Movie Information
Release Date: September 23, 2016
Directors: Nicholas Stoller, Doug Sweeland
Writer: Nicholas Stoller
Cast: Andy Samberg, Katie Crown, Kelsey Grammar, Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell, Anton Stakman, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Danny Trejo, Stephen Kramer Glickman, Christopher Nicholas Smith, Awkwafina, Ike Barinholtz, Jorma Taccone, Amanda Lund
MPAA Rating: PG
Runtime: 89 minutes
Production Company: Stoller Global Solutions, Warner Animation Group, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Bros.
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Language: English
Country: USA
Budget: $70,000,000 (estimated)
Can you imagine if babies were actually delivered to your front door by request by a stork? Absolutely not, but whoever came up with the idea did. No one would be excited for this feature except children, but we all can relate to hearing this once or twice as a child. That may be who you initially thought this was aimed at, but adults may find some enjoyment too.
This film is being co-directed by Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors)and Doug Sweetland. Sweetland is making his directorial debut with Storks. The choice to involve Stoller is an interesting one if you look at his previous works. With Storks he’s able to craft a film that children will of course enjoy, but adults will too. Adults will mainly enjoy the presence of the adult characters and how they may represent everyday life. Work, work, work, and more work, without spending time with the ones that really matter. This subplot that was created for the overall arc speaks volumes but has a hard time connecting to the rest of the story.
The rest of the material, focusing on the title, deals with storks. Even though their environment is completely impractical, this is an animation so suspending your disbelief is expected. These storks aren’t the typical storks that you’re used to. They don’t deliver babies, but rather packages worldwide as a retailer. This decision created a fun filled adventure that’s hard to predict and has a decent amount of tension for the audience.
Some of the characters work well, while others will make you upset. All the leads play a respectable part, except for one nerdy mutated stork that’s an over-exaggeration of everything annoying and distasteful. It wasn’t necessary and ruined the flow from scene to scene. And though the scenes were fine individually, they had a hard time coming together. It feels like one director wrote the script and did all the leg work, while the other pieced it together at times with a blindfold. There’s three different stories told at different times; and while they all are great, the film did a horrible job bringing them together.
In the end a lesson can be taken from this film about what really matters and the power of love. You could walk into the theater with the worst of attitudes and still have a good number of laughs to bring up your spirits. Though the flow of the movie is easily the worst part, at only 89 minutes it felt like two plus hours lingering on and on.