Movie review: Free Birds

Published November 14, 2013

TWO turkeys from different backgrounds travel back in time in Free Birds to get turkeys off the menu, and succeed as well, but not after making things worse for their ancestors in their laugh riot of an animated movie.

Featuring a star cast of Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler, Free Birds is one of the funniest kids’ flicks of the year, and it is being shown in a cinema near you — in 3D!

The most interesting thing about this movie is the concept — two talking turkeys travelling back in time to trounce Thanksgiving!

Reggie (Owen Wilson) is a smart-yet-outcast turkey who wants his fellow turkeys to get used to the fact that there is no turkey paradise; Gung-ho Jake (Woody Harrelson) has been ‘instructed’ by the Great Turkey to go back in time and get turkeys off the menu — with Reggie’s help — and he kidnaps Reggie in order to fulfil the command!

The pace of the movie makes it interesting and likeable whereas the dialogs will keep the kids laughing throughout. The 3D as well as the special effects are as good as you can get, providing you with the turkey perspective like never before! The humans are there as well but they are shown as people from the dark side who want to eat the turkeys in order to meet their eatery demands.

As the title suggests, the ‘birds’ win the battle but it is interesting to see how they manage to topple the homosapiens in a time alien to them!

Be it the turkeys of Plymouth Colony in 1621 or the one in the present, Free Birds portrays them as living things who can talk, feel and above all, fight for their right. Even the interaction of the lead characters with the time machine code named Steve (George Takei) and Jenny (Amy Poehler) is interesting, especially when the former gets nervous and her eyeball goes about moving around!

Free Birds is a must watch if you want the ride of a lifetime because for the entire run of the movie, you will also be cheering for the ‘angry birds’ who never wanted to be plucked to make it on the dinner table in the first place.

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