A groundbreaking release in every sense, **Angry Birds **lands next May with the franchise-building hopes of Sony Pictures Animation pinned to it. An early showcase showed off what this, on paper, zany-sounding app-to-movie CG adaptation holds in store. This guy, basically. The most enraged of the avians, Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis), is the hero of a story that's set largely on a tropical island populated by the flightless birds familiar to the game's three billion-odd downloaders.
So how has Sony and developer Rovio made sense of the simple weeeeeeeee-bang-crash gameplay in a movie context? "The question we get asked more than any other is 'Why are the birds so angry?" says producer John Cohen. "This movie is going to be the origin story of how that conflict came to exist."
The How To Train Your Pigeon-like premise has the peace-loving, naive and surprisingly mellow birds initially living in harmony - the shirty Red aside. Co-directors Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly have had fun with world, or rather nest-building. There's plenty of knowing nods - a Birds And Bees Fertility Clinic and an Early Bird Worm Shop, for instance - as we meet the main characters.
Sony has assembled a strong line-up of comic voice talent to support Sudeikis, including Bill Hader, Kate McKinnon, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Josh Gad, Keegan-Michael Key and Peter Dinklage. "We're making a comedy," stresses Cohen.
But then - look out! - the pigs arrive and seek to dupe the naive tree-critters with their wily but fairly dim ways. Feathlony ensues. Take a look at the antagonists below (they're not Amish, they're just drawn that way).
Expect a first teaser trailer for Angry Birds next week. The film is scheduled to land on these shores on May 13.