STORKS – Review

STORKS takes the old myth of storks delivering babies as a starting point for an animated action/adventure comedy, where the storks have gone corporate and gotten out of the baby delivery business. Now, storks deliver merchandise for Cornerstore.com, a giant Amazon-like internet retailer, because now there are so many options if you want a baby. Or at least they thought they were out of the baby business, until a little boy uses an old form to place an order for a baby brother- an order that would never have been filled except for a glitch in the system that activates the long-shuttered Baby Factory.

A baby is in no way part of the company’s new business model, so an ambitious, efficient stork named Junior (Andy Samberg), who is in line to become the next CEO, has to deal with the problem – and quickly, before his boss Hunter (Kelsey Grammer) finds out about it and puts an end to Junior’s career. Part of the “glitch” is the storks’ sole human employee, Tulip (Katie Crown). Cheerful but klutzy 18-year-old Tulip grew up in the factory after her stork botched the delivery, but she has a knack for botching things up, particularly with her numerous untried inventions. Hunter had asked Junior to lay her off but ambitious Junior is also basically a nice guy, and it is while he is gingerly trying to handle that situation that the baby glitch happens.

The easiest way to solve the problem is to delivery the baby, but with an injured wing, Junior is forced to accept Tulip’s help to do that. Sure, they are on an island called Stork Mountain in the middle of the ocean, but what (else) could go wrong?

Fast and clever, STORKS will have the whole family laughing but anyone expecting realism from a movie about birds who used to deliver babies needs to chuck that thought. This funny action/adventure tale (*ahem*) delivers the fun, and at a non-stop action pace. Although it has its warm moments, the focus is really on the comedy, and with less than an hour and a half running time (100 minutes with the pre-feature LEGO short), there is little chance of little ones getting bored.

One cannot resist a little punning about this movie. And the film itself misses no chance for comedy, either high or low, while maintaining a good heart and appropriate tastefulness for a family film. Co-director/writer Nicholas Stoller already has some experience making the grown-ups laugh, with his previous films NEIGHBORS and FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, and co-director Doug Sweetland has the animation handled, with his experience on TOY STORY, FINDING NEMO and CARS. The creative team also includes a few from the LEGO MOVIE, and the feature film even has a Lego short shown before it. STORKS is not only funny and breathlessly entertaining but looks good too.

Like many kids’ films, this is basically a buddy movie, with mismatched companions on a quest. In this case, the companions are the efficient executive Junior and the slightly klutzy wannabe inventor girl Tulip. Making things tougher for them are a stool-pigeon employee named Pigeon Toady (Stephen Kramer Glickman), his steely-eyed boss Hunter, a bunch of evil penguin thugs, and a super-skilled wolf pack led by Alpha Wolf (Keegan-Michael Key) and Beta Wolf (Jordan Peele). Besides, the buddy theme, the story has another thread – a boy named Nate Gardner (Anton Starkman) who wants a brother to keep him company because his parents (Jennifer Aniston and Ty Burrell) are too wrapped up in their real estate business to pay any attention to him. And of course, part of the glitch with this unauthorized baby is that she is not the requested boy but a girl – a baby girl so adorable she conquers all who look at her, melting them into endless “aawws.”

The film is packed with jokes, both kid-friendly slapstick and visual comedy, and slyly clever wordplay and in-jokes for parents. The script is one of the movie’s strength, from a writer coming from a live-action comedy background, but the animation is terrific too, with some great action sequences and jaw-dropping perspectives. The characters are likable but also more believable than you expect, and the strong female character is a plus. Tulip is as chipper as can be but she’s also resourceful, inventive and relentless, often buoying the spirits of efficient business-oriented Junior, who thought he was the tops in getting things done.

This comedy story uses every tool – the adorable little baby girl exerts her power, whether reducing adults to baby-talking fools or running them ragged trying to get her to sleep. There is a very clever scene, a running theme really, built around the troubles birds have with glass windows.

All the cast are good, but Key and Peele are particularly hilarious as wolves who fall under the baby’s spell, and lose all perspective on what they are doing. Using humor, the film taps into truths about parenting, bonding, balancing career and family, and even about modern commerce – all without losing a single laugh. Grammer is excellent as CEO Hunter but the standout is Glickman as the socially-awkward Pigeon Toady, both toadying to the boss and at the same time, trying to win the acceptance of his co-workers. Samberg and Crown make a winning pair as Junior and Tulip, as do Aniston and Burrell as the parents who finally figure it out.

STORKS is pure fun, a delight start to finish. It might not be original enough to be an Oscar contender but STORKS surely is one funny family film, one with a lighter touch but still hitting home with some warm truths about both family and friendship.

RATING: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS

STORKS opens in theaters September 23