The Angry Birds Movie is great fun but exhausting, with its effervescent sugar-rush pace and surprisingly relentless rapid-fire dialogue. Pitched somewhere between the character-driven banter of the Madagascar films and the delicious madness of SpongeBob, Jon Vitti's screenplay provides a well-crafted origin story in a clear, simple and equally-effective three-act structure, densely packed with everything from unexpected throwaway pop references (an eclectic mix ranging from The Shining to X-Men to Rick Astley) to a non-stop barrage of visual and verbal gags (including a couple of pieces of very strong innuendo that even made it past the BBFC's U-certificate demands). The attention to detail is enjoyable, from the excellent CGI lighting effects to the secondary characters (such as the Hugging Bird who no-one wants to hug, and the hilarious Mime Bird), and the top-line voice cast is immensely strong (in particular Jason Sudeikis as Red and Maya Rudolph as Matilda). This film might not quite have the emotional heft of a Pixar/Disney animation, but as the first movie based on a smartphone app, this is very successful - but I don't think we can expect a Candy Crush movie any time soon. And yes - there is even a mid-credits sting!
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