Film review: 'Free Birds' goes very much on the beaten path; lacks wit, technical brilliance

Film: Free Birds
Cast: Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Amy Poehler
Director: Jimmy Hayward
Rating: **

 
What's it about:
Thanksgiving gets a new meaning after two turkeys travel back in time to get their breed off the customary menu. Reggie (Wilson) and Jake (Harrelson) travel back in time to 1621, the year the first of their clan was plucked to make it on the dinner table.

Once transported to a different century, there are a series of characters and adventures the duo encounter. Jenny (Poehler) the daughter of the turkey chieftain and Reggie later have a romantic track that doesn't really serve much purpose.
 
What's hot
Kids in the age group of five to ten might find the film entertaining. Some of the jokes and dialogues are worth a chuckle. The character sketches and making the turkey look like real people gets noticed.

What's not
Unfortunately, the writing is weak and uninspired. Free Birds isn't the first animation film of its genre to focus on the feathered creatures. For most of the part, it looks dated and something that might have been made as a short film later to be commissioned into a feature film.

What hurts more is the cast boasts of a superb ensemble — the trio of Wilson-Harrelson-Poehler — which is reduced to motor mouthing some inane boring lines that don't let their personalities come out. Also, the bit about going vegetarian and keeping the birds off the chefs menu sounds preachy. Wish the writers woke up from their slumber and  gave us a better script.

What to do
Strictly for kids, Free Birds lacks the wit or technical brilliance of other films of its genre.