Free Birds: A Hilarious Thanksgiving Adventure
“Free Birds” is a wacky, fast-paced, funny, and occasionally dramatic animated film celebrating the American holiday of Thanksgiving.
Reggie the turkey isn’t like the other turkeys. He uses his brain, not just his stomach. He knows that turkeys are fattened up to be slaughtered and eaten on Thanksgiving. He tries to save his flock from certain death, but only he manages to escape. The U.S. President’s young daughter takes him in as a pet, and he happily spends his days on the presidential couch in front of the presidential TV. One day, a militant turkey named Jake shows up and tells Reggie that he must help him break into a secret bunker containing a time machine. Their mission: to travel back to 1621 and prevent the first Thanksgiving, thus removing turkey from the holiday menu forever.
Before joining Reel FX, director Jimmy Hayward worked as an animator at Pixar. He also directed “Horton Hears a Who!” for Blue Sky Studios.
Like minor actors in Russia cashing in on “Yolki” films, minor Western animators love national holidays. Why waste a limited advertising budget explaining what kind of movie awaits audiences when you can simply say, “It’s a Christmas movie!” and then reap the rewards of children’s and parents’ seasonal love for Santa Claus? And not just Santa Claus. Two years ago, Relativity made a decent profit on the Easter-themed “Hop,” and now they’re trying to repeat the trick with “Free Birds,” timed to coincide with the American celebration of the autumn harvest known as Thanksgiving (traditionally observed as a national holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, as established by President Lincoln).
While turkeys are American birds, the tradition of eating them on holidays originated in Britain when turkeys were brought to Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century.
This wouldn’t be strange if Relativity and the animators from the Texas-based Reel FX studio (“Open Season 2,” “Open Season 3”) were only working for the American market, where every good student knows who sailed on the Mayflower and how 1621, turkeys, and corn are connected. But we’re writing about “Free Birds” because it’s being released in Russia. And in Russia, November has completely different holidays, and turkey is diet food, not a family holiday dish. As Shakespeare wrote, “What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?” So, while the film gains extra points in the U.S. for relevance, it loses those same points in Russia for being incomprehensible. After all, “Free Birds” is intended for young children, not for students from specialized schools or American studies majors.
A Thanksgiving Tale Without Borders
How does Reel FX’s creation look without the holiday fluff? Honestly, not bad. Of course, with a budget of $35 million, the Texans couldn’t create a technically perfect masterpiece of computer animation. But the corners cut by the artists aren’t noticeable unless you directly compare “Free Birds” to Hollywood blockbusters, and the feathered characters are as charming as the not-so-beautiful birds can be.
As for the script, director Jimmy Hayward and producer Scott Mosier, known for his work with Kevin Smith, have concocted an absurd, predictable, but fast-paced and somewhat logical fantasy story clearly inspired by “Back to the Future” and “Avatar.” A talking time machine, a brief flight into space, romantic passions, tense chases through the forest and underground, a large-scale battle scene in the spirit of “Braveheart,” vegetarian propaganda, feminist propaganda, pizza and Mexican soap opera ads, an open attack on the founders of the Plymouth colony (Governor Bradford, almost a saint in mainstream history textbooks, is portrayed in the film as a thief, coward, and villain), constant and sometimes successful attempts to joke, parodying action hits… You won’t get bored with “Free Birds”!
A Touch of Reality
It’s worth noting that, despite the overall comedic tone, the film has a tragic scene of the death of one of the key characters. And he doesn’t come back to life in the end. So, particularly sensitive children shouldn’t watch the film. However, this is more of a plus than a minus. Children should know that war doesn’t come without casualties. Especially if it’s a war against a superior force, as in the case of the confrontation between English settlers and proud wild turkeys who are protecting their nests and their chicks.