Free Birds (2013)

“Goodbyes are just hellos blowing across the wind until our paths intersect once again.” – Jake, Free Birds

Here’s a message to the Americans in the audience.  I don’t know how many there are, so this may not be going out to too many people.  There aren’t a whole lot of views each week when I put new posts up.  Anyway, happy Thanksgiving to all of you.  We here in Canada had our Thanksgiving last month, which meant we’ve had time to work off the feast before Christmas.  You guys aren’t so lucky.  You have just a month in between.  You’re still in a food coma when you get to the next holiday.  Yikes!

This week’s movie fits into the holiday theme.  It’s a movie about Thanksgiving.  It takes on a modern Thanksgiving, but also takes on the original American Thanksgiving.  It’s a movie about the food that people tend to eat during this time of year.  Specifically, it is about turkeys.  The movie is Free Birds.

You might be thinking, “But isn’t that a Lynyrd Skynyrd song?”  No.  Freebird is the song.  Free Birds is a 2013 animated film about Reggie (Owen Wilson), the presidential pardoned turkey, who went back in time with another turkey named Jake (Woody Harrelson) to stop turkeys from becoming the meal at the first Thanksgiving.  Along the way, they met a tribe of turkeys that teach them how to be more intelligent than the modern turkeys.  It was a fun animated comedy and I’m not sure why it was suggested in the first place.

What made Free Birds better than the reputation it has garnered?  There are a few reasons.  The jokes landing well was the most apparent point for it actually being good.  There was good voice work and a solid story to go along with it.  I’m going to start with the story, which will sound insane when I mention it, but actually ended up being fairly solid.

The Story

Free Birds was about Thanksgiving.  It began in a modern time, as Reggie lived on a turkey farm.  This was a place where turkeys were grown and slaughtered for food.  The turkeys weren’t smart enough to realize what was happening.  Except for Reggie, of course.  He knew what was happening and wanted the turkeys to plan an escape.

When the president arrived to find a turkey to pardon for that year’s Thanksgiving, his daughter chose Reggie.  This sent Reggie to Camp David, where he learned to live the good life.  He discovered television and pizza and became your stereotypical American.  It brought about some great comedic moments, including Reggie answering the door for the pizza guy and speaking in turkey speak because he’s a turkey.

One night, when Reggie zoned out, Jake kidnapped him.  He said there was a time machine somewhere around Camp David.  They needed to go back to the first Thanksgiving and stop turkeys from being on the menu.  Reggie tried to get back to his easy life, but ended up, through a series of unfortunate events, in the time machine.

The rest of the movie was spent with Reggie and Jake helping a tribe of turkeys survive an attack by the Pilgrims leading up to the first Thanksgiving.  Reggie fell in love, Jake learned his place in the world, and a few time travel tropes came into play.  There was one scene where four different versions of Reggie interacted.

It was a solid story about turkeys learning how to be better.  Reggie learned that a pampered life may not be the best.  He learned that taking in the world around him was better than isolating himself in front of a television.  It’s a great lesson for children, and one that seems to be getting passed over simply because people think the movie looks dumb.  Jake’s story was to never give up on your goals.  He wanted to save turkeys.  It looked like he wouldn’t be able to succeed because of all the obstacles that appeared.  With the help of the tribe and his new best friend Reggie, Jake accomplished his task.  He regained his confidence.  They were solid story arcs that could teach children a thing or two.

The Jokes

One of the most underrated styles of comedy is reactionary humour.  There aren’t a lot of people that can give a variety of great reactions that continue to get laughs.  Kenan Thompson is a great reactionary comedian, which may be why he has managed to stay on Saturday Night Live for so long.

Few animated films can capture the comedic reactions of real people.  Something about transitioning the emotions of a real person to their animated counterpart loses the reality.  Free Birds captured the reactions without them being simple double takes.  When the president’s daughter introduced the governmental staff, they reacted in horrified, worried, and shame-filled ways.  You could see those feelings in their faces and physical movements.  It worked better than some live action comedies.

Other jokes also helped to bring the movie above the bad reputation it has.  The aforementioned turkey answering the door for pizza bit was great.  There was also a strange dance scene in the middle of the movie between Jake and the turkey tribe’s equivalent to Jake.  It felt like it came out of nowhere, but it was one of the funniest moments, capped off with some chipmunks clapping at the end of the routine.

Free Birds delivered on laughs frequently, which is what you want out of a comedy.  It’s not a groan-inducing movie.  I smiled and had a good time throughout.  It never let off the comedy and was more successful than not.

Voice Work

Animated movies pride themselves on the people that they get to perform the characters’ voices.  Pixar tries to find the perfect person to portray the characters, whether it’s Tom Hanks as Woody, or Patton Oswalt as Remy.  Other animated movies create a voice cast of name actors based on stardom alone.

Free Birds fell into a weird middle territory.  It didn’t get huge stars who automatically sell movies.  Owen Wilson is known mostly for his collaborations with people like Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Wes Anderson.  He’s not known for headlining his own movie (except for Drillbit Taylor). Having him be the star of an animated film was a different kind of role that you wouldn’t think could happen.  But it did.  His voice is a unique one that was interesting to listen to.

Then there was Woody Harrelson as Jake.  It was the sort of role he has played in live action.  He’s the dim-witted yet energetic and friendly best buddy character.  He had a similar character in Cheers, the show that made him a star.  He knows that kind of character inside and out.  But, even with the success of The Hunger Games and the franchise that followed it, Woody Harrelson isn’t a big enough star in the current cinematic landscape to sell a movie.

The rest of the cast was rounded out by Amy Poehler, Keith David, George Takei, Colm Meaney, and Dan Fogler.  None of them were bad.  Keith David and George Takei have done quite a bit of voice acting each.  Dan Fogler hasn’t gotten the credit he deserves for the comedic performances he gives.  Amy Poehler has a more well-known voice performance in last year’s Inside Out.  Many of them are able to fit into the world of Free Birds seamlessly, creating a great aural experience.

Maybe they were trying to stick to the “find the right voice” method when they were casting Free Birds.  For some reason, I don’t feel like they were.  They were casting based on stardom (hence the character posters), but couldn’t get big enough stars to call it a star-studded cast.  It was no Shark Tale, Madagascar, or Over the Hedge.  It’s more on par with something like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs where the cast is a solidly built cast of great performers, but they aren’t big enough to sell a movie on their own, and they weren’t chosen specifically because the character was perfect for them.  Though, you might argue that the characters were perfect for the actors in both movies.  At least, the actors made the most of the characters.

Free Birds has been wrongly categorized as bad.  Had I known that, I probably would have left it out of the schedule.  But it’s here.  I watched it.  I defended it.  Most of the people reading this will be thinking that I’m crazy.  What’s new?  I watch at least one bad movie every week because I have nothing better to do with my time.  Well, I used to have nothing better to do with my time.  I have stuff to do now but still put out these posts as a self-service and because about ten people read them.

Anyway, Free Birds isn’t as bad as people say.  It’s entertaining.  People need to stop saying that any movie that isn’t up to their standards of greatness is terrible.  Movies are not binary.  It isn’t great movie or terrible movie all the time.  There are movies in between.  There is a grey area.  Free Birds is in the grey area, though it leans toward the higher end.  It’s not terrible.  Stop acting like it is.  It’s perfectly fine, and might end up being a Thanksgiving classic.

These notes are anything but perfect:

• Free Birds was suggested by @mrjafri.
• Owen Wilson made a third appearance in the Sunday “Bad” Movies with Free Birds.  He had previously been in Anaconda and The Hero of Color City.
• Two actors from the Deuce Bigalow franchise worked on Free Birds.  Amy Poehler was in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, and Charles Ponce was in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.
• Elisa Gabrielli from Beverly Hills Chihuahua was featured in Free Birds.
• Woody Harrelson had prominent roles in both Free Birds and Money Train.
• Finally, Keith David shared his voice in Free Birds.  He was recently introduced into the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Road House.
• Have you seen Free Birds? If so, do you like it or dislike it?  Why do so many people think this is a bad movie?  You can share your thoughts in the comments.
• What other movies do you think I should watch for the Sunday “Bad” Movies?  You can let me know in the comments or on Twitter.  I’m always looking for new things to discover.
• Sometimes I share clips of the bad movies I watch on snapchat.  You can find me with the username jurassicgriffin.
• Next week is the fourth anniversary of the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  I’m not sure if there will be a bonus post.  I may try and scare something up for next week.  Nothing new, but I might be able to find something on my computer.  Who knows?  For the anniversary, I held a tournament to determine what movie I should rewatch.  The votes have been counted.  It seems that I’ll be watching Jingle All the Way again.  Not the second one.  The first one.  It narrowly beat out Road House for the rewatch.  I’ll see you next week, when I’ve written something about the movie.