Storks Review
Storks Review – Jack Fitzpatrick
What can I say about my anticipation when it came to “Storks” prior to seeing it other than; It was completely non-existent? I had absolutely no expectations going in to this film. None-what-so-ever. None at all. Along with its mediocre trailer full of pop songs and ‘randomness’ came a misleadingly negative reputation… At least for me. The advertisements and marketing seemed to do its best to conceal the movie in a cloak of immaturity… Or even stupidity. And yes, yes… I know. ‘It’s a film aimed at children,’ I hear you say. (Don’t lie, you said it. Aloud. In fact, I believe that you might have even been shouting, just shouting at your screen in disdain like some lunatic.) But god damn it hear me out – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; ‘It’s aimed at children’ isn’t a good excuse for a bad movie. A movie is a movie regardless of genre or target audience.
But man, “Storks” turned out to be one hell of a surprise.
So “Storks” is based on the classic ‘story’ used to explain where babies come from where storks used to deliver them via flight. In the universe of this film however, the story rings to be true – only it’s a thing of the past. Storks are now used as a postal service, delivering goods to customers… Yes, it’s sort of an inherently silly concept. And the fictional world within is somewhat flawed and broken; If we are to buy that babies used to be made this way in the universe of this movie, but aren’t anymore – then where do babies come from now? There is not even an attempt at answering this question in the movie. Instead, it suffers from the ‘Christmas Movie Flaw.’ (In Christmas themed movies, if Parents don’t believe in Santa, where are the gifts coming from? Or alternatively if the parents are buying the gifts, what the hell does Santa do?) However, “Storks” manages to make you forgive and forget the minor details via everything else it has going for it. Does every single thing in the movie make sense? Well, not really. But in the end it doesn’t really matter all that much.
Believe it or not, I actually kind of loved “Storks.” Those trailers that I mentioned earlier criminally undersell this movie. If you were expecting something on par with middling animated entries like “Cars” or “Angry Birds” (Sorry to anyone who’s a fan… But I’m not really that sorry.) I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with this one. No,“Storks” is more akin to something like the studios last attempt; “The Lego Movie.” But it also reminded me of things like Edgar Wright films – With its visual and directorial humor, the “21 Jump Street” movies – With its constant meta humor, and possibly most prominently, the TV show “Community” – Due to its absurdity but also undoubted cleverness. I was surprised to see that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller weren’t the writers because they’d fit right in here.
I will say though that this isn’t a movie for ‘everyone.’ It wouldn’t be entirely unfair to think that this film is ‘annoying.’ I could totally see where you’d be coming from. The inherent ‘ADHD’ type humor could sometimes feel forced, and sometimes the movie seemed to be afraid of slowing down. However, I’d argue that I personally loved that it barely slowed down. The meta-humor approach doesn’t work for everyone, but man does it work for me.
So yeah, it’s safe to say that the most noticeable aspect of the movie and easily the best part is how funny it is. “Storks” is consistently fast paced throughout and impressively keeps it up during its entire run time. From the quick-witted dialogue shot from one character to another at break-point speed to cinematic gags that only something like this film could make; not only are there actual jokes in the writing, but there’s even humor in the ‘camera’ and the editing as well. Enough of it is innocently but blatantly silly/cute enough for children to adore but there is also plenty to love for more mature film-goers too. The movie admittedly had me constantly laughing (out loud) and if not, I was at least smiling – In fact I probably looked like a real idiot while watching this movie.
And part of the fantastic humor is due to the fairly flawless vocal performances from the films cast including our protagonist played by Andy Samberg along with efforts from Kelsey Grammer, Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell and more who all do respectable jobs in their roles. I’m also not familiar with one of the main actors Katie Crown who played the majority of the film alongside the protagonist but she was also hilarious, and possibly the highlight in terms of voice acting – Not a surprise with a quick search via IMDB that basically all of her roles are voices. At times, the actors – of course along with the writing – even provide some surprisingly touching moments in contrast to the obvious silliness of everything else around them. It never reaches the limits of something like “Inside Out” in terms of maturity or emotional impact, but it’s still something worth mentioning. The leads prove to have some great vocal chemistry through their performances as well as quite remarkable comedic timing.
As always with these movies, it’s time for me to get to the ‘obligatory paragraph.’ This is the one where I must praise the animation. Every single time I see these movies, I’m just blown away. Every single time. From the adorable look of the babies shown in the film, to the exaggerated and wacky facial expressions pulled by most of the characters, “Storks” manages to impress in terms of animation. Maybe I’m just a sucker for animation, or possibly too easily impressed but this is definitely up to standards in comparison to other entries this year including “Finding Dory,” “Zootopia” and “The Secret Life of Pets.” I couldn’t tell you if I personally found it any better or worse than these aforementioned films, but I can definitely say that “Storks” took the more ‘cartoony’ approach on this spectrum. And I personally sort of loved that. Everything was extremely cute and fairly unrealistic but I completely bought in to it all anyway.
And even though the world in the movie was kind of ‘broken’ and at times proved to be kind of cynical – it was undeniably creative. Despite minimal notable characters it also managed to feel quite ‘lived in,’ rather than seeming artificial and empty. In this way, “Storks” never feels like a cheap sell out type movie. Despite being wrapped up in an innocent little cartoon which at times could be fairly childish, this movie still finds a way to feel kind of big and important. While you’re watching, the journey the protagonists take seems worthy of being described as an ‘epic.’ And while we’ve seen it before and it’s not the most original structure in the world of films – I still wasn’t 100% sure how it was going to end. I mean I had an idea but the movie sometimes took some routes that I found somewhat unpredictable. Credit where it’s due.
Although, the plot over all did feel just a little unbalanced. There were a few sub plots – or arguably main plots (?) That didn’t entirely mesh with the rest of the film. In a way it fit right in in terms of tone, but the script sometimes seemed like it wanted to be two different films. And due to the conflicting desires between some of these characters, it kind of made the movie itself a little conflicted.
That being said it’s time for me to mentioned something about the ending without giving anything away. The moral of the film is somewhat ‘fuzzy.’ And the movie seems to sort of morally contradict itself by the end, I wasn’t sure if I was quite satisfied with where it ended up… I wasn’t entirely sure whether or not I wholly ‘agreed’ with the overall message. But as we all know, when it comes to film, the point is often the journey, not the destination (And all that crap.) and with that being said; “Storks” is a damn enjoyable journey.
With its fast paced dialogue full of nuanced and rapid humor, “Storks” is high on my list of animated features of the past few years. It’s funny, carries enough of an emotional weight and tells an interesting story set in a creatively in-depth world. While you may not expect it, “Storks” in my opinion, is actually a very good movie. Yes, it’s a little childish at times due to its “LOL SO RANDOM” nature, however “Storks” is much more intelligent than you may think going in and is a movie that proves that you definitely can’t always ‘Judge a book by its cover.’
8.5/10
