Recently, Angry Birds became the first game ever to become a billion-dollar empire. This mobile phenomenon has helped us while away long waiting rooms and subway rides by providing fun physics action that engages both mind and body.
Gameplay is simple – load a bird in your slingshot, pull back while setting your angle and release to start destroying structures – but the visual payoff is astounding.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Angry Birds involves using a slingshot to launch birds at green pigs located around various structures with the intention of destructing them. There are different environments, each offering their own set of objectives and power-ups that aid players. Furthermore, there are offshoots such as Angry Birds Blast! – an inflatable puzzle game- and AR: Isle of Pigs which provide additional adventures.
The game has garnered great acclaim for its creativity and addictive nature, earning numerous plaudits from critics as well as fans alike. Angry Birds is now available on merchandise, television shows and has even inspired a live-action movie starring birds versus pigs; their rivalry continues in The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019).
Since its initial release for Nokia’s N900 multimedia Internet device and Apple’s iPhone mobile digital devices in April 2010, Angry Birds has expanded onto various other platforms. A Palm Pre phone using Symbian3 operating system was made available, followed by Amazon Kindle Fire tablets in November 2011; finally a Roku streaming media player version made its debut in February 2012.
Rovio has also created numerous spin-offs of its original game, each featuring its own theme. One such spin-off, released in October 2010, was called Angry Birds Seasons; episodes in this installment include Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day episodes with level designs and physics adjusted to reflect these festive events as well as new power-ups available to users.
A Facebook-connected version of Angry Birds released in February 2012 called Angry Birds Friends allows players to compete against one another weekly tournaments using Facebook Friends as opponents. Its art style and characters resemble those found in its predecessor; players will recognize familiar members such as Wingman (an adorable superhero-themed bird) and Jo (a nonbinary pig).
Angry Birds Space was released in March 2012, featuring the flock launching themselves from planet to planet to rescue their eggs from evil space pigs. It features art styles similar to Spore and Super Mario Galaxy with some original members appearing as playable characters such as Ice Bird – who made an unexpected one-time appearance before reappearing as playable character in Angry Birds Reloaded.
Characters
Character design in video games is often neglected; however, in Angry Birds character design plays a pivotal role in its success and popularity. Birds and pigs both have basic shapes easily recognized by most children while their colors are primary; creating visual cues for players that help them identify with and empathize with characters in this way.
Most of the original Angry Birds characters were inspired by real birds; however, their designers decided to give them individual abilities that mimicked those seen in nature. Red’s power resembles that of a peacock’s wings flapping in flight while Bomb’s sound when scratched is similar.
Some characters in the game are voiced by notable actors and personalities, such as comedian Bill Hader who voices Chuck the yellow bird. Bill is best-known for his comedy sketch work on Key and Peele and Saturday Night Live where he has performed as Josh Skinner and Ethan Turner; additionally he has made appearances in movies such as Milk Mystic River Pizza.
Danny McBride voices Bomb, the black round bird seen throughout Pineapple Express and Vice Principals, with several television and movie roles such as Kenny Powers in Pineapple Express and Neal Gamby in Vice Principals to his credit. Additionally, Danny is widely known for writing major Hollywood blockbusters like Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends.
Sean Penn is another well-known face in the Angry Birds cast, appearing as Terence, the large red bird who acts like an outlier within Stella’s anger management group. Penn has appeared in other notable movies like Milk, Mystic River and Academy Award nominee Inherent Vice.
Red and Chuck can count on various helpers in Angry Birds: Silver, Matilda, Garry Hal and Mighty Eagle as allies when taking on green pigs in battle.
Angry Birds has inspired numerous spin-offs and animated series, not to mention an abundance of merchandise products featuring its characters such as plush toys, clothing, and household goods.
Merchandise
The Angry Birds franchise started out as a simple iOS game that quickly turned into an international media phenomenon, inspiring sequel games, spinoffs, movies and merchandise. With its colorful art style highlighting various forms of pigs and birds from their original form to more recent variations such as plush toys or action figures – licensed toys make great presents for kids as they have plenty of personality that people recognize instantly!
Angry Birds 2 is an exciting update of the classic mobile game with several exciting additions. A new spell card that allows players to take out multiple elements of a pig fortress adds a fun new dynamic and also allows retry levels without expending gems and offers global competition between players worldwide.
Augmented reality (AR) technology is another exciting aspect of the Angry Birds franchise, making for some intriguing toys that incorporate AR features. Certain toys come with QR codes that can be scanned to unlock exclusive content on the Angry Birds Explore app, while there are collectible splat balls, plush characters, splat balls, collectables, splat balls, collectables and plush characters with interactive features such as wings that press to play sound effects from film/game; these toys make excellent learning tools that spark curiosity about science/tech.
When purchasing Angry Birds toys, always look for high-quality materials that are both soft and durable. Pay particular attention to stitching as this will prevent loose or ripped pieces that could potentially end up being swallowed by children or pets. Furthermore, outer layer material must be brightly-colored while also soft and supple; ideal fill material would include cotton-like polyfill.
Reviews
Angry Birds may not be the worst movie ever released to theaters, but it does demonstrate how an idle smartphone game may not provide enough material for a full-length feature film adaptation. Borrowing heavily from its basic premise – birds being shot at pig fortresses by birds being launched from launchers – but failing to come up with any original ideas of its own; instead opting for endless repetition of elements already used within the game instead of adding new ideas of its own; even brief forays away from CGI animation by 2-D and time-lapse styles are fleeting.
Voice acting and animation quality is strong; Looney Toons-esque animation gives an attractive Looney Birds vibe; but too much silliness overtakes this film’s narrative; jokes don’t always land, characters are underutilized or under-utilised and too many filler is included.
At its core, this film is meant for children, and much of its plot revolves around birds and pigs getting into various types of trouble as they battle each other. While that may be entertaining for audiences of any age, the film doesn’t really do anything to tell its own tale.
Red Bird (Jason Sudeikis), after several rage-inducing incidents, is sent to anger management classes with his fellow Groaners; canary Chuck (Josh Gad), black bird Bomb (Danny McBride), Matilda (Maya Rudolph) and purple Ice Queen Zeta (SNL’s Leslie Jones). Unfortunately, filmmakers didn’t take this concept any further, opting instead for a relatively generic narrative with plenty of action sequences; nonetheless it remains highly enjoyable.
Angry Birds is an adorable kids’ film with plenty of humor and action, yet falls prey to some of the same flaws found in many bad animated movies: needless dance sequences, pop culture references that date themselves two years too late, and overused catchphrases. Squawks may be fun but this movie lacks ambition or depth to justify its 95-minute runtime.
