Angry Birds Movie, The

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Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 7 (animated violence, scary scenes, crude humour, sexual references)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Angry Birds Movie, The
  • a review of Angry Birds Movie, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 17 May 2016.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 6 Not suitable due to violence, scary scenes, crude humour and sexual references.
Children aged 6–7 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, scary scenes, crude humour and sexual references.
Children aged 8 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Angry Birds Movie, The
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild crude humour and animated violence
Length: 97 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

On Bird Island most of the birds are peaceful and happy. However, Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis) has an anger problem and doesn’t get along with the other birds. After an angry incident, the judge sends Red to an anger management class with Chuck (Josh Gad) who is constantly speeding and Bomb (Danny McBride) who has an explosive anger problem.

One day, when pigs visit Bird Island, Red and his angry friends are the only birds who are sceptical of the pigs’ intentions. The three angry birds must work together to figure out what the pigs are up to and then save the bird colony from the pigs’ evil plan.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Kidnapping; Crime; Separation from parents; Anger management; Social exclusion and acceptance.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is violence in this movie including:

  • There is frequent cartoon violence shown throughout the film that varies from one-on-one physical fighting to larger scale violence such as bombing houses and villages.
  • The film shows violence as a good problem solving strategy. For example, when the pigs steal the birds’ eggs, the birds respond by attacking the pigs.
  • There are lots of bombs and explosions throughout the film. The pigs carry TNT and use it to blow up the bird’s village. The birds later use TNT to blow up the pig’s town. No one dies from these explosions, but they are shown to have a few cuts and bruises.
  • The pigs plan to cook the eggs in a large vat. The eggs are depicted as the 'babies' of the bird community and they are shown dangling above the vat.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • There are frequent slapstick style falls and injuries that may scare young children, although older children will likely find these scenes funny. For example, in the opening scenes Red falls off a cliff and bounces off jagged rocks and tree branches.
  • A baby bird is frightened of Red dressed as a scary clown
  • Bomb explodes when he gets angry and although no one is hurt when he explodes, the explosions may be scary for young children.
  • It is revealed that Red does not have any parents and he is sad and alone because no one wants to be friends with him. The others birds tease Red and call him ‘eyebrows’
  • The pigs steal all of the birds’ eggs (unhatched babies). When the birds discover this, all of the parents are very sad and upset.  
  • There is a very large explosion and everyone thinks that Red and the eggs are dead. It is revealed later that they are okay.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group may also be disturbed or scared by the above mentioned scenes.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

OK for this age group

Product placement

The entire movie is based upon a game series and may act as a marketing tool for the game and any associated merchandise.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • A group of female birds flutter their eyelashes and act flirtatiously.
  • In the pig’s boat there is a book called ’50 Shades of Green’.
  • A pig flirts with a bird.
  • A pig sticks plungers on his chest and pretends to have breasts.
  • While singing a cowboy song, the pigs rip off their pants and throw them into the audience.
  • Mighty Eagle spies on female birds through his binoculars.
  • Chuck, while making thrusting motions, suggests that the ladies should “get busy laying some eggs tonight”.
  • Pig shakes and slaps his bottom.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some partial nudity in this movie, including:

  • Red shows the scrapes on his bottom from his fall off the cliff.
  • Red comments that the pigs are not covered up by any feathers and he is shocked by their ‘nudity’.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • A montage scene shows Chuck buying everyone in a bar some drinks with money that he stole.
  • The pigs are shown drinking wine.
  • There is a scene where the birds and pigs inhale helium from balloons.

Coarse language

There are some coarse language and crude humour in this movie, including:

  • There are a few words that sound like swearing eg. ‘pluck me’ and ‘flocking’.
  • ‘Oh my god’; ‘bird-butt’; ‘my teacher can shoot fireballs out of her butt’; 'Fart Face' is written on a pig's stomach.
  • There is a scene in which Mighty Eagle is urinating into a lake where Chuck and Bomb have just been swimming and drinking the water. Red calls it a "lake of whizz".

In a nutshell

The Angry Birds Movie is based on the app game Angry Birds. The movie tells the story of the pigs and the birds prior to the events that occur in the game. Fans of the game are likely to enjoy the movie as it includes references to many familiar characters and events. The movie is not suitable for children under the age of 7 and parental guidance is recommended for children up to 8 years old due to animated violence, crude humour and sexual references.

The movie shows what it feels like to be an outsider. The main positive messages are that we should accept others for their differences and that working together can help us to solve a problem.  Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include bravery and teamwork.

The movie does, however, send some mixed messages about violence as an appropriate way to resolve conflict and parents may wish to discuss this with children.