Warner Brothers' "Storks"

It's actually kinda funny when you realize Andy Samberg has important roles in both this movie and Hotel Transylvania.

Except Storks doesn't have the unfunny tumor who calls itself "Adam Sandler" (seriously, he's the only reason that's keeping me from watch HT2 on Netflix) and it's coming from an animation studio that doesn't constantly kick awesome people out of promising projects over "creative differences".

You guys see what I did there?

edited 23rd Sep '16 2:09:53 PM by TargetmasterJoe

Surprisingly, I actually didn't have a problem with him in Hotel Transylvania and I usually can't stand Adam Sandler.

Hotel Transylvania wasn't bad. It had good gags and great animation courtesy of Tartakovsky's usage of squash and stretch. The films are just a bit bland, but Adam Sandler isn't a detraction to them. Hell, he's actually one of the things about it that I like.

Plus, Doug Walker said he really liked it, so there's that. Anywho, this is all off topic, so has anyone seen the movie yet? It's at 62% on Rotten Tomatoes right now.

edited 23rd Sep '16 8:39:17 PM by AdricDePsycho

I've seen it and I really enjoyed it. I just loved the face pacing and overblown-ness it does that keeps it funny, and when it's not fast it makes it sweet and charming. I'd probably give this an 8/10 because of segments I wished they edited out.

Also as a side note, expect some LGBT-ness in this film.

Honestly, I preferred Sandler over some of the other voices they picked for the characters. Doug Walker liked Hotel Transylvania? Huh, kinda surprising.

I haven't talked to anyone who's seen Storks yet, but one of my local newspapers had a good review on the movie.

Yeah, Walker liked it. I think it might've been mostly for the animation aspect, but he did say he liked Adam Sandler's role in it.

Hotel Transylvania is getting an animated series now, too. Which The Disney Channel will air.

Just got back from the movie. It was...eh. Not horrible, but not great or anything. Kind of a let down after The Lego Movie. Hell, it opened with a Lego Ninjago short done in the style of The Lego Movie, and I found it more entertaining than Storks.

Also, they should've never used Pigeon Toadey. He's annoying and unfunny.

I'm a bit surprised by how many media outlets are making mention of the fact that sex has largely been removed from babymaking in Storks. Does this actually come as a shock to anyone? That a film about storks delivering babies wouldn't spend much time on how babies are actually made?

On this topic, may I say the Pixar short about the baby-delivering stork really pissed me off? It's basically delivering the message 'if your job is abusive, you shouldn't ask for better treatment, and if your superiors throw a childish tantrum over it, you should just grin and take it up the ass, equal fair treatment be damned. Be happy with your misery!'

Somehow, I doubt I'll dislike this more. I hope.

I really liked Hotel Transylvania 2, though it's ending damn near ruined the whole thing.

It's not that sex has been removed, rather sex is an alternative. They imply that sex still exists.

edited 26th Sep '16 2:55:19 PM by 123tbones

To each his own, of course, but I never got the impression that the cloud in the short you're talking about was the stork's superior, but his partner (it implied that he was free to partner up with another cloud). and that the cloud was doing his best but couldn't help but come up with violent infants. What I took away from it was "This is hard, but you're my friend, so I'll try to make it work."

Okay guys I saw it. Thar be spoilers below.

I was saddened by the fact that there were only like 10 other people in the theater, including the two others I invited. This makes sense: the box office perforamce since Wednesday has only been at $21 million domestically. Think it performed better overseas? Wrong. It was even worse, with THAT total not even reaching the domestic amount!

Which is a shame because this is Warner Animation Group's second feature film, it's Warner Bros' attempt to create a line of successful animated films like EVERY OTHER studio these days is doing, but so far everything seems like a so-so attempt if it doesn't have building blocks in it!

I really want this to do great, but the movie itself? ..... well it has a few problems. It's not that it isn't well-written, ... but the story they chose is so obvious from the moment you find out that the premise is about storks losing their way to make way for package delivery! It's Monsters Inc. It's just Monsters Inc. using the stork myth instead of monsters who scare kids when the lights are out. Junior is... kind of unlikable, which is a problem considering he's the protagonist. You might say what he does is justified in the situation he's been put into, but .. does he HAVE to poke a hole in the raft for no real reason other than to get rid of Tulip? Does he have to act passively mean toward her all because his boss told him he wouldn't get promoted if he didn't fire her? He know so little about these characters themselves outside of the story that I didn't really connect with any of them. There's too many wacky antics going on, and the film never gives me a break to really take anything seriously.

Now I'm happy to say that there were MUCH more enjoyable moments for me from calling this a bad film. Looking at my pros and cons, by all account, it should be a very good fllm! I'm glad they're embracing their Looney-Tunes, wacky comedy again but with CGI this time, the third act is emotional and very touching and feels complete, and there are a LOT of priceless moments. The wolves totally steal the show! And I even found Pigeon Toady oddly appealing- really wanted to see more of him. I just wish there were more great stuff to the point where i recommend everyone should see this.

It's nowhere near the best film in the world. But it does NOT deserve the 65% it got on Rotten Tomatoes.

edited 30th Sep '16 9:47:42 PM by kyun

I think by now the storks are so much of a Dead Horse Trope the premise simply doesn't have mass appeal anymore.

edited 2nd Oct '16 6:59:58 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

As said I think that's only ONE problem out of the several problems working against this film. Unlike monsters under the bed or in the closet, or living toys, or living emotions .... the idea of storks is outdated because anyone over the age of 12 finds out where babies REALLY come from, and the stork myth isn't as universally recognized.

Not to mention how it was mentioned in the trailer that storks gave up delivering babies for 18 years!? Then where the hell do all the babies born after that come from?? Granted, the film DOES explain this for like 2 seconds in a throwaway line near the beginning (there are "other ways to get a baby", implying that stork delivery is more like an added service rather than the one and only way you can conceive), but you'd think the writers would put more care into explaining that more clearly.

I don't think storks delivering babies is a trope, really. It's more like...I dunno, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny. A Childhood Myth, if there is such a thing (is there an official term for those?).

Hell, the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls were predicated on the similar old story that parents found babies growing in cabbage patches.

I remember in Piers Anthony's Xanth series that babies are delivered by storks, and apparently having sex is how parents summon them. The main euphemism for sex in Xanth is "summoning the stork."

its a trope alright,just a very old one

Pigeon Toady - I think he would have fared better with audiences if there was at least SOME explanation for why he is who he is. The featurrette online with his voice actor said he "has a need to gain attention, and wants to work his way up to the title of Boss instead of Junior". ....... the movie never explains this. We see scenes of him trying to get attention, but we have to figure that out for ourselves. Why is a pigeon working among a staff of storks?? Never explained. His scenes are so fast and brief that I think people found them awkward instead of funny- there wasn't enough time to really understand what's supposed to be funny about him. Hell, even in-universe, no one seems to know why he's there!!

Tulip - Don't make her as spazzy. My impression upon first seeing her in the teaser trailer is that she was inspired by Lucy Ricardo. Hell, the bit with trying to control the assembly line machine is lifted right out of an I Love Lucy moment! But instead we get more of a Pinkie Pie personality where she's darting everywhere, and has ADHD. She's otherwise a very appealing and likeable character, much more than Junior. I was initially put off by her Gollum-esque conversation with herself when being bored in the mail room, but then she crafted an entire storyiine for herself (her clones having to be put in the HR office to settle a dispute), and then I was fully on-board. :D

Not a big fan of this one. I like Junior, however.

Saw this the other day. It has issues and some jokes didn't hit very well, but enough of them did for me to like it.

"Sometimes an actor would do so well at ad-libbing in the booth, it would steer the story in a direction we never expected!"

.... maybe ya shouldn'ta DONE dat, den.

And you're getting that from...?

The directors specifically said that.