Why So Blu?

The Angry Birds Movie (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

The Angry Birds Movie is not something I woke up on Friday thinking wow I can’t wait to watch this one in 4K Blu-ray.  No way!  I came home from a hard day of work and found the latest Blu-ray care package on my doorstep that day.  I immediately proceeded to rip the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment package open.  I knew I was receiving The Angry Birds Movie for my reviewer, Brandon Peters, but what I didn’t know was that it was the 4K Blu-ray Combo Pack that pretty much contains everything under the kitchen sink.  I’m not kidding you about that.  I’ll talk a little more about everything you’ll find within here down below in the Extras section.

The main problem here is the fact that as of right now I’m the only one currently set up on the site with a certified 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray setup (see my qualifying gear here).  Therefore, the honor is bestowed upon me here to crack the proverbial bread and dish out everything you’ll find here at least 4K-wise.  Later on next week Brandon Peters will be reviewing it from the regular Blu-ray side of the shop.  However, stop and think about this for a moment.  Do you see how much I love my reviewers?  When I’m able to, I’ll make the greatest sacrifices for them and their loved ones.  I care that much, but for now I must digress.  We have a movie to review.  So here goes nothing.  As the birds scream when they fly through the air in the iOS or Android game of the same name, weeeeeeeee!

Film

The Angry Birds Movie is billed as the film that quickly became one of the highest-grossing video game based films of all time.  I’m not going to dispute that, research it or worry about it.  I just want to get through this movie review unscathed.  On the surface, The Angry Birds Movie really has a lot going for it with the talented voice cast of Bill Hader, Danny McBride, Jason Sudekis, Josh Gad, Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon (the best part of 2016’s Ghostbusters), Sean Penn, Peter Dinklage and more.  You don’t need me to tell you, those are some pretty impressive names.  These names alone made me definitely curious about this one to say the absolute least.  Otherwise, all I have to go on is my affinity for the iOS game despite the fact that I probably haven’t played it for over a year.  Oh well!  There’s always tomorrow.  The future’s not written in stone.

The last order of housekeeping business before we all begin here is giving due credit where it’s deserved.  The Columbia Pictures/Rovio Animation film is directed by Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis from a screenplay by Jon Vitti.  I also want to make this one point prominently clear.  The written synopsis of The Angry Birds Movie promises us one thing.  We’ll finally be able to find out why these birds are so “angry.”  I held the marketing company to this as I sat down to watch this feature for the first time (yes I did say for the first time).

I’m happy to report that the synopsis doesn’t lie!  You really do find out how these lovable birds we’re so used to tossing around did become angry.  Call it an origin story, call it whatever you like.  I call it a great movie!  As I was telling WSB reviewer Brandon Peters via text message today, it kind of made me wish I had a kid of my own to share this film with.  Oh well that’s what reincarnation and the next life is for, right?  Hell yeah!  So here’s what all goes down in our story.

The Angry Birds Movie takes us to an island paradise populated entirely by “mostly” happy, flightless birds.  Now let’s stop right there for a moment.  They’re birds!  How can they be flightless?  I don’t understand this, but whatever.  On this island paradise, Red (Sudeikis), a bird with a temper problem, speedy Chuck (Gad), and the volatile Bomb (McBride) have always been outsiders.  Even worse, they are all ordered to be in anger management classes due to their tempers.  Fret not!  It is explained why they are ordered to address their anger issues.  However, when the island is visited by mysterious green piggies, things aren’t what they seem on the surface with them.  Ultimately it’s up to these unlikely outcasts to figure out what the pigs are up to and of course save the day with everyone’s help.

So you’re probably asking yourself this.  How does this grown man whose words I am reading here actually like a children’s film such as this?  Well, I did say I used to play the Angry Birds game did I not?  I was very fervent about my time with the birds and it consumed a lot of my time for years.  Yes, it’s a time waster, but for someone like me who’s very competitive it’s so much more.  When they introduced Angry Birds Friends years ago it was game on!  That meant I could go head-to-head every week with my friends and you better believe I played the crap out of that game.  No one wants to be a loser, right?

What I loved about The Angry Birds Movie was it not only addressed why these birds are all so angry, but it also was a fun time.  I mean how can you not have fun when a kids movie features a soundtrack that includes Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” Limp Bizkit, Scorpions, Tone Loc and more?  To further my favorable case it’s hilarious to hear how they use other bird-like “F-words” in place of THE F-word.  That’s all fine and dandy you say, but you’re more mature than that.  Okay.  That’s fair.  I have thick skin.  How about when they take a famous scene from The Shining and reproduce it within here.  Do I have your attention yet?

There are so many pop culture references within this film that I stopped counting after awhile.  Nevertheless, I did not stop having a fun time with The Angry Birds Movie.  Believe you me, no one is more surprised about this than myself.  I never thought I would be “cuckoo” over The Angry Birds Movie.  I kind of thought these birds were dead since I stopped playing the game over a year ago.  I know what I’m doing tonight!  Ha ha.

Last but not least, I wanted to tackle the pseudo origin like aspect of the story here.  Yes, we see when the piggies and birds first meet.  Yes, we also learn what made the birds so angry.  However, one of the coolest things for me that I enjoyed the most was how it brought the world of the video game to life.  This is where I thought the filmmakers would have surely failed.  I really thought this was not an adaptable story.  I was so wrong!  I had a blast learning how items in the game came to be such as the infamous slingshot, trampoline, TNT boxes, balloons and even the Mighty Eagle.  Oh yeah!  Trust me, the filmmakers left nothing out here and somehow there were able to cram it all in more cohesively and tight than a Spider-man film with three villains.  Bravo!

Video

The below video score and relative comments are based solely upon my viewing of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of The Angry Birds Movie.

• Encoding: HEVC / H.265
• Resolution: 4K (2160p)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Clarity/Detail: The Angry Birds Movie is not going to win any awards for movie of the year or even 4K Blu-ray of the year, but make no mistake here this HDR presentation is a glorious one.  It’s hard for animated feature not to look good in HD, but this one’s extra exceptional.  Textures are expertly rendered throughout here. Every feather is accounted for not to mention ever piece of straw making up a bird’s home.  Elements like water and physical objects like plungers look authentic and real.  You get the picture?  Things look great here!
• Depth: Everywhere you look and every sequence you select here is remarkable in the depth of field department.  Look through the forests, out through the trees or even the clouds over the islands and you’ll see what I’m talking about here.  All onscreen characters just have that three-dimensional pop we all crave in our HD presentations.  This one certainly doesn’t disappoint you there.
• Black Levels: Black levels are all deep and inky throughout.  There’s really nothing else to talk about here, it’s perfect.
• Color Reproduction: The colors are bright, bold, striking and vivacious throughout.  This is one fine looking HDR presentation.  The Wide Color Gamut faithfully reproduces so many different shades here that it just proves how visually stunning animated sources can look like in 4K.  I need to check out The Lego Movie and Peanuts one day in 4K Blu-ray.
• Flesh Tones: Skin tones on the pigs look solid green and technically sound throughout.
• Noise/Artifacts: You really want to go here?  Whether you like The Angry Birds Movie or not, there’s absolutely nothing to distract you here in this HDR presentation.  It’s flawless!

Audio

As previously mentioned up above in the video section, the below audio score and critiques are based solely upon my viewing of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of The Angry Birds Movie.

• Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible), English Audio Descriptive Track and French, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Indonesian, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mandarin (PRC), Mandarin (Taiwan), Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Ukrainian, Vietnamese 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Indonesian/Bahasa, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Vietnamese
• Dynamics: At first I thought The Angry Birds Movie was just going to be an adequate Atmos presentation, but once we got past the bloated first half of the film things really kicked in here and became wildly engaging.  There are plenty of quiet and endearing moments to be had here, but on the flip side be prepared for the dynamics of chaos and destruction in the film’s final act.  It’s quite spectacular as every sound and environmental nuance is faithfully reproduced.
• Height: When we’re talking Atmos here we’re really talking wild explosions and high soaring birds.  However, it’s the explosions in the track here that really make me take notice of the height channels here.  For example there’s one sequence where the piggies are dancing on a stage for the birds and they explode the roof off.  That was nice!  Ha ha.
• Low Frequency Extension: The LFE channel complements this Atmos surround track quite nicely.  The low undertones are most noticeable in the hip hop music, Bomb’s explosions, the many crashes and blows, Terence’s sighs and even Red’s heart thumping when he gets mad.  You get the idea.  The subwoofer doesn’t jump off the ground like a summer action blockbuster, but instead it thumps when necessary and otherwise gives everything else that little extra oomph that makes this a near perfect presentation.  I say near perfect because while I could not find anything to really ding this one for there’s better material to use for demo purposes out there.
• Surround Sound Presentation: I heart the directional precision of this surround track.  Every onscreen movement is rendered authentically across the speakers to match.  You can’t ask for anything more than that, right?  The rear channels fill themselves with the soundtrack and score, voices, clapping, launching birds and so much more.  They stay busy and so will you once the chaos and piggy destruction of Act 3 begins here.
• Dialogue Reproduction: The dialogue in this audio presentation is clear and intelligible throughout.  I have zero complaints here.

Extras

The Angry Birds Movie 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray set arrives in a really thick package (see screenshots below).  I made mention of this up above, but in all seriousness there’s a lot going on in here.  For fans of the film, this is a big bang for your buck!  Not only do you get The Angry Birds Movie feature on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc, but you also get it on a 3D Blu-ray disc, 2D Blu-ray discs and a Digital HD copy of it too (I hear that’s how 2016’s Ghostbusters will come packaged too).  If that’s not enough for you, there’s a slew of bonus material house on the 2D Blu-ray disc that we’re about to go through down below too.

Additionally, fans can unlock even more content by syncing the Angry Birds Action! app with the audio on the Blu-ray or Digital version of the movie. The Angry Birds Action! app movie integration will also extend to retail where fans can unlock an augmented reality Hatchlings selfie feature by scanning “bird codes” on in-store signage.  I’ll let you experiment and try out this latter app functionality yourselves.  I can’t be having and spoiling all the fun for you here.  My main job is to focus on the 2D Blu-ray disc’s supplemental materials.  Speaking of which, here they are! 

FYI…this Blu-ray is a little difficult to navigate if you’re solely after the supplemental features.  You have to select the option that says No Eggs Here to get into all the extras. 

• Symphony Mode (HD) – This one is probably for the fans only or the parents sick of hearing all the dialog.  Ha ha.  This extra allows viewers to play the movie without all the squawking, just the music.  Yee haw!  You have so many ways to play the movie in this 4K Ultra HD set.
• Making Music! With Composer Heitor Pereira (HD, 10:31) – Here you can select between 6 different segments, “Red’s Theme,” Pig’s Theme,” “Chuck’s Theme,”Action Music!, ” “Mission Theme” and “Red’s Anger Theme.”  There’s also a Play All option for all of these too.  Music composer Heitor Pereira talks about each of the 6 theme songs here and explains how he created them.  It’s pretty cool as he hums, strums his guitar and plays other sources of music.  I am a sucker for extras like these when it comes to the creation of the film’s score.   Of course you all get to see him in action with the orchestra performing the score too.
• Blake Shelton Music Video “Friends” (HD, 3:04) – This one is what it is, the music video from the infamous piggy line dancing song in the film.  I’m not a country western music fan, but the song’s not bad.  I’ll give it that.  It kind of grows on you due to my love of this animated film.
• Photo Gallery (HD) – Here’s a place where fans can see drawings and renderings of the birds, pigs and environments from the film.
• Hatchlings (HD, 9:38) – Here we have a series of shorts and one featurette.  There’s a Play All functionality available here for ease of navigation.  For starters this extra contains the all-new short “The Early Hatchling Gets the Worm” and a series of three fun mini-movies featuring the Hatchlings: “An Easter Message,” “A Mother’s Day Message” and “Season’s Greetings.” The featurette here is called “Meet the Hatchlings” and it’s where the cast and filmmakers talk about the cute little ones in this film.
• Deleted Scenes (HD, 6:33) – Here you can select Play All for easy of navigation or choose between 6 deleted scenes: Bonus Scene – Chuck’s Rescue, Happy Birthday!, Red’s Apology, Coconut Story, Whoopie Cushion and Mighty Eagle.
• Crafty Birds (HD, 4:45) – Here you can learn firsthand how to build your own Piggy Tower using you guessed it, crafting items!
• Dance Along Birds and Pigs (HD, 3:35) – Here fans of the movie can learn to line dance just like the one scene in particular in the film, the country-western performance the pigs do (yay!).  No thanks!  Ha ha.  It’s here for y’all though.  Practice at your own leisure.
• Creating the Real World of Angry Birds (HD, 8:29) – Jason Sudeikis and Josh Gad introduce this one as the filmmakers go into detail as to how The Angry Birds Movie was designed, developed and produced.  The biggest challenge here though as the filmmakers explain how to take the video game world everyone knows and make it into a movie. Amen!  In my opinion, they succeeded wildly here!  I like how they go into all the little, intricate detail they put into the design and graphics of this feature.
• Meet The Birds (HD, 10:26) – This one is pretty cool!  Here you get to meet your favorite birds in the film, Chuck, Red, Bomb, Matilda and Terence!  I love it!  The filmmakers and crew take you on a behind-the-scenes look at the design process of it all.  We also get a look at the voice actors in action.  I love this too!  Ha ha.
• Meet The Pigs (HD, 5:05) – Just like above, here you get to meet the pigs in the film and for example, watch Bill Hader voice the King here.  I can’t say enough good things about these two extras.
• Bubbles and Hal (HD, 1:35) – This one is an animated short featuring you guessed it, the birds Bubbles and Hal.

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Summary

Here are my questions to Rovio and the filmmakers.  Why now?  Why wasn’t this movie made years ago during all the rage and fervor there was for the Angry Birds game/app?  Whatever the reason is I am happy to have this in my home media library now.  The Angry Birds Movie is really not bad.  I know it sounds like I am trying to make justifications for my liking it.  While that is true I dare you to take a step back to clear your preconceptions, get past that long bloated beginning here and lose yourself in the plot.  It’s actually an inspiring one that ties in perfectly with the game itself.  It made me want to play it again.   Last but not least, I believe The Angry Birds Movie is one that both children and adults can find some common ground in liking the film.  It has pop culture references and lame bird jokes.  What more do you want?  Oh yeah!  The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation is reference too.  Do it for the kiddos!  They deserve the best presentation.  Their eyes are important and they only live once.  Treat them!

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DISCLAIMER: This 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review was judged and graded using the following 4K certified A/V gear found here.  Make sure to check out all out 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reviews archived here.

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