Film review: Free Birds is funny, if somewhat birdbrained

Free Birds is a highly political film - if you happen to be a turkey. Turkey is the favoured dish for Thanksgiving in the US and Christmas in Britain, and millions of birds are slaughtered each year to provide meat for the traditional celebratory meal.

In Jimmy Hayward's animated feature, this doesn't go down well with two revolutionary minded modern turkeys, who think their lives would be much more palatable if they weren't destined to end up on a human's plate. So the two intelligent birds steal a time-machine and travel back to 1621 for the first ever Thanksgiving. Their aim? To make sure that turkeys aren't on the menu, thus changing the tradition forever.

This idea itself is so wacky that it sounds like it will prove hilarious, and some of the film's verbal gags are indeed laugh-out-loud funny. Unfortunately, many of the jokes just aren't funny enough, especially when they descend into juvenile crudity which revolves around body parts - or more accurately, turkey bits. The film is not, well, a turkey, but it certainly doesn't live up to its comically intriguing promise.

The story begins with Reggie (Owen Wilson) being expelled from his flock for daring to claim that turkeys always end their lives on the dinner table. He's later kidnapped by Jake (Woody Harrelson), the one and only member of the Turkey Liberation Front, who claims he's been chosen to head back in time to the first Thanksgiving to give the settlers the bird by getting turkeys off the menu. So the two go back and join a band of renegade turkeys that are battling hungry settlers.

Produced by Reel FX Creative studios, the film is heavily influenced by Pixar works such as Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. Pixar made its name by bringing human-like qualities to characters like toy space ranger hero Buzz Lightyear, and director Hayward tries to do the same with Reggie and Jake. But he tries a bit too hard, and the duo end up being carbon copies of Monsters, Inc's tall, unflappable Sulley and the nervy Mike.