Ever since Pixar’s Toy Story landed in 1995 the world of cinematic animation opened up the Pandora’s box of CGI allowing a whole wealth of new production houses to compete with Disney’s cartoon powerhouse and Reel FX Creative Studios is the latest addition with its upcoming film, Free Birds. Set to star Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Parks and Recreations‘ Amy Poehler, the film is only the studio’s second feature animation, following their 2012 Cirque du Soleil film, Worlds Away.
With brief shades of Aardman Animations’ Chicken Run, Free Birds is the story of a bid for turkey freedom, but where Aardman had stop-motion, flying machines and Mel Gibson, Reel FX has CGI, Owen Wilson (The Internship), and a time machine to work with. Wilson plays turkey Reggie who lives the cushy life after being granted freedom by the president of the United States.
When Reggie is accosted by Jake, played by Harrelson (The Hunger Games), the militant lone member of the Turkey Liberation Front, he’s persuaded against his will initially to join a feather brained plan to break into a secret US military base to steel a time machine, head back to the first ever thanksgiving and stop the annual turkey feast tradition.
Amy Poehler will be playing Jenny, a Pilgrim era turkey that they meet in the past who turns out to be pretty irresistible to the lovesick Reggie. She follows Rashida Jones (who will be starring in Nick Frost’s dance comedy Cuban Fury) in the jump from Parks and Recreation to the big screen.
Inevitably, Free Birds has a cinematic release date of the 1st November 2013 in the run up to Thanksgiving Day on the 28th later that month, so expect it to be full of a certain festive cheer. The initial concept had been previously known as Turkeys until the creative team renamed it in April earlier this year.
The film is being directed by Jimmy Hayward, former animator of classics including Toy Story itself, A Bug’s Life, Monster’s Inc. and Finding Nemo. His only other cinematic director roles have come in recent years on Horton Hears A Who! (2008) and Jonah Hex (2010), so it’ll be interesting to see how his latest movie fares.
Free Birds looks like a fun family CGI cartoon comedy, that’ll go down particularly well in the states. For the rest of the world it’ll depend on the stuffing, but with Owen Wilson, Amy Poehler and Woody Harrelson in the starting roles it could be a funny film for the big screen newcomers, Reel FX. If there isn’t an Angry Birds tie in before the year’s out, it’ll be a big surprise.
