Watch Free Bird Download free 2013

With the voices of Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson, Amy Poehler, George Takei, Colm Meaney. Written by Scott Mosier and Ken Jimmy Hayward. Directed by Jimmy Hayward. Rated PG for some action/peril and rude humor. 91 minutes.

Ignore the vulgar and pointless posters for FREE BIRDS and ignore the enticement to spend extra money to see it in 3D. “Free Birds” turns out to be an entertaining animated offering that is not only themed to Thanksgiving, but will especially appeal to vegans and vegetarians. Kids will appreciate the slapstick, leaving it to parents to reinforce or ignore the subtler message.

We first meet Reggie (voice of Owen Wilson) on a turkey farm where he is a bit of a misfit. He tries to warn the other turkeys that they’re just being fattened up to be the main course at Thanksgiving, but they don’t want to hear it. Fate intervenes––in an amusing and twisted way––when the President of the United States shows up to officially “pardon” Reggie, allowing him to escape the slaughter.

At this point you may be wondering where the story is going and that’s when we meet another turkey named Jake (Woody Harrelson) who is on a mission from the “Great Turkey.” He is to get Reggie and then the two of them are to infiltrate a top-secret project involving a time machine. The plan is for the two turkeys to return to the 17th century and prevent the pilgrims and the local Indians from celebrating the first Thanksgiving with turkey.

The time machine, run by a computer program named S.T.E.V.E. (George Takei), takes them back and they meet up with the local wild turkeys. Reggie falls in love with Jenny (Amy Poehler), whose father is the Turkey Chief (Keith David). Meanwhile, the Pilgrims are starving and their team of hunters, headed up by a thuggish Miles Standish (Colm Meaney), are doing what they can to provide turkey dinners for the settlers.

It turns out to be a charming movie in which Jake tries to prove he’s more macho than Jenny’s brother while Reggie is torn between finding a way back to his cushy life as a “pardoned” turkey and staying in the past with Jenny. Don’t tell the kids, but it’s probably important for the parents to know that after a couple of mildly scary sequences where first the pilgrims and then the turkeys are under siege, that the film wants us to side with the talking turkeys. The humans in the film may not understand them but we do, and that makes all the difference.

So, parents, if you’ve got a meat-free home you’ll find “Free Birds” positively refreshing as it criticizes factory farming––with the turkeys crammed into tiny cages––and wonders why Thanksgiving can’t be celebrated with pizza. On the other hand, if you’ve already got the bird in your freezer ready to go, you may want to be prepared to explain to the little ones why it’s okay to eat meat when the turkeys in the movie seem so funny.

Of course, you can try logic and try explaining to them that turkeys can’t really talk. And then you can explain to them why the movie claims it is only loosely based on reality… except for the part about the turkeys talking. “Free Birds” is a clever and entertaining film, but if your four-year-old is going to throw a fit when “Reggie” is served at your family dinner, you may want to think twice.•••

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Free Watch Megavideo Stream

Easy riders get their motors running in Freebird, a druggy Brit-com about Hell's Angels on two wheels (and copious quantities of magic mushrooms). Gary Stretch (Dead Man's Shoes) hops on his Harley to play motorcycle courier Fred, who's off to Wales to pick up a batch of homegrown grass with mates Tyg (Geoff Bell) and Grouch (Phil Daniels). Chock full of hallucinogenic interludes, Welsh-speaking bikers and tarot-card reading hippies, it's a bizarre ride to the far side of British cinema.

Anyone expecting this amiable biker flick to be Blighty's answer to Wild Hogs is in for a shock. As free-spirited as its title suggests, it avoids the usual Brit-movie clichés and strikes it own path, taking in everything from the Beast of Brecon to a hulking, mute Welshman in a Lucha Libre mask who could have strayed in from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Yet the madcap comedy only gives it so much momentum before it's dragged off-course by some ropey acting (bearded Stretch wanders around blankly like an out-of-work George Michael impersonator) and an undercooked screenplay that never makes much out of its central theme of aging bikers on a collision course with responsibility.

"BIKERS' VERSION OF WITHNAIL & I"

High points (and we do mean high) mainly centre around Phil Daniels' shambolic biker Grouch, a man so stoned he still thinks he's at Glastonbury in 1987. Playfully updating his iconic scooter-riding role in Quadrophenia, Daniels throws himself into the film's druggy middle section - basically an extended gag in which the giggling, stoned heroes wander around a Welsh village trying to buy Maltesers as writer-director Jon Ivay blows his budget on some entertaining CGI hallucinations. Riotously funny, this sequence is the British biker's version of Withnail & I and would have made a great short. Here, though, it's just a welcome break from the otherwise uninspired proceedings.

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Free Full Trailer Download Movie Free in y 2013

Easy riders get their motors running in Freebird, a druggy Brit-com about Hell's Angels on two wheels (and copious quantities of magic mushrooms). Gary Stretch (Dead Man's Shoes) hops on his Harley to play motorcycle courier Fred, who's off to Wales to pick up a batch of homegrown grass with mates Tyg (Geoff Bell) and Grouch (Phil Daniels). Chock full of hallucinogenic interludes, Welsh-speaking bikers and tarot-card reading hippies, it's a bizarre ride to the far side of British cinema.

Anyone expecting this amiable biker flick to be Blighty's answer to Wild Hogs is in for a shock. As free-spirited as its title suggests, it avoids the usual Brit-movie clichés and strikes it own path, taking in everything from the Beast of Brecon to a hulking, mute Welshman in a Lucha Libre mask who could have strayed in from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Yet the madcap comedy only gives it so much momentum before it's dragged off-course by some ropey acting (bearded Stretch wanders around blankly like an out-of-work George Michael impersonator) and an undercooked screenplay that never makes much out of its central theme of aging bikers on a collision course with responsibility.

"BIKERS' VERSION OF WITHNAIL & I"

High points (and we do mean high) mainly centre around Phil Daniels' shambolic biker Grouch, a man so stoned he still thinks he's at Glastonbury in 1987. Playfully updating his iconic scooter-riding role in Quadrophenia, Daniels throws himself into the film's druggy middle section - basically an extended gag in which the giggling, stoned heroes wander around a Welsh village trying to buy Maltesers as writer-director Jon Ivay blows his budget on some entertaining CGI hallucinations. Riotously funny, this sequence is the British biker's version of Withnail & I and would have made a great short. Here, though, it's just a welcome break from the otherwise uninspired proceedings.

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Full Movie HD stream Free Full Trailer

With the voices of Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson, Amy Poehler, George Takei, Colm Meaney. Written by Scott Mosier and Ken Jimmy Hayward. Directed by Jimmy Hayward. Rated PG for some action/peril and rude humor. 91 minutes.

Ignore the vulgar and pointless posters for FREE BIRDS and ignore the enticement to spend extra money to see it in 3D. “Free Birds” turns out to be an entertaining animated offering that is not only themed to Thanksgiving, but will especially appeal to vegans and vegetarians. Kids will appreciate the slapstick, leaving it to parents to reinforce or ignore the subtler message.

We first meet Reggie (voice of Owen Wilson) on a turkey farm where he is a bit of a misfit. He tries to warn the other turkeys that they’re just being fattened up to be the main course at Thanksgiving, but they don’t want to hear it. Fate intervenes––in an amusing and twisted way––when the President of the United States shows up to officially “pardon” Reggie, allowing him to escape the slaughter.

At this point you may be wondering where the story is going and that’s when we meet another turkey named Jake (Woody Harrelson) who is on a mission from the “Great Turkey.” He is to get Reggie and then the two of them are to infiltrate a top-secret project involving a time machine. The plan is for the two turkeys to return to the 17th century and prevent the pilgrims and the local Indians from celebrating the first Thanksgiving with turkey.

The time machine, run by a computer program named S.T.E.V.E. (George Takei), takes them back and they meet up with the local wild turkeys. Reggie falls in love with Jenny (Amy Poehler), whose father is the Turkey Chief (Keith David). Meanwhile, the Pilgrims are starving and their team of hunters, headed up by a thuggish Miles Standish (Colm Meaney), are doing what they can to provide turkey dinners for the settlers.

It turns out to be a charming movie in which Jake tries to prove he’s more macho than Jenny’s brother while Reggie is torn between finding a way back to his cushy life as a “pardoned” turkey and staying in the past with Jenny. Don’t tell the kids, but it’s probably important for the parents to know that after a couple of mildly scary sequences where first the pilgrims and then the turkeys are under siege, that the film wants us to side with the talking turkeys. The humans in the film may not understand them but we do, and that makes all the difference.

So, parents, if you’ve got a meat-free home you’ll find “Free Birds” positively refreshing as it criticizes factory farming––with the turkeys crammed into tiny cages––and wonders why Thanksgiving can’t be celebrated with pizza. On the other hand, if you’ve already got the bird in your freezer ready to go, you may want to be prepared to explain to the little ones why it’s okay to eat meat when the turkeys in the movie seem so funny.

Of course, you can try logic and try explaining to them that turkeys can’t really talk. And then you can explain to them why the movie claims it is only loosely based on reality… except for the part about the turkeys talking. “Free Birds” is a clever and entertaining film, but if your four-year-old is going to throw a fit when “Reggie” is served at your family dinner, you may want to think twice.•••

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Free Megashare Full Videos

When it comes to dumb, talking cartoon animals, it’s kind of a surprise there aren’t more animated turkeys. Birds that don’t fly and have weird things hanging off their faces? That’s hilarious. And turkeys are dumb. Real dumb. Reel FX’s Free Birds, written by Jimmy Hayward and Scott Mosier and directed by Hayward, manages to not only take full advantage of this ridiculous creature we pay an absurd amount of attention to every November, but it also make turkeys three dimensional characters in their own right.

The premise of Free Birds feels like a no-brainer that should’ve been thought of before. Turkeys don’t want to get eaten, so they declare war on Thanksgiving. This movie goes one step further by having two polar opposite turkeys travel back in time to 1621 to stop the very first Thanksgiving. So silly birds plus buddy comedy plus sci-fi time travel story? That makes for a fun ride.

The two lead turkeys, Reggie and Jake, are about as opposite as you can get. Reggie, voiced by Owen Wilson, is the over-thinker whose intelligence makes him an outcast from his farm flock, and Jake, played by Woody Harrelson, is a lab turkey with lots of strength and little brain. It’s a good dynamic that plays out well, and the additional turkeys they meet in the past including Jenny (the love interest played by Amy Poehler) and Chief Broadbeak (the strong leader voiced by Keith David) really help fill out the cast. Oddly enough, the time machine itself may be the most memorable character. S.T.E.V.E., voiced by George Takei, is snarky and a little bit playful, and while he helps Reggie and Jake, he’s used sparingly enough that every minute of him on screen is gold. The heart of the story really hinges on all these turkeys, their various backgrounds, and how they all end up working together. The human settlers serve as the film’s antagonist, and the serious hunter Myles Standish (Colm Meaney) and the worried Governor Bradford (Dan Fogler) make a threatening and even comedic pair. It’s a pretty dang strong group of characters, and it’s a pretty dang strong cast. Certain characters obviously end up with more screentime than others, and while all the main ones are sufficiently developed, there are a couple interesting side characters, whose names I can’t even recall, that have distinctive looks and amusing personalities that I wished we could have seen more of.

Free BirdsSpeaking of strong visuals, credit goes to the entire Art Department for the designs of the turkeys. Dumb turkeys, smart turkeys, skinny turkeys, buff turkeys, old turkeys, cute baby turkeys, and turkeys with visual quirks. A lot went into the looks of these birds, and physical appearance goes well with characterization.

The humor and plot work alongside each other rather than get in each other’s way. It’s easy to create a movie with silly looking gag characters and have them do something stupid and entertaining for 90 minutes. The characters in Free Birds have amusing traits that are secondary to who they are as characters. Jenny, for instance, has a weird eye problem, and it’s funny whenever it shows up, but it doesn’t stand in the way of her arc. Which makes it even more funny when it shows up again. And, naturally, the ending doesn’t become a long gag but a question of what’s going to happen to these characters. It ends up being quite satisfying that way.

Free Birds Jake Reggie STEVENot that I was looking to complain about anything, but if I had one, it would probably be the complaint you can give to any time travel story. When a character has a time machine, they can go back and fix any mistake they made. This movie doesn’t give any restrictions on time traveling itself. There are no warnings against paradoxes, and there are certainly no rules about preserving the timeline if the goal is to change history. So while the character’s problems could be overcome a lot easier with a more practical use of the time machine, the movie would be less interesting and a lot shorter. All in all, the movie wanted to have fun, and it certainly wasn’t trying to make a deep philosophical point about the use of time travel. Historical accuracy itself goes out the window. There’s a disclaimer at the very beginning that says as much, and sets the tone of the entire movie.

Okay, one more nitpick. The choice of the song used over the end credits is kind of baffling. Social Distortion does a cover of “Up Around The Bend” (originally by Creedence Clearwater Revival). It’s not a bad choice, it’s fun and upbeat, but I was expecting, well, “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Maybe there was a rights issue or something, but it just kind of threw me.

Free Birds Reggie Jake JennyFree Birds is a strong movie, and while it can be enjoyed on its own, there’s no getting around the fact that it uses an American holiday as a springboard. International audiences can certainly enjoy it, but they may not care as much about Thanksgiving as the domestic audience. Despite that, I can see the movie making a big splash in theaters. Interpersonal issues and humor are universal, after all, and Free Birds can be enjoyed without understanding or caring about the historical context. The question is whether or not it’s going to have a long shelf life. Every holiday movie wants to be a holiday classic, as the overly-saturated Christmas movies that battle it out for air time every December can attest. There aren’t nearly as many Thanksgiving themed movies, let alone ones with talking time traveling turkeys, and with all Free Birds has going for it, it’s got a decent shot at being a replayed and rewatched every Thanksgiving.

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Full Movie HD stream Free Full Trailer

Freed Birds tells the strange tale of Reggie (Owen Wilson), an unusually smart turkey whose attempts to get the other birds of his flock to realize the horrifying truth – their farmer master is fattening them all up for Thanksgiving dinner – fall upon deaf ears. One day, Reggie finds himself “pardoned” from his Thanksgiving responsibilities by the President of the United States; thereafter, our fowl hero gets to spend his days at Camp David, watching Spanish soap operas and eating Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza.

Then, without warning, Jake (Woody Harrelson) – a peculiar turkey who prides himself on his finely-sculpted… turkey glutes – drags Reggie away from his comfy and sedate newfound lifestyle, so that the pair can fulfill their true destiny: to travel back in time to the original Thanksgiving and get turkey off the holiday menu for good.

Directed by Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears a Who!, Jonah Hex) and co-written by Hayward and Scott Mosier – from a screen story credited to David I. Stern (Open Season 2 & 3) and John J. Strauss (The Santa Clause 2 & 3) – it goes without saying that Free Birds easily ranks among the most idiosyncratic and utterly odd movies released this year. While the 3D animated feature can be charming every so often (and goes by fairly quickly), it generally fails at being whimsical family-friendly entertainment; instead, it’s mostly just nonsensical and flat.

Hayward certainly makes a number of questionable creative choices that border on (or are) offensive – be it how turkeys from the 17th century dress like Native American stereotypes or a running joke that involves a “special” turkey (who is partly the offspring of a chicken). However, the politically-incorrect elements are ultimately just another reason why Free Birds will leave grown-up moviegoers scratching their head, as they try and figure out exactly what kind of Kool-Aid the filmmakers were drinking. Meanwhile, underage moviegoers will just appreciate all the turkey-based gags and physical comedy (nothing more or less).

Free Birds may be a hodgepodge work – in terms of themes and satire – but on the surface, the story and characters are mostly just boring and conventional. Anyone remotely familiar with time-travel story tropes will figure out the third act twists within the first 10-20 minutes (not an exaggeration); the same holds true for the various character arcs and relationships. Sadly, the movie has neither the heart nor the necessary spark of artistic madness, to make up for the perfunctory story design.

What saves Free Birds from being a total waste are its cast members, who infuse their animated counterparts with far more life than the rubbery and B-grade Pixar quality animation deserves. Wilson brings his customary laid-back delivery style to the uninteresting role of Reggie (take it or leave it); meanwhile, Harrelson tackles his lines with enough dim-witted enthusiasm to make his character work. Indeed, one of the film’s best elements is the competitive bro-mance between Jack and the son of turkey Chief Broadbeak (Keith David, who never fails to bring some gravitas to even the silliest of voice-acting roles).

As for the rest of the supporting cast: Amy Poehler brings her usual, but welcome pluck and charisma as Jenny, the kind and intelligent turkey gal who Reggie falls for (despite a lame running joke that involves her eye becoming misaligned under stress). Lastly, Hayward does a good job of voicing multiple players – he received an “additional voice talent” credit for his efforts – and making each one unique, if only for a couple of lines. And, of course, we cannot forget the time machine – who goes by the acronym S.T.E.V.E. – as voiced by George Takei; and yes, he does eventually get to say that catchphrase.

Is Free Birds solid kids-friendly entertainment? No. Is is worth paying the extra ticket surcharge to see in 3D? Not really. At the end of the day, Free Birds feels like the result of a meeting among studio executives, who just threw together every idea they could imagine; that is, while attempting to create a Thanksgiving movie that would be an easy sell (or $ell) to families. The final result is a mess, for sure, but it could’ve been much worse (high praise, I know).

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Free Megashare Full Videos

With the voices of Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson, Amy Poehler, George Takei, Colm Meaney. Written by Scott Mosier and Ken Jimmy Hayward. Directed by Jimmy Hayward. Rated PG for some action/peril and rude humor. 91 minutes.

Ignore the vulgar and pointless posters for FREE BIRDS and ignore the enticement to spend extra money to see it in 3D. “Free Birds” turns out to be an entertaining animated offering that is not only themed to Thanksgiving, but will especially appeal to vegans and vegetarians. Kids will appreciate the slapstick, leaving it to parents to reinforce or ignore the subtler message.

We first meet Reggie (voice of Owen Wilson) on a turkey farm where he is a bit of a misfit. He tries to warn the other turkeys that they’re just being fattened up to be the main course at Thanksgiving, but they don’t want to hear it. Fate intervenes––in an amusing and twisted way––when the President of the United States shows up to officially “pardon” Reggie, allowing him to escape the slaughter.

At this point you may be wondering where the story is going and that’s when we meet another turkey named Jake (Woody Harrelson) who is on a mission from the “Great Turkey.” He is to get Reggie and then the two of them are to infiltrate a top-secret project involving a time machine. The plan is for the two turkeys to return to the 17th century and prevent the pilgrims and the local Indians from celebrating the first Thanksgiving with turkey.

The time machine, run by a computer program named S.T.E.V.E. (George Takei), takes them back and they meet up with the local wild turkeys. Reggie falls in love with Jenny (Amy Poehler), whose father is the Turkey Chief (Keith David). Meanwhile, the Pilgrims are starving and their team of hunters, headed up by a thuggish Miles Standish (Colm Meaney), are doing what they can to provide turkey dinners for the settlers.

It turns out to be a charming movie in which Jake tries to prove he’s more macho than Jenny’s brother while Reggie is torn between finding a way back to his cushy life as a “pardoned” turkey and staying in the past with Jenny. Don’t tell the kids, but it’s probably important for the parents to know that after a couple of mildly scary sequences where first the pilgrims and then the turkeys are under siege, that the film wants us to side with the talking turkeys. The humans in the film may not understand them but we do, and that makes all the difference.

So, parents, if you’ve got a meat-free home you’ll find “Free Birds” positively refreshing as it criticizes factory farming––with the turkeys crammed into tiny cages––and wonders why Thanksgiving can’t be celebrated with pizza. On the other hand, if you’ve already got the bird in your freezer ready to go, you may want to be prepared to explain to the little ones why it’s okay to eat meat when the turkeys in the movie seem so funny.

Of course, you can try logic and try explaining to them that turkeys can’t really talk. And then you can explain to them why the movie claims it is only loosely based on reality… except for the part about the turkeys talking. “Free Birds” is a clever and entertaining film, but if your four-year-old is going to throw a fit when “Reggie” is served at your family dinner, you may want to think twice.•••

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Free Megashare Full Videos

With the voices of Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson, Amy Poehler, George Takei, Colm Meaney. Written by Scott Mosier and Ken Jimmy Hayward. Directed by Jimmy Hayward. Rated PG for some action/peril and rude humor. 91 minutes.

Ignore the vulgar and pointless posters for FREE BIRDS and ignore the enticement to spend extra money to see it in 3D. “Free Birds” turns out to be an entertaining animated offering that is not only themed to Thanksgiving, but will especially appeal to vegans and vegetarians. Kids will appreciate the slapstick, leaving it to parents to reinforce or ignore the subtler message.

We first meet Reggie (voice of Owen Wilson) on a turkey farm where he is a bit of a misfit. He tries to warn the other turkeys that they’re just being fattened up to be the main course at Thanksgiving, but they don’t want to hear it. Fate intervenes––in an amusing and twisted way––when the President of the United States shows up to officially “pardon” Reggie, allowing him to escape the slaughter.

At this point you may be wondering where the story is going and that’s when we meet another turkey named Jake (Woody Harrelson) who is on a mission from the “Great Turkey.” He is to get Reggie and then the two of them are to infiltrate a top-secret project involving a time machine. The plan is for the two turkeys to return to the 17th century and prevent the pilgrims and the local Indians from celebrating the first Thanksgiving with turkey.

The time machine, run by a computer program named S.T.E.V.E. (George Takei), takes them back and they meet up with the local wild turkeys. Reggie falls in love with Jenny (Amy Poehler), whose father is the Turkey Chief (Keith David). Meanwhile, the Pilgrims are starving and their team of hunters, headed up by a thuggish Miles Standish (Colm Meaney), are doing what they can to provide turkey dinners for the settlers.

It turns out to be a charming movie in which Jake tries to prove he’s more macho than Jenny’s brother while Reggie is torn between finding a way back to his cushy life as a “pardoned” turkey and staying in the past with Jenny. Don’t tell the kids, but it’s probably important for the parents to know that after a couple of mildly scary sequences where first the pilgrims and then the turkeys are under siege, that the film wants us to side with the talking turkeys. The humans in the film may not understand them but we do, and that makes all the difference.

So, parents, if you’ve got a meat-free home you’ll find “Free Birds” positively refreshing as it criticizes factory farming––with the turkeys crammed into tiny cages––and wonders why Thanksgiving can’t be celebrated with pizza. On the other hand, if you’ve already got the bird in your freezer ready to go, you may want to be prepared to explain to the little ones why it’s okay to eat meat when the turkeys in the movie seem so funny.

Of course, you can try logic and try explaining to them that turkeys can’t really talk. And then you can explain to them why the movie claims it is only loosely based on reality… except for the part about the turkeys talking. “Free Birds” is a clever and entertaining film, but if your four-year-old is going to throw a fit when “Reggie” is served at your family dinner, you may want to think twice.•••

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Full Movie Free Stream 2013

Owen Wilson, so much fun in the 2011 Woody Allen comedy Midnight in Paris, and the best thing about the recent job-loss comedy The Internship (reuniting with his Wedding Crashers co-star Vince Vaughn no less), generates laughs just with his aw-shucks personality and boyish facial expressions.

When it comes to being funny, Wilson makes it look so easy.

Wilson’s comic skills are put to the test in director Jimmy Hayward’s silly 3D cartoon comedy Free Birds, a kid-friendly tale about a pair of mismatched turkeys who travel back in time (really) to convince the pilgrims to take turkey off of their first Thanksgiving menu.

As Reggie, arguably the smartest turkey on his farm and the lucky recipient of the presidential turkey pardon, Wilson shifts his charm onto the skinny cartoon turkey and hero of the movie. Wilson sparks laughs from start to finish just with the sound of his voice; which is doubly impressive when you sit back and consider just how flimsy Hayward’s Thanksgiving-theme cartoon turns out to be.

As Jake, a no brains/all brawn survivalist turkey who kidnaps Reggie for his time travel mission, Woody Harrelson matches Wilson well and the two actors toss jokey zingers at each other with the skill of a seasoned comedy team.

Of all the celebrity voices in Free Birds, the only letdown is Amy Poehler as the pilgrim era, female turkey Jenny, a bird who’s twice as tough as Reggie and probably twice as smart.

Poehler fails to keep up with Wilson and Harrelson in the zingers department. It’s safe to say without her trademark sneer (made famous during her stint on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update news desk and polished to perfection on NBC’s Parks and Recreation), the 42-year-old comedienne doesn’t have the knack for voice comedy just yet.

George Takei has better luck with his role as S.T.E.V.E., voice of the time machine that takes Reggie and Jake back to Plymouth Rock.

Hayward, a cartoon veteran with Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Horton Hears A Who! to his credits, and co-writers Scott Mosier, a cartoon newbie best known for the indie comedies Clerks, Dogma and Chasing Amy, David I. Stern and John J. Strauss borrow liberally from past cartoons like Chicken Run and TV’s Peabody’s Improbable Adventures as well as some battle scenes from Braveheart.

The result is a mishmash tale that’s not silly enough to qualify as absurd cartoon genius (think TV’s The Regular Show or Adventure Time) but a little too silly to match the emotional impact of classic animation storytelling like Wreck-It Ralph or The Incredibles.

Basically, Hayward delivers a film that’s fun enough to keep kids in their seats for 85 minutes (parents will squirm a little). Still, I can’t see kids watching this turkey adventure over and over again, which is the ultimate goal of all kid cartoons.

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Full Movie Free Stream 2013

With the voices of Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson, Amy Poehler, George Takei, Colm Meaney. Written by Scott Mosier and Ken Jimmy Hayward. Directed by Jimmy Hayward. Rated PG for some action/peril and rude humor. 91 minutes.

Ignore the vulgar and pointless posters for FREE BIRDS and ignore the enticement to spend extra money to see it in 3D. “Free Birds” turns out to be an entertaining animated offering that is not only themed to Thanksgiving, but will especially appeal to vegans and vegetarians. Kids will appreciate the slapstick, leaving it to parents to reinforce or ignore the subtler message.

We first meet Reggie (voice of Owen Wilson) on a turkey farm where he is a bit of a misfit. He tries to warn the other turkeys that they’re just being fattened up to be the main course at Thanksgiving, but they don’t want to hear it. Fate intervenes––in an amusing and twisted way––when the President of the United States shows up to officially “pardon” Reggie, allowing him to escape the slaughter.

At this point you may be wondering where the story is going and that’s when we meet another turkey named Jake (Woody Harrelson) who is on a mission from the “Great Turkey.” He is to get Reggie and then the two of them are to infiltrate a top-secret project involving a time machine. The plan is for the two turkeys to return to the 17th century and prevent the pilgrims and the local Indians from celebrating the first Thanksgiving with turkey.

The time machine, run by a computer program named S.T.E.V.E. (George Takei), takes them back and they meet up with the local wild turkeys. Reggie falls in love with Jenny (Amy Poehler), whose father is the Turkey Chief (Keith David). Meanwhile, the Pilgrims are starving and their team of hunters, headed up by a thuggish Miles Standish (Colm Meaney), are doing what they can to provide turkey dinners for the settlers.

It turns out to be a charming movie in which Jake tries to prove he’s more macho than Jenny’s brother while Reggie is torn between finding a way back to his cushy life as a “pardoned” turkey and staying in the past with Jenny. Don’t tell the kids, but it’s probably important for the parents to know that after a couple of mildly scary sequences where first the pilgrims and then the turkeys are under siege, that the film wants us to side with the talking turkeys. The humans in the film may not understand them but we do, and that makes all the difference.

So, parents, if you’ve got a meat-free home you’ll find “Free Birds” positively refreshing as it criticizes factory farming––with the turkeys crammed into tiny cages––and wonders why Thanksgiving can’t be celebrated with pizza. On the other hand, if you’ve already got the bird in your freezer ready to go, you may want to be prepared to explain to the little ones why it’s okay to eat meat when the turkeys in the movie seem so funny.

Of course, you can try logic and try explaining to them that turkeys can’t really talk. And then you can explain to them why the movie claims it is only loosely based on reality… except for the part about the turkeys talking. “Free Birds” is a clever and entertaining film, but if your four-year-old is going to throw a fit when “Reggie” is served at your family dinner, you may want to think twice.•••

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Full Movie HD stream Free Full Trailer

Think of how sleepy you become after Thanksgiving dinner and you’ll know the effect of “Free Birds,” a 3-D comedy-adventure that reinforces the dire state of animation in depressing fashion. Even a movie that doesn’t follow the identical plotline as everything else—fortunately, “Free Birds” isn’t about a baby turkey who wants to grow up to be something more—suffers from a near-total lack of cleverness.

Share on emailShare on printShare on redditMore Sharing Services

'Free Birds' review: Warning: Contains tryptophan

October 31, 2013|Matt Pais, @mattpais | RedEye movie critic

** (out of four)

Think of how sleepy you become after Thanksgiving dinner and you’ll know the effect of “Free Birds,” a 3-D comedy-adventure that reinforces the dire state of animation in depressing fashion. Even a movie that doesn’t follow the identical plotline as everything else—fortunately, “Free Birds” isn’t about a baby turkey who wants to grow up to be something more—suffers from a near-total lack of cleverness.

It’s not for lack of trying. “Free Birds” is absolutely manic, favoring quantity over quality, and racing past jokes that might have been a little funny with extra time to breathe. Hey, director/co-writer Jimmy Hayward (“Horton Hears a Who!,” “Jonah Hex”): Three strikes and you’re out.

A bizarre effort to capitalize on Thanksgiving, the film’s about Reggie (voiced by Owen Wilson), who lives a cushy life in the White House after the President (voiced by Hayward) designates him as the pardoned turkey, the lone bird to avoid the holiday genocide. Lacking any survivor’s guilt, Reggie indulges in the lazy simplicity of pizza, TV and a comfy bed—a lifestyle anyone can appreciate. Alas, along comes Jake (Woody Harrelson), a turkey insistent that Reggie join his mission to go back in time and prevent their species from inclusion on the first Thanksgiving menu in 1621.

Save the ancestors, save the turkey world.

Inevitably, Reggie meets a romantic prospect in Jenny (Amy Poehler), the daughter of Chief Broadbeak (Keith David) and blah blah blah. While I appreciate “Free Birds” passing on a “Jenny from the flock” gag, predictable nods to “Angry Birds” and, because this is a time travel story, “Back to the Future” and “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” should earn no better than nods of recognition, if not groans. Only Harrelson sounds like he read the script in advance.

To be fair, “Free Birds” starts off with a few inspired bits, including a disclaimer about the film’s intentional lack of historical accuracy. A lovely scene of mourning a fallen comrade creates a proud tradition among the feathered community. Yet the majority of jokes—other than those involving Jenny’s lazy eye—monotonously reference turkeys’ stupidity and ditch themes about independent thinking for a standard-issue message about the value of family. Parents are better off ditching the kids and seeing the week’s other time travel movie “About Time,” which contains actual laughs and far fewer depictions of turkey butt muscles.

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Free Watch Megavideo Stream

Easy riders get their motors running in Freebird, a druggy Brit-com about Hell's Angels on two wheels (and copious quantities of magic mushrooms). Gary Stretch (Dead Man's Shoes) hops on his Harley to play motorcycle courier Fred, who's off to Wales to pick up a batch of homegrown grass with mates Tyg (Geoff Bell) and Grouch (Phil Daniels). Chock full of hallucinogenic interludes, Welsh-speaking bikers and tarot-card reading hippies, it's a bizarre ride to the far side of British cinema.

Anyone expecting this amiable biker flick to be Blighty's answer to Wild Hogs is in for a shock. As free-spirited as its title suggests, it avoids the usual Brit-movie clichés and strikes it own path, taking in everything from the Beast of Brecon to a hulking, mute Welshman in a Lucha Libre mask who could have strayed in from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Yet the madcap comedy only gives it so much momentum before it's dragged off-course by some ropey acting (bearded Stretch wanders around blankly like an out-of-work George Michael impersonator) and an undercooked screenplay that never makes much out of its central theme of aging bikers on a collision course with responsibility.

"BIKERS' VERSION OF WITHNAIL & I"

High points (and we do mean high) mainly centre around Phil Daniels' shambolic biker Grouch, a man so stoned he still thinks he's at Glastonbury in 1987. Playfully updating his iconic scooter-riding role in Quadrophenia, Daniels throws himself into the film's druggy middle section - basically an extended gag in which the giggling, stoned heroes wander around a Welsh village trying to buy Maltesers as writer-director Jon Ivay blows his budget on some entertaining CGI hallucinations. Riotously funny, this sequence is the British biker's version of Withnail & I and would have made a great short. Here, though, it's just a welcome break from the otherwise uninspired proceedings.

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Download free 2013

Think of how sleepy you become after Thanksgiving dinner and you’ll know the effect of “Free Birds,” a 3-D comedy-adventure that reinforces the dire state of animation in depressing fashion. Even a movie that doesn’t follow the identical plotline as everything else—fortunately, “Free Birds” isn’t about a baby turkey who wants to grow up to be something more—suffers from a near-total lack of cleverness.

Share on emailShare on printShare on redditMore Sharing Services

'Free Birds' review: Warning: Contains tryptophan

October 31, 2013|Matt Pais, @mattpais | RedEye movie critic

** (out of four)

Think of how sleepy you become after Thanksgiving dinner and you’ll know the effect of “Free Birds,” a 3-D comedy-adventure that reinforces the dire state of animation in depressing fashion. Even a movie that doesn’t follow the identical plotline as everything else—fortunately, “Free Birds” isn’t about a baby turkey who wants to grow up to be something more—suffers from a near-total lack of cleverness.

It’s not for lack of trying. “Free Birds” is absolutely manic, favoring quantity over quality, and racing past jokes that might have been a little funny with extra time to breathe. Hey, director/co-writer Jimmy Hayward (“Horton Hears a Who!,” “Jonah Hex”): Three strikes and you’re out.

A bizarre effort to capitalize on Thanksgiving, the film’s about Reggie (voiced by Owen Wilson), who lives a cushy life in the White House after the President (voiced by Hayward) designates him as the pardoned turkey, the lone bird to avoid the holiday genocide. Lacking any survivor’s guilt, Reggie indulges in the lazy simplicity of pizza, TV and a comfy bed—a lifestyle anyone can appreciate. Alas, along comes Jake (Woody Harrelson), a turkey insistent that Reggie join his mission to go back in time and prevent their species from inclusion on the first Thanksgiving menu in 1621.

Save the ancestors, save the turkey world.

Inevitably, Reggie meets a romantic prospect in Jenny (Amy Poehler), the daughter of Chief Broadbeak (Keith David) and blah blah blah. While I appreciate “Free Birds” passing on a “Jenny from the flock” gag, predictable nods to “Angry Birds” and, because this is a time travel story, “Back to the Future” and “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” should earn no better than nods of recognition, if not groans. Only Harrelson sounds like he read the script in advance.

To be fair, “Free Birds” starts off with a few inspired bits, including a disclaimer about the film’s intentional lack of historical accuracy. A lovely scene of mourning a fallen comrade creates a proud tradition among the feathered community. Yet the majority of jokes—other than those involving Jenny’s lazy eye—monotonously reference turkeys’ stupidity and ditch themes about independent thinking for a standard-issue message about the value of family. Parents are better off ditching the kids and seeing the week’s other time travel movie “About Time,” which contains actual laughs and far fewer depictions of turkey butt muscles.

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Full Movie HD stream Free Full Trailer

When it comes to dumb, talking cartoon animals, it’s kind of a surprise there aren’t more animated turkeys. Birds that don’t fly and have weird things hanging off their faces? That’s hilarious. And turkeys are dumb. Real dumb. Reel FX’s Free Birds, written by Jimmy Hayward and Scott Mosier and directed by Hayward, manages to not only take full advantage of this ridiculous creature we pay an absurd amount of attention to every November, but it also make turkeys three dimensional characters in their own right.

The premise of Free Birds feels like a no-brainer that should’ve been thought of before. Turkeys don’t want to get eaten, so they declare war on Thanksgiving. This movie goes one step further by having two polar opposite turkeys travel back in time to 1621 to stop the very first Thanksgiving. So silly birds plus buddy comedy plus sci-fi time travel story? That makes for a fun ride.

The two lead turkeys, Reggie and Jake, are about as opposite as you can get. Reggie, voiced by Owen Wilson, is the over-thinker whose intelligence makes him an outcast from his farm flock, and Jake, played by Woody Harrelson, is a lab turkey with lots of strength and little brain. It’s a good dynamic that plays out well, and the additional turkeys they meet in the past including Jenny (the love interest played by Amy Poehler) and Chief Broadbeak (the strong leader voiced by Keith David) really help fill out the cast. Oddly enough, the time machine itself may be the most memorable character. S.T.E.V.E., voiced by George Takei, is snarky and a little bit playful, and while he helps Reggie and Jake, he’s used sparingly enough that every minute of him on screen is gold. The heart of the story really hinges on all these turkeys, their various backgrounds, and how they all end up working together. The human settlers serve as the film’s antagonist, and the serious hunter Myles Standish (Colm Meaney) and the worried Governor Bradford (Dan Fogler) make a threatening and even comedic pair. It’s a pretty dang strong group of characters, and it’s a pretty dang strong cast. Certain characters obviously end up with more screentime than others, and while all the main ones are sufficiently developed, there are a couple interesting side characters, whose names I can’t even recall, that have distinctive looks and amusing personalities that I wished we could have seen more of.

Free BirdsSpeaking of strong visuals, credit goes to the entire Art Department for the designs of the turkeys. Dumb turkeys, smart turkeys, skinny turkeys, buff turkeys, old turkeys, cute baby turkeys, and turkeys with visual quirks. A lot went into the looks of these birds, and physical appearance goes well with characterization.

The humor and plot work alongside each other rather than get in each other’s way. It’s easy to create a movie with silly looking gag characters and have them do something stupid and entertaining for 90 minutes. The characters in Free Birds have amusing traits that are secondary to who they are as characters. Jenny, for instance, has a weird eye problem, and it’s funny whenever it shows up, but it doesn’t stand in the way of her arc. Which makes it even more funny when it shows up again. And, naturally, the ending doesn’t become a long gag but a question of what’s going to happen to these characters. It ends up being quite satisfying that way.

Free Birds Jake Reggie STEVENot that I was looking to complain about anything, but if I had one, it would probably be the complaint you can give to any time travel story. When a character has a time machine, they can go back and fix any mistake they made. This movie doesn’t give any restrictions on time traveling itself. There are no warnings against paradoxes, and there are certainly no rules about preserving the timeline if the goal is to change history. So while the character’s problems could be overcome a lot easier with a more practical use of the time machine, the movie would be less interesting and a lot shorter. All in all, the movie wanted to have fun, and it certainly wasn’t trying to make a deep philosophical point about the use of time travel. Historical accuracy itself goes out the window. There’s a disclaimer at the very beginning that says as much, and sets the tone of the entire movie.

Okay, one more nitpick. The choice of the song used over the end credits is kind of baffling. Social Distortion does a cover of “Up Around The Bend” (originally by Creedence Clearwater Revival). It’s not a bad choice, it’s fun and upbeat, but I was expecting, well, “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Maybe there was a rights issue or something, but it just kind of threw me.

Free Birds Reggie Jake JennyFree Birds is a strong movie, and while it can be enjoyed on its own, there’s no getting around the fact that it uses an American holiday as a springboard. International audiences can certainly enjoy it, but they may not care as much about Thanksgiving as the domestic audience. Despite that, I can see the movie making a big splash in theaters. Interpersonal issues and humor are universal, after all, and Free Birds can be enjoyed without understanding or caring about the historical context. The question is whether or not it’s going to have a long shelf life. Every holiday movie wants to be a holiday classic, as the overly-saturated Christmas movies that battle it out for air time every December can attest. There aren’t nearly as many Thanksgiving themed movies, let alone ones with talking time traveling turkeys, and with all Free Birds has going for it, it’s got a decent shot at being a replayed and rewatched every Thanksgiving.

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Free Megashare Full Videos

Freed Birds tells the strange tale of Reggie (Owen Wilson), an unusually smart turkey whose attempts to get the other birds of his flock to realize the horrifying truth – their farmer master is fattening them all up for Thanksgiving dinner – fall upon deaf ears. One day, Reggie finds himself “pardoned” from his Thanksgiving responsibilities by the President of the United States; thereafter, our fowl hero gets to spend his days at Camp David, watching Spanish soap operas and eating Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza.

Then, without warning, Jake (Woody Harrelson) – a peculiar turkey who prides himself on his finely-sculpted… turkey glutes – drags Reggie away from his comfy and sedate newfound lifestyle, so that the pair can fulfill their true destiny: to travel back in time to the original Thanksgiving and get turkey off the holiday menu for good.

Directed by Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears a Who!, Jonah Hex) and co-written by Hayward and Scott Mosier – from a screen story credited to David I. Stern (Open Season 2 & 3) and John J. Strauss (The Santa Clause 2 & 3) – it goes without saying that Free Birds easily ranks among the most idiosyncratic and utterly odd movies released this year. While the 3D animated feature can be charming every so often (and goes by fairly quickly), it generally fails at being whimsical family-friendly entertainment; instead, it’s mostly just nonsensical and flat.

Hayward certainly makes a number of questionable creative choices that border on (or are) offensive – be it how turkeys from the 17th century dress like Native American stereotypes or a running joke that involves a “special” turkey (who is partly the offspring of a chicken). However, the politically-incorrect elements are ultimately just another reason why Free Birds will leave grown-up moviegoers scratching their head, as they try and figure out exactly what kind of Kool-Aid the filmmakers were drinking. Meanwhile, underage moviegoers will just appreciate all the turkey-based gags and physical comedy (nothing more or less).

Free Birds may be a hodgepodge work – in terms of themes and satire – but on the surface, the story and characters are mostly just boring and conventional. Anyone remotely familiar with time-travel story tropes will figure out the third act twists within the first 10-20 minutes (not an exaggeration); the same holds true for the various character arcs and relationships. Sadly, the movie has neither the heart nor the necessary spark of artistic madness, to make up for the perfunctory story design.

What saves Free Birds from being a total waste are its cast members, who infuse their animated counterparts with far more life than the rubbery and B-grade Pixar quality animation deserves. Wilson brings his customary laid-back delivery style to the uninteresting role of Reggie (take it or leave it); meanwhile, Harrelson tackles his lines with enough dim-witted enthusiasm to make his character work. Indeed, one of the film’s best elements is the competitive bro-mance between Jack and the son of turkey Chief Broadbeak (Keith David, who never fails to bring some gravitas to even the silliest of voice-acting roles).

As for the rest of the supporting cast: Amy Poehler brings her usual, but welcome pluck and charisma as Jenny, the kind and intelligent turkey gal who Reggie falls for (despite a lame running joke that involves her eye becoming misaligned under stress). Lastly, Hayward does a good job of voicing multiple players – he received an “additional voice talent” credit for his efforts – and making each one unique, if only for a couple of lines. And, of course, we cannot forget the time machine – who goes by the acronym S.T.E.V.E. – as voiced by George Takei; and yes, he does eventually get to say that catchphrase.

Is Free Birds solid kids-friendly entertainment? No. Is is worth paying the extra ticket surcharge to see in 3D? Not really. At the end of the day, Free Birds feels like the result of a meeting among studio executives, who just threw together every idea they could imagine; that is, while attempting to create a Thanksgiving movie that would be an easy sell (or $ell) to families. The final result is a mess, for sure, but it could’ve been much worse (high praise, I know).

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Free Megashare Full Videos

When it comes to dumb, talking cartoon animals, it’s kind of a surprise there aren’t more animated turkeys. Birds that don’t fly and have weird things hanging off their faces? That’s hilarious. And turkeys are dumb. Real dumb. Reel FX’s Free Birds, written by Jimmy Hayward and Scott Mosier and directed by Hayward, manages to not only take full advantage of this ridiculous creature we pay an absurd amount of attention to every November, but it also make turkeys three dimensional characters in their own right.

The premise of Free Birds feels like a no-brainer that should’ve been thought of before. Turkeys don’t want to get eaten, so they declare war on Thanksgiving. This movie goes one step further by having two polar opposite turkeys travel back in time to 1621 to stop the very first Thanksgiving. So silly birds plus buddy comedy plus sci-fi time travel story? That makes for a fun ride.

The two lead turkeys, Reggie and Jake, are about as opposite as you can get. Reggie, voiced by Owen Wilson, is the over-thinker whose intelligence makes him an outcast from his farm flock, and Jake, played by Woody Harrelson, is a lab turkey with lots of strength and little brain. It’s a good dynamic that plays out well, and the additional turkeys they meet in the past including Jenny (the love interest played by Amy Poehler) and Chief Broadbeak (the strong leader voiced by Keith David) really help fill out the cast. Oddly enough, the time machine itself may be the most memorable character. S.T.E.V.E., voiced by George Takei, is snarky and a little bit playful, and while he helps Reggie and Jake, he’s used sparingly enough that every minute of him on screen is gold. The heart of the story really hinges on all these turkeys, their various backgrounds, and how they all end up working together. The human settlers serve as the film’s antagonist, and the serious hunter Myles Standish (Colm Meaney) and the worried Governor Bradford (Dan Fogler) make a threatening and even comedic pair. It’s a pretty dang strong group of characters, and it’s a pretty dang strong cast. Certain characters obviously end up with more screentime than others, and while all the main ones are sufficiently developed, there are a couple interesting side characters, whose names I can’t even recall, that have distinctive looks and amusing personalities that I wished we could have seen more of.

Free BirdsSpeaking of strong visuals, credit goes to the entire Art Department for the designs of the turkeys. Dumb turkeys, smart turkeys, skinny turkeys, buff turkeys, old turkeys, cute baby turkeys, and turkeys with visual quirks. A lot went into the looks of these birds, and physical appearance goes well with characterization.

The humor and plot work alongside each other rather than get in each other’s way. It’s easy to create a movie with silly looking gag characters and have them do something stupid and entertaining for 90 minutes. The characters in Free Birds have amusing traits that are secondary to who they are as characters. Jenny, for instance, has a weird eye problem, and it’s funny whenever it shows up, but it doesn’t stand in the way of her arc. Which makes it even more funny when it shows up again. And, naturally, the ending doesn’t become a long gag but a question of what’s going to happen to these characters. It ends up being quite satisfying that way.

Free Birds Jake Reggie STEVENot that I was looking to complain about anything, but if I had one, it would probably be the complaint you can give to any time travel story. When a character has a time machine, they can go back and fix any mistake they made. This movie doesn’t give any restrictions on time traveling itself. There are no warnings against paradoxes, and there are certainly no rules about preserving the timeline if the goal is to change history. So while the character’s problems could be overcome a lot easier with a more practical use of the time machine, the movie would be less interesting and a lot shorter. All in all, the movie wanted to have fun, and it certainly wasn’t trying to make a deep philosophical point about the use of time travel. Historical accuracy itself goes out the window. There’s a disclaimer at the very beginning that says as much, and sets the tone of the entire movie.

Okay, one more nitpick. The choice of the song used over the end credits is kind of baffling. Social Distortion does a cover of “Up Around The Bend” (originally by Creedence Clearwater Revival). It’s not a bad choice, it’s fun and upbeat, but I was expecting, well, “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Maybe there was a rights issue or something, but it just kind of threw me.

Free Birds Reggie Jake JennyFree Birds is a strong movie, and while it can be enjoyed on its own, there’s no getting around the fact that it uses an American holiday as a springboard. International audiences can certainly enjoy it, but they may not care as much about Thanksgiving as the domestic audience. Despite that, I can see the movie making a big splash in theaters. Interpersonal issues and humor are universal, after all, and Free Birds can be enjoyed without understanding or caring about the historical context. The question is whether or not it’s going to have a long shelf life. Every holiday movie wants to be a holiday classic, as the overly-saturated Christmas movies that battle it out for air time every December can attest. There aren’t nearly as many Thanksgiving themed movies, let alone ones with talking time traveling turkeys, and with all Free Birds has going for it, it’s got a decent shot at being a replayed and rewatched every Thanksgiving.

Download Movie

Watch Free Bird Download free 2013

Owen Wilson, so much fun in the 2011 Woody Allen comedy Midnight in Paris, and the best thing about the recent job-loss comedy The Internship (reuniting with his Wedding Crashers co-star Vince Vaughn no less), generates laughs just with his aw-shucks personality and boyish facial expressions.

When it comes to being funny, Wilson makes it look so easy.

Wilson’s comic skills are put to the test in director Jimmy Hayward’s silly 3D cartoon comedy Free Birds, a kid-friendly tale about a pair of mismatched turkeys who travel back in time (really) to convince the pilgrims to take turkey off of their first Thanksgiving menu.

As Reggie, arguably the smartest turkey on his farm and the lucky recipient of the presidential turkey pardon, Wilson shifts his charm onto the skinny cartoon turkey and hero of the movie. Wilson sparks laughs from start to finish just with the sound of his voice; which is doubly impressive when you sit back and consider just how flimsy Hayward’s Thanksgiving-theme cartoon turns out to be.

As Jake, a no brains/all brawn survivalist turkey who kidnaps Reggie for his time travel mission, Woody Harrelson matches Wilson well and the two actors toss jokey zingers at each other with the skill of a seasoned comedy team.

Of all the celebrity voices in Free Birds, the only letdown is Amy Poehler as the pilgrim era, female turkey Jenny, a bird who’s twice as tough as Reggie and probably twice as smart.

Poehler fails to keep up with Wilson and Harrelson in the zingers department. It’s safe to say without her trademark sneer (made famous during her stint on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update news desk and polished to perfection on NBC’s Parks and Recreation), the 42-year-old comedienne doesn’t have the knack for voice comedy just yet.

George Takei has better luck with his role as S.T.E.V.E., voice of the time machine that takes Reggie and Jake back to Plymouth Rock.

Hayward, a cartoon veteran with Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Horton Hears A Who! to his credits, and co-writers Scott Mosier, a cartoon newbie best known for the indie comedies Clerks, Dogma and Chasing Amy, David I. Stern and John J. Strauss borrow liberally from past cartoons like Chicken Run and TV’s Peabody’s Improbable Adventures as well as some battle scenes from Braveheart.

The result is a mishmash tale that’s not silly enough to qualify as absurd cartoon genius (think TV’s The Regular Show or Adventure Time) but a little too silly to match the emotional impact of classic animation storytelling like Wreck-It Ralph or The Incredibles.

Basically, Hayward delivers a film that’s fun enough to keep kids in their seats for 85 minutes (parents will squirm a little). Still, I can’t see kids watching this turkey adventure over and over again, which is the ultimate goal of all kid cartoons.

Download Movie