hole at the end. So Wilson Turkey brings the pizza guy to give pizza to everyone. But here is the thing. What if they decide to start putting turkey on pizzas in the future? I have no clue.

There is so much to talk about but my word count is going up.

Is Free Birds A Bad Movie? Yes. Is It A Awful Film? No. Its a movie so bad its speechless. Not like that oh my god I hate this film so much speechless the kind of speechless where you don't know how to explain what you just watched. The movie is reaching its budget and I hope there isn't another sequel.

39/100 D+

I don't understand the hate for this movie: is was just plain fun. I don't know how this movie is offensive, probably because I'm not American, so I can't comment on that. First off all: don't look for a message in this movie. I keep reading, people saying there is a message. There is NO MESSAGE here. It's just fun. It's so bad it's good. The plot didn't make any sense and that's what was funny about it.

I'm very relieved to finally see an animated movie made just for fun and without feeling the need to add an unnecessary message or plot or emotional attachment. There was only one instance where they tried to get you emotionally involved, it didn't work but it didn't disturb me either.

Very refreshing and highly recommended during the holiday season!