The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019)

Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Rachel Bloom, Leslie Jones, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Awkwafina, Tiffany Haddish, Sterling K. Brown, Eugenio Derbez, Pete Davidson, Zach Woods, Maya Rudolph, Tony Hale, JoJo Siwa, Lil Rel Howery, Nicki Minaj, Beck Bennett, and David Dobrik
Grade: A

This might be just as underrated as the first movie is.

Honestly, if you love a good, animated tale, I implore you to give The Angry Birds franchise a try. It’s crazy entertaining.

Summary

We’re back on Bird Island, and everyone is happy and safe. Red (Sudeikis) is now the hero of the Island because of the events of the first film, and everyone talks about him like they did Mighty Eagle in that film. He’s a legend for saving them, and it’s true. Along with Red are his two best friends in the fast-moving and talking Chuck (Gad) and the dim-witted Bomb (McBride). Currently, they still have trouble with King Leonard Mudbeard (Hader) and his army of green pigs from Piggy Island, but they routinely beat their ass, as they’ve now mastered the slingshot attack and other tactics due to Red’s leadership.

During one of Leonard’s random attacks, a giant ice ball is shot over and crash-lands very close to Piggy Island. Realizing this didn’t come from the birds, Leonard uses his telescope to see there’s a whole other island nearby that is completely frozen.

Shortly after, Leonard sends thousands of balloons with messages attached to them to Bird Island, asking for a truce. Everyone rejoices, except for Red. He thinks this is just another plan cooked up by Leonard. More importantly, he internally realizes he may go back to the same nobody he used to be if no one needs him to fight anymore. As Chuck and Bomb take him to a speed dating event, we see Terence’s (Nolan North) hatchlings play and act like Red in a face off against the pigs. One of the hatchlings keeps messing up his lines by saying “rocks” instead of “eggs” because they aren’t playing with live eggs. To help her brother, his sister goes inside and grabs her parents’ unhatched eggs. Soon after she puts them there, they accidentally get caught in the water and float away. Back on Piggy Island, the pigs are taking samples of the gigantic ice ball. Then, we go to the ice-filled island to see the real villain that sent it. Her name is Zeta (Jones), and she’s the despotic leader of Eagle Island. She runs things with an iron fist, but the island sucks because it’s completely frozen. Even her dog is in an ice block and can’t move. She wants to fire another ice ball to show her power, but her assistant Debbie (Haddish) reminds her she’s been torturing Glenn (Derbez) the engineer. Regardless, Zeta makes it known she wants a warm island to call her own, and she will stop at nothing to achieve this goal.

Red is reluctant to be at the speed dating event, but Chuck admits he hid Red’s keys, so he has to go through with it. It goes as you’d expect for someone like Red who already doesn’t want to be there. He even gets into a huge argument with the last one (Bloom) because of her constant questions and inserting them into a formula she made up. This formula is enough for her to see if they’re incompatible, but Red trashes it because he didn’t need a formula to find that out and storms out. Following this, he sees a poster of himself being removed in favor of one about the supposed truce. He goes home in a depressed state and spends the night eating popcorn while pouring the melted butter and salt directly into his mouth (while listening to “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan no less), until he’s interrupted by a visiting Leonard. Leonard insists he still wants the truce and just wants to talk. Not trusting Leonard, Red ties him up first. Even then, Leonard explains of a mysterious third island wanting to take over and asks Red if he’s seen a giant ice ball being shot near him. Though Red denies it, a flashback shows he remembers it vividly. To show Red further evidence, Squeal Team Six busts in through numerous places in his house (including his bathroom) and gives him multiple pictures of Eagle Island taken from one of Leonard’s drones to show something potentially dangerous is brewing. Because of this, Red agrees to a partnership with Leonard to save both of their islands.

Now, they have to make a dream team.

They get Chuck and Bomb, but when they go to Mighty Eagle, he runs in fear when hearing the name “Eagle Island”. Wondering how to figure out this volcanic superweapon being built on the island, they realize they need some type of expert. Chuck mentions he has a sister named Silver who’s currently at the top of her class at Avian Academy and is an engineer. They go to meet her, but it’s the bird Red had the huge argument with at the speed dating event! Obviously, they don’t get off on the right foot, but she agrees to join the team, especially after befriending Bomb and Leonard. Next, we jump to the hatchlings again and see them finally catch up to the eggs they lost in the middle of the ocean. They grab them, but a whale from underneath them shoots water out of its blowhole, sending the eggs directly on top of a cloud. The first Special Forces Meeting takes place in Mighty Eagle’s cave, with Mighty Eagle rejoining the team. Red and Leonard do a presentation to show the team what they’re up against, but they still seem to be fighting over who’s captain. When they get to the slide with Zeta’s face on it, Mighty Eagle freaks out but insists he doesn’t know her. Then, Red explains the very basic plan, but considering there aren’t any specific details (“get to Eagle Island undetected, break in, destroy weapon”), Silver comes to the realization that they have no plan. As they all argue, Silver takes a look at a map Mighty Eagle owns of Eagle Island.

Just then, an ice ball is sent directly into the mountain, destroying Mighty Eagle’s dwelling.

Thankfully, the group is able to escape as Mighty Eagle had everyone hang onto him as he flew out the escape exit. As we see Zeta watch the video of her destruction on replay back on Eagle Island, we see Mighty Eagle crash headfirst into another mountain and the team all free falling to the ground. Because of Red’s suggestion, they all grab onto the map, and it turns into a makeshift parachute for a bit. Unfortunately, it ends up tearing in the middle, and they end up falling again. Silver then ties up the middle of the map to save them at the last second, with her landing awkwardly on top of Red. They both immediately argue who saved who. As the rest of Mighty Eagle’s mountain crumbles, the village watches in shock. Watching from afar, Zeta is surprised the birds aren’t leaving in a fright, so she suggests to Glenn that the next batch of ice balls have molten lava inside of them on account of thermal emulsifiers. Back on Bird Island, Matilda (Rudolph) asks Red if they should evacuate, but he insists there is nothing to worry about and that the group has it all covered. Now, the fate of two islands is in his hands.

Red, Silver, Chuck, Bomb, Leonard, Mighty Eagle, and Leonard’s assistant Courtney (Awkwafna) all get into Leonard’s gigantic submarine en route to Eagle Island to stop Zeta and the superweapon. The pressure is on!

My Thoughts:

Though not as great as its predecessor, it’s damn close. The Angry Birds Movie 2 is a wonderful continuation of the franchise and offers a satisfying conclusion for fans of the series, assuming we’ll never get a third film (which I feel is a safe bet at this point).

Once again, the story of Red carries the movie, played with a very good repeat performance by Jason Sudeikis, further coming into his own as the main character. Red has gone through a lot since the first film. Before, he was rough around the edges, refused to interact with anyone, and was hated by everyone in the community (and he didn’t like them either). Now, he’s a hero. He saved Bird Island and is now the new protector of the place, rectifying the ending of the previous film where they implied Mighty Eagle got a majority of the credit for saving everyone. For the record, I thought it was a decent moment in terms of comedy, but it was frustrating from a narrative perspective. Thankfully, we still saw a lot of the villagers still acknowledging Red and what he did, with the hatchlings even singing a song dedicated to him. He was finally happy. Even then, it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as seeing where Red was at to open this sequel. Here, he’s their everyday superhero. Though Mighty Eagle was treated like this in the first movie, despite not being there to the point where they questioned his existence, Red is present in the everyday lives of the birds, as the pigs have tried countless times in attacking the island since. This has given Red purpose and has solidified his celebrity status on the island. The birds all love him, and he likes being looked at as the hero of the people. This is why he’s afraid of Leonard’s truce.

Sure, peace is always the goal, but what now? Red isn’t ready for peace. He doesn’t know what to do with himself. With no war, who is he? What does he do now? Are the people going to forget what he did? Are they going to forget who he is? If he isn’t the hero anymore, will they stop liking him? Now that they don’t have to live in fear, Red doesn’t know what to do with himself, so we see him lying to the others and saying this has to be one of Leonard’s plans because he doesn’t want to believe it. It’s not that he doesn’t want this to happen, it’s just that he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if it does happen. It’s a scary thing for a person to lose their purpose and forget who they are, and this is where we open with Red. When shown with the threat of Zeta, he jumps at the chance for one more opportunity of glory to lead a team into battle, as it gives him meaning once again and extends his reign at the top just a little longer. He wants to cling at the last bit of relevancy he has, mostly because he’s afraid that his next chapter in life may not be as kind to him. Based off how we know he was treated before, his concerns are legitimate. Because of this, he sees this very real, world-ending problem as a chance to regain his top guy status, rather than accepting it with the goal of saving his fellow birds and pigs. It’s a very interesting internal conflict he deals with, and it adds a lot to the character development of Red and what he’s become over the course of two films. Along the way, he learns the importance of teamwork and how to be a true leader in battle and in life in general.

A big part of this film is Red’s burgeoning friendship/romantic partnership with Silver, Chuck’s sister. At first, I was a little weary of the idea, but I realized a different dynamic was needed to spice things up. Everyone else on the team is a returning character, so you need a strong personality to change things up a bit. Thankfully, they tone down the remnants of her character that are similar to Chuck once she joins the team because if they didn’t, she would’ve gotten annoying in a hurry. Her challenging the leader position did a lot of good for the story. We know she’s a genius (and a lonely one at that due to her being at the speed dating thing), and the other characters find this out quickly. Leonard even bows out of the running of captain because she’s so impressive. The thing is, Red needs this, and Silver can sense it. Plus, she’s not pushy in the stuff she knows. Silver is very aware of how important Red’s ego is to the team. If his confidence is killed, it affects his abilities exponentially. As a result, the team’s confidence will drop as well. Her engineering skills are more important to the group than Red’s nonplan, but she doesn’t want to step on any toes to disrupt the team’s all-important chemistry. As long as Red is all-in, they have a shot at pulling this off. To do so, while fixing the “plan” to actually make sense, she lets Red retain the role of captain but devises a separate plan unbeknownst to him.

This allows for the rest of the members to come up with the Trojan Horse/”Harvey” plan. Though she figures they have a better chance of getting in undetected with this plan, she is nice enough to decide to go with Red to back him up once they get to the island.

Also, though no one admits it to Red, his plan is a much better one compared to the hilariously idiotic “Harvey” one the others came up with.

Silver joining Red frustrates him, but we see how much they need each other. As smart as she is, her final plan wouldn’t have worked without Red’s idea with the string. She’s a technical genius, but Red is fearless and is great at improvising, two skills vital in war. They play off each other well, and when they start to realize each other’s importance, the sparks begin to fly. Silver’s inclusion makes Red a better bird and her presence helps complete his character arc. At one point, he lets her come up with the final plan to hopefully stop Zeta, but it’s not as if Red is incompetent. A real leader can see where his team members can help. In some situations, they can help more than him and be the focal point depending on the situation. Real leaders can admit this and considering the importance of the mission, Red realizes he can’t be selfish and make everything about him. He entrusts Silver to take the reins because she’s proven she’s the most valuable asset of the team in this given situation. Instead of trying to out-do her and fight her at every turn to complete the mission on his own and look like the hero he was in the first movie (something he was doing up until the climax), he realizes he would be doing everyone a disservice if he underutilized her in favor of his own ego. It was a team effort and seeing both Red and Silver acknowledge it instead of one person taking credit for it, shows how well each character contributed and benefitted from the mission and each other.

The only thing I would’ve added to Silver’s characterization was her issue in finding a connection with a male bird. We saw how her classmates treat her, and we know she was at the speed dating event on a mission. It would’ve been fun had they played with her inability to find a fellow bird to date. She didn’t have any negative aspects to her character to make her vulnerable. Red is full of problems! How come the sole female character is damn near perfect? The only thing we know about her is the relationship problems, but they barely touch on it following the speed dating scene. I’m not saying she has to suck, but she needs to have some sort of flaw. Her problem with making friends or having dating partners would’ve been a cool way to show what she needs to change about herself and how she’ll benefit from the others in a team environment, rather than being head and shoulders above everyone else from the start and only needing Red for help towards the end of the mission. What makes Red a well-rounded character is that not only does he get help from his teammates in the mission, but he also learns a lot from them in life. Silver needed a bit more to learn from. Don’t get me wrong, she was still very likable and her chemistry with Red was a big part of this movie’s success, but her character arc would’ve been improved a lot had she had something she needed to overcome.

Though the “B” story with the cute little hatchlings wasn’t entirely necessary, it had its moments. To a lesser degree, it felt reminiscent of Scrat’s adventures in the Ice Age movies when considering its lack of importance to the rest of the story. I will say I was laughing pretty hard when the three accidentally shot themselves into space (with “Major Tom” by Peter Schilling playing) and subsequently when they came back into Earth’s atmosphere and were all set ablaze for a moment. Their separate adventure was very Looney Tunes-esque. Finding a way to make Mighty Eagle a big part of this was awesome as well because as you know, he was easily one of my favorite parts of the first movie. I won’t spoil it, but the backstory they come up with is thoroughly entertaining. Zeta isn’t as good of a villain as Leonard was in the first film, but she was still memorable, as was her character design. Leslie Jones had a solid performance as the villain too and once she comes face to face with our heroes once they infiltrate her lair, her character really shines. It just takes a bit to get there because for the first half of the film, her character felt like the typical generic villain you’d come to expect in an animated film. Once we learn more about the connection though, the course is corrected and we’re all in.

In terms of humor, the movie is very funny. The screenplay is a lot goofier than the film’s predecessor but equally as amusing. It’s just a different type of humor this time around. Almost every gag and cutaway work, and I cannot stress this enough. From Bomb’s comment of “I eat dirt!” at the speed dating event, to the opera singing, to the seal that consistently steals something and winks at Zeta, to the accidental break dance battle, to Red thinking he saved the day by clipping random wires (even though the wires were just for the microwave), every joke worked. It happened at a breakneck pace and had that chaotic cartoon energy newer animated films a lot of times miss (“Plan X? I thought you said spandex?”). The “Harvey” sequence was a perfect example of this. It was downright hysterical. The James Bond influence of the second half of the movie was welcomed (as well as all of Garry’s inventions screwing up), and the rest of the cast were excellent in their supporting roles. No character felt left out. Everyone had something to do.

We won’t get an Angry Birds Movie 3 because the video game series isn’t popular anymore, but I’m okay with it. In just two films, we’ve come full circle. With the way the story turns out in The Angry Birds Movie 2, Red has completed his full character arc. There’s nothing else left to do that wouldn’t feel like an unnecessary retread. The character has learned from past mistakes, has changed for the better, and will dually live on as the protector he wanted to be but also be content where he’s at in life because of the people who helped him along the way. This is how you write a character arc over two films. When he feels as if he let himself down, he’s told by a cheering crowd “We love you even more now Red!”, and it’s true. He realizes everything happened for a reason. Now, he’s good with where he’s at. He feels complete and as a fan of both movies, so do I.