Free Birds

What’s it about?

Reggie is a smart turkey who knows that all of the turkey flock he belongs to are being fattened up for Thanksgiving Dinner (an American holiday) and tries to warn all the other turkeys. They all think that they’re going to Turkey paradise and won’t listen to him. Luckily for Reggie, the President’s youngest daughter choses Reggie to be the one turkey to escape getting cooked and gets to live a wonderful life watching TV, eating pizza and wearing slippers.

This doesn’t last long though because a turkey called Jake comes to find Reggie to help him free turkeys from the dinner plate. Together they go back in time to try and change the custom of eating turkeys for Thanksgiving but they find themselves in the middle of a great battle between men and turkeys.

What to look out for

There is some fighting in this movie such as:

• Two large turkeys have a fight. They puff up their chests and tails to frighten each other and punch and slap each other in the face.
• Men shoot at turkeys with guns but none get hurt. Turkeys fire flaming pumpkins at the men and one of them hits a man on the face.
• Men chop their way with axes into a hidden Turkey city. Dogs and men chase the turkeys, catch them and put them into cages. The men set fire to the city and one of the turkeys dies while trying to help his friends escape.

There are also several other scenes which could frighten younger kids such as:

• One of the turkeys in a time machine gets changed into lots of strange creatures by the electronic zapping of the machine.
• The dogs that chase the turkeys are nasty, snarling creatures.
• One of the men looks like a nasty man with a scar on his face and always carries a large hunting knife.

Moral of the Story

The message of the story is that it’s good to stand up for what you believe in although it can be hard.