No, this movie isn't about the band, Lynard Skynard at all. Nor is the song 'Freebird' appear or mention in this film. I wish it was. Instead, Free Birds is a 3D computer-animated buddy comedy film produced by Reel FX Creative Studios. While, the animation isn't as good as, let's say, Dreamworks or Pixars Studios. This movie was alright in the animation part, but the plot was just awful. Directed by Jimmy Hayward, the movie is about Reggie the Turkey (voiced by Owen Wilson) who always trying to warn turkeys about Thanksgiving. However, it's constantly fall on deaf ears. It wasn't until, he was saved, by being pardoned by the President (Jimmy Hayward), that he is able to find a way to eliminate turkeys from ever becoming part of the thanksgiving menu. With, the help of Jake (Woody Harrelson) of the Turkeys Liberation Front, both plan to steal the president's time machine S.T.E.V.E (George Takei) so that they can travel to 1621 to change Thanksgiving. Sadly, this movie was all over the place, with it's over cramped complex plot. First off, it doesn't make any logically sense. If you think, time travel logic paradoxes is a headache in other films. This movie really blows your mind off, on how dumb, it gets with the time travel plot lines. It didn't help, that the film is also full historical inaccuracies. While, I might not be the target age group for this film. I felt like kids are smarter than that. I really doubt, families are really looking forward to seeing this movie. After all, nothing says, spending time with your family on Thanksgiving, then watching a film making Thanksgiving traditions look like the Holocaust. Yes, every year, we kill an animal as part of a ritual sacrifice, put the dead body at the center of our tables, and pray and give thanks over it in some form of communion, but gees, movie. It's not like giving satanic rights. It's not that disturbing. There is nothing wrong, with eating turkey like there isn't nothing wrong with being a vegetarian. I love turkey, and there are several health benefits of eating turkey such as low in fat, while being high on protein. I hate the film, for portray the hunters of the old days as over the top villains. They were trying to survive and feed their children. Food is food. Thanksgiving is a feast, showing that we have learn to survive our environment. It's a holiday celebrating family, peace, togetherness, and fellowship. We celebrate Thanksgiving to remember how far we've come, and the importance of community. The genocide metaphors are somewhat interesting take of society. First off, the turkeys of the past in the film are given these Native American look to them. Reminds me of 2009's Avatar. They representing wild, smart and free. The film might be saying, like the Native American genocide over the years, turkeys have become tamed, dumb and caged in in farms, similar to how Native American were put into reservations. I find it, kinda offensive, but not too much. It could be that the turkeys in the film seem to have anthropomorphic attribution in representing more than Native Americans society. Turkeys could had, in fact, represent modern society as a whole. As technology gets better, the less and less we have to struggle to find food, the more we lose that survivable instinct that our ancestors had to go through to fight hunger. We become more factory and farm feed. Like the modern day turkey, we're caged in, dumb feed, the same things every day. Free birds is asking us to break free from those chains. I don't consider myself an animal right activist, but I can understand the overall message of the film. Despite the film good intentions, the makers of this film come off as preachy PETA propaganda nutjobs trying to forced free anti-Thanksgiving values messages. I really doubt it wanted to destroy Thanksgiving, but it came across like that. The movie does have some good moral lessons here, but it's really up to the parents here on what viewpoints, do they want to expose their children to. The movie also talks about atheism, feminism, and not blindingly following someone, and most of all, to question everything. I have to question on where was the humor in this film?! Like weeks old turkey, the humor was really dry. It was hit and miss, with mostly misses. Nobody was laughing at this movie at the theater. Even the kids, who usually laugh at anything, were silent, most of the time. This movie was no Chicken Run (2000). I was deeply looking for something like this. The voice acting is mediocre, but doesn't stand out like other animation films. The movie ending is horrible. It's give up without even trying to solve the loose ends. At less, its gives us a post-credit ending, explaining that. Overall: not a great watch. The movie can go plunk itself.
