STORKS
DIRECTORS: Nicholas Stoller & Doug Sweetland
VOICE CAST: Katie Crown, Andy Samberg, Kelsey Grammar, Anton Starkman, Ty Burrell, Jennifer Aniston, Stephen Kramer Glickman, Keegan-michael Key, Jordan Peele
CLASSIFICATION: PG V
RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes
RATING:3 stars (out of 5)
BY THERESA SMITH
NEVER really deciding what its plot or point is, Storks is a very bright and bubbly, family-friendly animated film that is nothing like The LEGO Movie.
Comparison is invited simply by dint of Storks coming from the same production company, but that is about as far as it goes. This is not as self-referential, thoughtful or laugh-a-minute funny as The LEGO Movie, but it does mean well.In this film’s reality, storks used to deliver babies, but switched to delivering packages after an unfortunate incident that ended up in a baby being orphaned. Fast-forward 18 years and human Tulip (voiced by Crown) – the baby the storks couldn’t deliver – does not fit into the huge Amazon-like business.
Tasked by management to fire her, Junior (Samberg) can’t quite bring himself to do it and he stashes Tulip in the old factory, where she accidentally creates a baby (something about a letter and a huge machine which farts colourful sparks and cute ’ittle people. It’s an animated movie. You believed in Pete’s Dragon, just go with it).
Junior and Tulip decide to deliver the baby to hide her mistake and set off on a road trip. They encounter a wolf pack who can make fire and bad weather and run afoul of management which is tracking them.
Funny zingers compete with nonsense throwaway lines, some characters are well-delineated, others are just bit players, there is always a lot happening in the very busy scenes and the wolf pack is weird, but not weird enough to really be a threat to the two friends trying to fulfil their mission.
Parts of the script are acid-sharp, other bits just float into nowhere and create plot-holes (like, if storks delivered babies and now don’t, why are there still children? It’s the movie logic, not me asking.) Lots of stuff happens, but it isn’t necessarily things germane to keeping your mind focused on the story. It could be about the idea that family is sometimes the one you create, not the one you are born into. Or maybe it is about the importance of friendship in creating kinship.
Or maybe it is about how you should always be nice to the weird bird at work because you never know when they will go postal.It’s all very cutesy and the visual gags will keep the children happy, but there are no surprises. It works well when playing around with random ideas – like a wolf pack that can transform into an SUV – and on the plus side, it is harmless. But it is just so random.
If you liked Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, you will like this.