[BLU-RAY REVIEW] ‘The Angry Birds Movie’

If you liked the recent hit movie The Angry Birds Movie you will enjoy the film’s blu-ray, which was released on August 16^th. The blu-ray comes with a pair of stick-on angry eyes to act out your favorite scenes from the movie. There is also a 4K Ultra HD version option you can purchase and an HD code to add it to your streaming library. The film looks nice on the home screen with a high quality to the animation as they faced the difficult task of adapting an app game to the big screen.

Bonus Features ✮✮✮✮

Even though I had some issues with the film, the special features on the blu-ray were actually well worth a look. I think little children under 5 will especially love the content that focuses on the hatchlings  and the variety of activities to participate in.

• 4 Hatchling Shorts – There is really only one short called The Early Hatchling Gets the Worm. It is pretty adorable with a little hatchling playing with his worm friend. They got the baby hatchling voices down perfectly. The other 3 shorts are more like holiday greetings for Easter, Mother’s Day and the Winter Holidays.
• Meet the Hatchlings – Little children will love this look at the creation of the hatchlings and their importance to the movie
• Angry Birds Action! How to Sync – This is a quick special feature that tells you about the new Angry Birds Action game and how you can sync it to get special features when watching the movie
• Deleted Scenes – 6 deleted scenes. I am surprised how many of these are finished. Usually deleted scenes in animated films are rough sketches.
• Dance Along with the Birds and Pigs – A dancer and characters from the film show you how to do the line dance to ‘Friends’ from the film. It shows kids a good look at the feet of the dancer and the characters also dancing. I think kids and families will have a lot of fun dancing together.
• Crafty Birds –This is a pretty creative special feature. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. They walk kids through a simple craft project- creating a catapult and pigs to knock down using simple household items.
• Creating the World of Angry Birds– Behind the scenes on how they came up with Bird Island and Pig City narrated by Jason Sudeikis and Josh Gad. As a lover of the art of animation I found this fascinating
• Meet Bubbles and Hal, the Birds and the Pigs- 3 shorts giving some background into the transition of the game characters into their feature film counterparts. The animators, contributors and voice talent are seen
• Blake Shelton “Friends” Music Video– If you like country music, which I do, you will enjoy this music video with Blake Shelton singing with the characters from The Angry Birds Movie. It’s not a half bad song.
• Making Music with Composer Heitor Pereira– 6 shorts that follow the films composer into the various themes he wrote for the film. I liked how he showed the orchestra and all the unusual instruments he used to create the sounds of the birds.
• Photo Gallery- Massive photo gallery showing concept and finished art for the characters, Pig City and Bird Island
• In-Theater Policy Trailers– 2 advertisements about purchasing gift cards for the movie theater and one to remind moviegoers to turn off your cell phone! (Mason would like that one!)
• Symphony Mode- This is a new one I’ve never heard of. You can turn off the “squawks and oinks with symphony mode”
• Previews– Trailers for Angry Birds Toons Season 3 vol 1, Surf’s Up 2: Wave Mania, Hotel Transylvania 2, Open Season: Scared Silly

Final Thoughts

The Angry Birds Movie has some problems in the story and messaging but there is enjoyment to be had in it. Fortunately, Rovio has really done a tremendous job with this blu-ray. There is an impressive variety to the special features including crafts, behind the scenes shorts and even dance instruction.

If you enjoyed the movie you will definitely want to pick it up on blu-ray!