Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Storks (2016)

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-10-2016, 09:00 PM:

Given their Looney Tunes legacy, it's kind of surprising that Warner Bros. has had such a spotty record with their feature animation department. The only "hits" they've had in the last 35 years are Space Jam and "The Lego Movie."

Given that crappy record, this movie was surprisingly good. Inventive, full of good characters, and action-packed, it brings the Looney sense of humor along intact.

The voice talent is not the greatest, but the jokes come fast and furious and there are a number of laugh-out-loud bits in the movie. My favorite recurring bit involves a pack of wolves who can "shape shift" into just about anything, including an airplane and a submarine.

The best thing about the film, as hinted at above, is the inventiveness of it all. It starts with the premise that storks don't deliver babies anymore - now they deliver products, from an Amazon-like warehouse called "cornerstore.com".

But one baby girl's delivery address was destroyed (by one stork who didn't "go along" with the whole warehouse idea and wanted to keep one baby around), so the kid has grown up "helping" at the warehouse. Problem is, she's a huge klutz, so the lead stork (named Junior) is given the task of firing the girl from the warehouse and returning her to the human world. As usual, wackiness (a whole lot of it) ensues.

You can pretty much guess the ending, so I won't talk about it here, but just will say that the movie is never boring and is a bit better than the usual non-Disney animated fare we've seen lately. The sound mix was just so-so.

STORKS: 2.5 stars

The program opens with a six-minute "Lego Ninjago" short. I believe it's meant to promote a feature length Lego Ninjago movie that Warners is coming out with next year.

The story, I think, is about a Lego chicken that tries and almost succeeds in taking over a movie production. Unfortunately, it fails on just about every level. It's the stupidest, most pointless, most annoying short I believe I've ever seen. It would look cool in 3-D, is about the only good thing I can say about it.

Chuck Jones, Friz Freling, Bob McKimson and Mel Blanc would all be spinning in their graves right now if they could see what's supposed to pass for a short these days.

If the purpose of this short was to make the accompanying movie look better, it does succeed in that. And really stretching for SOMETHING to praise about it... the animation makes funny use of the famed WB shield.

THE SHORT (which doesn't have a clear title, that's another failing): 1 star for the zippy animation.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 10-13-2016, 04:47 PM:

I'm pretty sure the short is called The Master, since that's what it says in the end credits. But it sure ain't up to much.

Storks, on the other hand, is great! I love the wolf pack submarine, especially the periscope and how they all come up to take a breath once in a while.

This is one of the funniest cartoons I've seen in a long time.