The Angry Birds Movie | |
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Directed by | |
Screenplay by | Jon Vitti |
Story by |
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Based on | Angry Birds by Rovio Entertainment |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Edited by |
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Music by | Heitor Pereira [1] |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing [3] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 97 minutes [4] |
Countries | |
Language | English |
Budget | $73 million [6] |
Box office | $352.3 million [7] |
The Angry Birds Movie is a 2016 animated comedy film based on Rovio Entertainment's video game series of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures and Rovio Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film was directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly (in their feature directorial debuts) from a screenplay written by Jon Vitti and a story by Mikael Hed, Mikko Pöllä, and co-producer John Cohen. It stars the voices of Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, Sean Penn, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Bill Hader, and Peter Dinklage. The film follows Red (Sudeikis), an outcast in an island of anthropomorphic flightless birds, as he suspects a newly arrived crew of pigs led by Leonard (Hader) of plotting an evil plan, and attempts to put a stop to them with the help of his newfound friends Chuck (Gad) and Bomb (McBride).
After the success of the Angry Birds Toons webseries, Rovio subsequently began development on an adaptation of the Angry Birds video game series, and would proceed to make a proper announcement in December 2012. [8] [9] The first image from the film was revealed in October 2014, with Sudeikis, Gad, McBride, Hader, Rudolph, and Dinklage revealed to be part of its cast at the same time. [10] Rovio and Sony Pictures announced that they would spend roughly €100 million for the marketing and distribution of The Angry Birds Movie, [11] surpassing the €8.5 million budget of Big Game (2014) to become the most expensive Finnish-produced film up to that point. [11] Sony Pictures Imageworks was responsible for handling animation services for the film. [12]
The Angry Birds Movie was released in the United States and Canada on May 20, 2016. The film received overall mixed reviews from critics and grossed $352 million worldwide. A sequel, The Angry Birds Movie 2 , was released on August 14, 2019, co-produced by Sony Pictures Animation, who were not involved with this film.
Red, an angry bird, has been an outcast from Bird Island ever since he was a hatchling due to his short temper and his huge, jet-black eyebrows. When he accidentally causes a premature hatching of another bird's egg, he is sentenced to anger management class, which is the highest penalty allowed on the island. Two of Red's classmates, Chuck, who is hyperactive and can move at hypervelocity, and Bomb, who can cause explosions with his anger and fear, try to befriend him, but he avoids them.
One day, a boat docks at the island's shore, damaging Red's house. The birds greet two green-colored pigs, the captain Leonard and his assistant Ross, who claim to be peaceful explorers bringing offerings of friendship. They introduce the birds to various innovations, including a giant slingshot, but Red becomes suspicious of the pigs' motives and sneaks into Leonard's boat. He finds more pigs hidden below deck, contradicting Leonard's claim that he and Ross are alone. When he returns and shows everyone the other pigs, the birds accept Leonard's explanation that he only lied to see if Bird Island was safe for his simple-minded cousins.
Still suspecting that there is something off about the pigs, Red recruits Chuck and Bomb to find Mighty Eagle, Bird Island's missing protector and the only bird who can fly. They find Mighty Eagle on top of Eagle Mountain, but he has become an overweight, self-absorbed slacker who has not flown for years. Red discovers the pigs planting dynamite around the island. He realizes that the pigs are planning to steal the birds' eggs while the birds are distracted by a party. When Mighty Eagle refuses to help them, Red admonishes him. Red, Chuck, and Bomb race back to sound a warning to the other birds and stop the pigs, only for the pigs to start destroying the village by blowing it up with the dynamite. Chuck goes to warn the other birds while Red and Bomb give chase to the pigs. They try to untie the ropes to drop the eggs in the water, but it doesn't work, so Red tells Bomb to blow up the chain, but the pigs escape with the eggs and leave the village destroyed. The other birds apologize to Red for not listening to him. Red forgives everyone and under his leadership, they organize an army and build a boat from the rubble to follow the pigs to Piggy Island.
The birds discover the pigs living in a walled city ruled by Leonard, whose full name is King Leonard Mudbeard. Deducing that the eggs are in the castle at the center of the city, the birds use the pig's giant slingshot to attack by launching themselves over the walls and into the city's castle. Most of the birds miss the castle but destroy other buildings. Red, Chuck, and Bomb are successfully shot into the castle; the pigs plan to lower the eggs into a giant pot, cook them, and eat them. Mighty Eagle arrives to retrieve Red's group and the eggs, having had a change of heart. One egg falls out of the net and Red battles Leonard for it, but learns to control his anger and distracts him long enough to retrieve the egg. After they fall into a dynamite room, Leonard accidentally ignites the pigs' reserve of dynamite. The giant pot in which the pigs had intended to use to cook the eggs collapses, falls and lands on top of Red. The dynamite explodes, destroying the city, but Red and the egg he was holding are shielded by the pot.
All the families, except for one, reunite with their eggs. Red emerges holding the egg, containing the Blues (Jay, Jake, and Jim), and returns the brothers to their parents. Mighty Eagle approaches Red, Chuck, and Bomb, claiming that he merely appeared lazy so that they could lose faith in him and find faith in themselves, and takes credit for saving the eggs. Red discovers that the other birds have rebuilt his house in the center of the village. The pigs survive their home's destruction, and Leonard plots a new plan.
The film was officially announced in December 2012, although IGN noted that this was "after months of speculation". [8] The success of the Angry Birds Toons series, according to Rovio employee Jami Laes, "validated" the idea of creating a feature film. [9] The first image from the film was revealed in October 2014, with Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, and Peter Dinklage revealed to be part of its cast. [10] Gad at first refused to star in the movie, feeling that it was too similar to his role as Olaf in Frozen (2013) but the director eventually convinced him to sign through a 30-minute "visual pitch". [18] [19] The film's budget is estimated at $80 million (€75 million). [11] Rovio and Sony Pictures announced that they would spend roughly €100 million for the marketing and distribution of the film, [11] giving it the largest budget in the film industry in Finland, outvaluing Big Game's (2014) €8.5 million. [11] Despite the massive budget, Rovio CEO Mikael Hed stated that "it is the one that I don't ever lose any sleep over", [20] calling it "tremendously strong as a story". [20] During August 2015, Rovio announced that they were expecting to cut 250 jobs equaling 40% of the company, the only sector spared being personnel working on the movie. [21]
When multiple major studios approached Rovio to discuss the production of the film adaptation in 2010, Hed eventually decided to have Rovio establish its own in-house animation studio and have it work on the film, rather than risk losing creative control in allowing a third-party studio to produce it. David Maisel, the founding chairman of Marvel Studios, offered to help Hed and Rovio produce the film, [22] as well as John Cohen from Illumination Entertainment and Catherine Winder from Lucasfilm, who later served as the film's producers. [23] Animation services were handled by Sony Pictures Imageworks in Vancouver, [12] [24] while Skywalker Sound handled audio post-production services. [25]
The Angry Birds characters were not depicted in their anthropomorphized cinematic designs until the film's announcement so as to avoid spoiling it for audiences. [26]
The Angry Birds Movie: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
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Soundtrack album by Various artists | |
Released | May 6, 2016 [27] |
Recorded | 2015–16 |
Genre | |
Length | 48:43 |
Label | Atlantic |
The film's soundtrack, titled The Angry Birds Movie: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, [28] was released on May 6, 2016. [29]
No. | Title | Performed by | Length |
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1. | "Friends [30] " | Blake Shelton | 3:04 |
2. | "I Will Survive [31] " | Demi Lovato | 4:05 |
3. | "Wonderful Life (Mi Oh My) [32] " | Matoma | 3:30 |
4. | "On Top of the World" | Imagine Dragons | 3:12 |
5. | "Explode [33] " | Charli XCX (as Willow) | 3:45 |
6. | "Never Gonna Give You Up" | Rick Astley | 3:34 |
7. | "Rock You Like a Hurricane" | Scorpions | 4:16 |
8. | "Fight" | Steve Aoki | 3:52 |
9. | "Wild Thing" | Tone Lōc | 4:25 |
10. | "Sound of da Police" | KRS-One | 4:18 |
11. | "Behind Blue Eyes" | Limp Bizkit | 4:31 |
12. | "The Mighty Eagle Song [34] " | Peter Dinklage | 2:06 |
13. | "The Mighty Red Song [35] " | The Hatchlings and the Blues | 0:47 |
14. | "The Angry Birds Movie Score Medley [36] " | Heitor Pereira | 3:18 |
ATCO Records released the score on May 12, 2016.
"Wonderful Life" was replaced in international screenings of the film in English with "You Should Be Dancing" by the Bee Gees. Michael Jackson's Bad is featured in 2 trailers.
The film's marketing budget was an estimated $300 million, which, along with its production budget of $400 million, was the biggest budget at the time for an animated Sony Pictures film. [6] Tie-ins with McDonald's, Citroën, Ziploc, Panasonic, [37] and a series of six Lego sets were used to promote the film. [38] [39] A balloon themed after Red debuted at the 2015 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. [40] During the film's marketing campaign, the app icons for most Angry Birds games were changed to depict the cinematic version of Red. A series of free-to-play tie-in games were also produced: Angry Birds Action! , Angry Birds Evolution , and Angry Birds Match.
The film was initially scheduled to be released on July 1, 2016, [41] but was later moved forward to May 20. [42] The film was released in Finland on May 13, 2016, and in the United States on May 20, 2016 in RealD 3D and 4DX. [42] An animated short film titled The Early Hatchling Gets the Worm was shown alongside the film in selected theaters. [43]
The Angry Birds Movie was released on digital HD on July 29, 2016, and on Blu-ray, 4K/3D Blu-ray, and DVD on August 16, 2016 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, with four "Hatchlings" shorts included. [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] The film topped the home video sales chart for the week ending on August 21, 2016. [49]
The Angry Birds Movie grossed $107.5 million in the United States and Canada and $244.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $352.3 million. [7] It is the fourth highest-grossing video game film of all-time both worldwide (behind Warcraft , [50] Detective Pikachu , and Rampage ) [51] and the sixth highest-grossing domestically, [52] and is also the most successful Finnish-produced film of all time. [53] Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $72 million. [54]
In the United States and Canada, the film opened on May 20, 2016 alongside Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016) and The Nice Guys (2016), and was projected to gross $35–40 million or as high as $45 million from 3,932 theaters in its opening weekend. [37] [55] [56] Deadline noted that the film had the benefit of being the only animated movie in theaters until Finding Dory (2016) on June 17. [56] The Angry Birds Movie was the top selling film for the weekend, and grossed $800,000 from Thursday night previews [37] and $11 million on its opening day. [57] In its opening weekend it grossed $38.2 million, finishing first at the box office and marked the third biggest Sony animated opening of all time, behind Hotel Transylvania (2012) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015). [37] [58] It also scored the second-best debut weekend ever for a video game adaptation, behind the $47 million debut of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. [59] It dropped 51% in its second weekend, against X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016), grossing $18.7 million. [50]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 44% of 160 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Angry Birds Movie is substantially more entertaining than any film adapted from an app has any right to be—which may or may not be much of an endorsement." [60] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [61] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. [62]
Lindsey Bahr of the Associated Press gave the film a positive review by writing, "Ultimately, The Angry Birds Movie does a decent job exploring the merits of anger. It's no Inside Out , but it has heart and life, which isn't too shabby for any film—app or not." [63] Variety 's Guy Lodge called the film: "A fast, fizzy and frenetically entertaining extension of the manic gaming franchise that, at its zenith, had children of all ages glued to their smartphone screens". [64] While Rafer Guzman of Newsday found the film's plot to be "pretty thin gruel," he thought the script was quite funny and that the animation was brightly colored and appealing. [65]
Glenn Kenny of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, writing, "The kids of today deserve better. So do I, come to think of it." [66] In his review for TheWrap , Alonso Duralde wrote, "Let's be clear, then: The Angry Birds Movie isn't pointless because it's based on an app. It's pointless because it's pointless." [67]
Award | Date | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref(s). |
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Jussi Awards | March 24, 2017 | Best Film | John Cohen, Catherine Winder, Mikael Hed, David Maisel | Nominated | [68] |
Hollywood Music in Media Awards | November 17, 2016 | Best Original Score – Animated Film | Heitor Pereira | Nominated | [69] [70] |
Kids' Choice Awards | March 11, 2017 | Most Wanted Pet | Jason Sudeikis | Nominated | [71] |
Teen Choice Awards | July 31, 2016 | Choice Movie: Hissy Fit | Nominated | [72] | |
Choice Music: Song from a Movie or TV Show | "I Will Survive" by Demi Lovato | Nominated |
In August 2016, Rovio had begun working on a sequel to the film. [75] The sequel, titled The Angry Birds Movie 2, was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on August 2, 2019 and later on August 14 in the United States, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the original game. [76] [77] [78] It was directed by Thurop Van Orman and John Rice. Cohen returned as producer, with Peter Ackerman, Eyal Podell, and Jonathon E. Stewart as writers. Sudeikis, Gad, Hader, McBride, Dinklage, Rudolph, Hale, and Padilla returned to voice their roles, with Nicki Minaj, Rachel Bloom, Sterling K. Brown, Eugenio Derbez, Zach Woods, Awkwafina, Lil Rel Howery, Dove Cameron, Beck Bennett, Tiffany Haddish, Brooklynn Prince, and Leslie Jones joining the cast. [79] [80]
Peter Hayden Dinklage is an American actor. Portraying Tyrion Lannister on the HBO television series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), Dinklage won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series a record four times. He also received a Golden Globe Award in 2011 and a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2020 for the role. Dinklage has a common form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia, and stands 4 ft 5 in (1.35 m) tall. He has used his celebrity status to raise social awareness of dwarfism.
Daniel Jason Sudeikis is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter. In the 1990s, he began his career in improv comedy and performed with ComedySportz, iO Chicago, and The Second City. In 2003, Sudeikis was hired as a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, and later spent nine seasons as a cast member from 2005 to 2013, playing Joe Biden and Mitt Romney, among others.
Angry Birds is a 2009 physics-based casual puzzle video game developed by Finnish video game developer Rovio Entertainment. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for iOS and Maemo devices starting in December 2009. By October 2010, 12 million copies of the game had been purchased from the iOS App Store and Ovi, which prompted the developer to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, most notably Android, Symbian, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry 10 devices. The series has since expanded to include titles for dedicated video game consoles and PCs. A sequel, Angry Birds 2, was released in July 2015 for iOS and Android. Around April 2019, the original game was removed from the App Store. A paid recreation of the game's content from 2012 was released as Rovio Classics: Angry Birds on March 31, 2022. Rovio Classics: Angry Birds was removed from the Google Play Store on February 23, 2023, and retitled as Red's First Flight on the iOS App Store on the same date.
Rovio Entertainment Oyj is a Finnish video game developer based in Espoo. Founded in 2003 by Helsinki University of Technology students Niklas Hed, Jarno Väkeväinen and Kim Dikert, the company is best known for the Angry Birds franchise. The company currently operates studios in Barcelona, Toronto, Montreal, Espoo, Stockholm, and Copenhagen.
Angry Birds is a Finnish action, puzzle, and strategy based media franchise created by Rovio Entertainment, and owned by Sega. The game series focuses on the titular flock of colorful angry birds who try to save their eggs from green-colored pigs. Inspired by the game Crush the Castle, the original game has been praised for its successful combination of fun gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to many spin-offs; versions of Angry Birds created for PCs and video game consoles, a market for merchandise featuring its characters, Angry Birds Toons (2013–2016), a televised animated series, and two films; The Angry Birds Movie (2016) and its sequel The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), with a third film currently in production. By January 2014, there had been over 2 billion downloads across all platforms, including both regular and special editions.
Angry Birds Rio was a 2011 puzzle video game developed and published by Rovio Entertainment. It is the third installment in the Angry Birds series. The game was released on March 22, 2011 and promoted as a marketing tie-in with the 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios co-produced animated film Rio. While utilizing the same basic gameplay as Angry Birds, Angry Birds Rio added a number of new elements, most notably the first use of boss levels. Angry Birds Rio was discontinued on February 3, 2020 along with Angry Birds Star Wars, and Angry Birds Star Wars II, with the games also being pulled out of the app stores.
Angry Birds Toons is a Finnish short-form animated television series based on Rovio's Angry Birds. This animated series follows the adventures of the young birds as they guard their eggs against the piggies who want to steal them for their king to eat, as well as adventures from within each group, with episodes having been released weekly.
Angry Birds Stella, also known as Angry Birds Slingshot Stella, was a puzzle video game and the second spin-off from the Angry Birds series, developed by Rovio Entertainment. Announced on February 13, 2014, Rovio stated that the game would be accompanied by a toy-line with Telepods, and a television series. The game was released on September 4, 2014 and was discontinued on September 8, 2015.
Pixels is a 2015 science fiction comedy film directed by Chris Columbus and written by Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling, based on a story by Herlihy. Loosely adapted from the 2010 short film of the same name by Patrick Jean, the film stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad and Brian Cox. Combining animated video game characters and visual effects, the film involves an alien race misinterpreting video feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war, to which they respond by attacking Earth with technological recreations of things from the games. The President of the United States assembles a team of former arcade champions to lead the planet's defense.
Piggy Tales is a Finnish animated television series based on Bad Piggies, a spin-off of Angry Birds. Animated in a style resembling clay animation before transitioning into computer-generated imagery after the release of The Angry Birds Movie, the series focuses on the life of the minion pigs and it has no dialogue. It was produced by Rovio Entertainment and distributed by Sony Pictures Television, with the French studio Cube Creative providing some of the animation.
Angry Birds Transformers is a run and gun video game. The tenth installment in the Angry Birds series, the game is a crossover between Angry Birds and the Transformers franchise, featuring battles between the Autobirds and Deceptihogs, Angry Birds' versions of the Autobots and Decepticons. It is published by Rovio Entertainment with collaboration from Hasbro. The game was released on October 15, 2014, for iOS, and was released for Android on October 30, 2014. The release includes related licensed merchandise and a toy line from Hasbro. The game's catchphrase is "Birds Disguised as Robots in Disguise".
Angry Birds 2 is a 2015 puzzle video game developed by Rovio Entertainment and is the twelfth game in the Angry Birds series, and is the direct sequel to the original Angry Birds. It is a free-to-play with optional purchases for in-game currency. The gameplay features two new birds named Silver and Melody, as well as a playable pig, named Leonard, a new ability for Red, spells instead of power-ups and gameplay that occurs in multi-stage levels. It was soft-launched in Canada on March 5, 2015, as Angry Birds Under Pigstruction, released for iOS and Android worldwide on July 30, 2015, and the name was changed to Angry Birds 2. Angry Birds 2 became available on classic HarmonyOS AOSP base on June 29, 2021 as HMS Android apk app.
Peter Dinklage is an American actor and producer. He studied acting at the Bennington College where he starred in a number of amateur stage productions. He made his film debut in the 1995 comedy-drama Living in Oblivion. After appearing in a series of supporting parts in much of the 1990s and early 2000s, he made his breakthrough by starring in the Tom McCarthy-directed comedy-drama The Station Agent (2003), which had him play a railroad-obsessed introvert who inherits an abandoned train depot. He was cast in the role by director Tom McCarthy who recalled fondly his appearance in McCarthy's play The Killing Act (1995). For his performance, he received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Actor and an Independent Spirit Awards nomination for Best Male Lead. In the same year, Dinklage played the title role in the play Richard III at The Public Theater. He also played a children's book author in the comedy Elf. In 2006, he appeared in the Sidney Lumet-directed crime film Find Me Guilty. He followed with roles in the films Underdog (2007), the British film Death at a Funeral (2007), with its American remake of the same name (2010) and Trumpkin in the high fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008).
Clay Kaytis is an American animator and film director, best known for directing the animated film The Angry Birds Movie (2016), the Christmas comedy film The Christmas Chronicles (2018), and the A Christmas Story sequel A Christmas Story Christmas (2022).
Fergal Reilly is an Irish film director, storyboard artist, voice actor and animator best known for directing the animated film The Angry Birds Movie.
The Angry Birds Movie 2 is a 2019 animated comedy film based on Rovio Entertainment's Angry Birds video game series, produced by Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, and Rovio Entertainment, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The sequel to The Angry Birds Movie (2016), the film was directed by Thurop Van Orman and co-directed by John Rice from a screenplay by Peter Ackerman, Eyal Podell and Jonathon E. Stewart. It is an international co-production between the Finland and the United States. Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Tony Hale, Anthony Padilla, Bill Hader, and Peter Dinklage reprise their voice roles from the first film, with newcomers Leslie Jones, Rachel Bloom, Awkwafina, Sterling K. Brown, Pete Davidson, Zach Woods, Dove Cameron, Lil Rel Howery, Eugenio Derbez, Tiffany Haddish, JoJo Siwa, and Brooklynn Prince joining the ensemble voice cast. In the film, birds Red (Sudeikis), Chuck (Gad), Bomb (McBride), and Silver (Bloom), are forced to team up with pigs Leonard (Hader), Courtney (Awkwafina), and Garry (Brown) to foil plans by Zeta (Jones) and the rest of the eagles on Eagle Island when an ice ball from Zeta's advanced super-weapon threatens both of their Islands.
Angry Birds Blues is a Finnish animated television series starring the Blues and the Hatchlings that appeared in The Angry Birds Movie, and The Angry Birds Movie 2. Animated in the same style as the film, it was produced by Rovio Animation along with its affiliated company Kaiken Entertainment, with Bardel Entertainment providing its animation. The series premiered on 10 March 2017 on the Toons.TV channel, before continuing on the Angry Birds' official YouTube channel after Toons.TV was closed down.
Lego The Angry Birds Movie was a Lego theme based on Rovio Entertainment's video game series of the same name and the same of the film. It was licensed from Columbia Pictures and Rovio Animation. The theme was first introduced in April 2016. The product line was discontinued by the end of 2017.
Two soundtracks were released for the 2016 animated comedy film The Angry Birds Movie based on the Rovio Entertainment's video game series of the same name: an original soundtrack and an original score. The first album featured music ranging from various genres and artists such as Blake Shelton, Demi Lovato, Imagine Dragons, Charli XCX, Peter Dinklage amongst several others, and released on May 6, 2016. The second album featured score composed by Heitor Pereira and released the following week. Both albums were distributed by Atlantic Records.
Hed: "We were first approached in early 2010 by Hollywood studios to discuss making Angry Birds into a feature film...I had in my mind a vision for what the world of Angry Birds was, and I wanted to make sure that we would be in control of what the story of the movie would be. If we had given Angry Birds to another studio to be developed, we would have lost that creative control. So I ultimately decided that we had to try to make the movie ourselves, even if I didn't know how to make that a reality. That is, until I met David."
Maisel: "[W]e also talked about how to make the movie as big as possible. Mikael and I agreed back in 2011 that...we should do certain things to protect the movie...Let's not let the birds have arms and legs until the movie comes out. Let's not have CGI-grade animation until the movie comes out. These were things that, we knew, if we could protect those things, then the movie had a chance to be really special..."