Title: Movie Review: Storks – Birds and Babies Bizarre
Author: phatmammasboy
Recovered Author: phatmammasboy
Published Date: 2016-11-18
Original URL: https://geeknode.co.za/2016/11/movie-review-storks-birds-and-babies-bizarre
Wayback URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20171024132548id_/http://www.geeknode.co.za:80/2016/11/movie-review-storks-birds-and-babies-bizarre/
Recovery Confidence: high

- phatmammasboy

- 11 months ago

- 0 0

It’s very rare to find an animated film that hits the spot. A genuinely soulful film put together with an inspired story and authentic characters that allow viewers of all ages to get lost in the worlds painted by big Hollywood Studios. We have been provided with a string of quality-animated films (Zootopia, Kubo and the Two Strings, Inside Out), but there is an equal string of stitched together cash grabs (Minions, The Angry Birds, Norm of the North). Going into Storks with almost no background of the film, I had no gauge of which side of the spectrum Storks lay.

Based on the brightly coloured kid friendly poster, I assumed Storks belonged on the latter. Although, five minutes into the film and I realised that my assumption was possibly premature and grossly inaccurate. The film began on an interesting and unexpected premise. Storks were once deliverers of babies under the company name Cornerstore. After a situation where a stork fell in love with a baby and decided to keep it, the CEO, Hunter (Kelsey Grammer), discontinues the business of baby deliveries and focuses on the delivery of internet-ordered parcels. It’s an interesting premise and I smiled at the originality of the opening scene as well as the commentary to modern day delivery services and the way Internet changed the landscape of many conventional businesses.

The story continues to tell the story of Junior (Andy Samberg), a motivated and ambitious stork who is promised a promotion by Hunter. Meanwhile, the human baby Tulip who was at the centre of the company’s baby debacle is now a grown lady who is trying to find her place in the company. There is also a young boy added into the mix, Nate Gardner, a lonely only child who wishes to have a brother while being continually ignored by his work obsessed parents.

I am not going to go into the details of the story, because the convoluted premise and number of main characters is something I found hard to tackle while watching and I have a feeling was something the creators found a challenge as well. There are parts in the movie where I wondered if the writers knew what the end goal of the story was as the film was littered with many gaps that I felt could have grown into interesting plot twist and impactful commentary on modern day society but never did.

My personal gripe of the movie was the crass handling of certain outlandish content. The relationship between Junior the stork and Tulip had elements that made me uncomfortable. There was something unsettling about the tone of the movie and the way the content played out. There was something strange and unhealthy in the overall relationship between the young boy Nate and his parents and had no real relation to the larger premise of the movie even though it took up a large chunk of the film. There were a few other elements that made me think WTF. Although I need to put the disclaimer that these elements could be purely based on my personal issues and have nothing to do with the film itself.

Putting my own personal gripes aside, I feel that the film has an interesting premise and colourful peculiar characters. It could have worked great with the strangeness and randomness of its patchy tale, if the tone of the movie and characters were consistent with the strange elements that popped up in the plot. Although, unlike Sausage Party that was cleverly designed to pour out the shock factor and throw audiences into a bizarrely believable universe, Storks, unfortunately, failed to do this for me.

It’s very rare to find an animated film that hits the spot. A genuinely soulful film put together with an inspired story and authentic characters that allow viewers of all ages to get lost in the worlds painted by big Hollywood Studios. We have been provided with a string of quality-animated films (Zootopia, Kubo and the Two Strings, Inside Out), but there is an equal string of stitched together cash grabs (Minions, The Angry Birds, Norm of the North). Going into Storks with almost no background of the film, I had no gauge of which side of the spectrum Storks lay. Based on the brightly coloured kid friendly poster, I assumed Storks belonged on the latter. Although, five minutes into the film and I realised that my assumption was possibly premature and grossly inaccurate. The film began on an interesting and unexpected premise. Storks were once deliverers of babies under the company name Cornerstore. After a situation where a stork fell in love with a baby and decided to keep it, the CEO, Hunter (Kelsey Grammer), discontinues the business of baby deliveries and focuses on the delivery of internet-ordered parcels. It’s an interesting premise and I smiled at the originality of the opening scene as well as the commentary to modern day delivery services and the way Internet changed the landscape of many conventional businesses. The story continues to tell the story of Junior (Andy Samberg), a motivated and ambitious stork who is promised a promotion by Hunter. Meanwhile, the human baby Tulip who was at the centre of the company’s baby debacle is now a grown lady who is trying to find her place in the company. There is also a young boy added into the mix, Nate Gardner, a lonely only child who wishes to have a brother while being continually ignored by his work obsessed parents. I am not going to go into the details of the story, because the convoluted premise and number of main characters is something I found hard to tackle while watching and I have a feeling was something the creators found a challenge as well. There are parts in the movie where I wondered if the writers knew what the end goal of the story was as the film was littered with many gaps that I felt could have grown into interesting plot twist and impactful commentary on modern day society but never did. My personal gripe of the movie was the crass handling of certain outlandish content. The relationship between Junior the stork and Tulip had elements that made me uncomfortable. There was something unsettling about the tone of the movie and the way the content played out. There was something strange and unhealthy in the overall relationship between the young boy Nate and his parents and had no real relation to the larger premise of the movie even though it took up a large chunk of the film. There were a few other elements that made me think WTF. Although…

Movie Review: Storks – Birds and Babies Bizarre

Movie Review: Storks – Birds and Babies Bizarre

2016-11-18

phatmammasboy

Total - 6.5

65
6.5

Odd patchy film that could have been great.

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phatmammasboy

Entertainment Author at Geek Node

After years of delusions believing he will grow up to be Steven Spielberg, months of therapy finally helped him overcome his disorder. He now believes he will grow up to be both the Coen Brothers. Ziyaad has taken his love for movies to an abnormal level, leaving his glamorous job as an engineer to make movies, write about movies, talk about movies and on occasion do expressive dance showing his love for movies. He knows his movies like he knows the time of his bowel movements (surprisingly very well)…

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Article Tags:
Andy Samberg · Animated · Comedy · Family · Kelsey Grammer · storks

Article Categories:
Movie Review
