Storks

"Storks don't deliver babies anymore! If anyone finds out about this, I am dead meat!"

Filmology Rating: 2.5 out of 4

The legend of storks delivering babies has been engraved in our culture, from Hans Christian Anderson’s 1838 fairytale “The Storks” to Walt Disney’s 1941 animated film Dumbo. But now these creatures have stopped the baby delivering and moved into the package delivery service with Cornerstore. Basically the storks have left the more innocent world behind and have now taken up the more sinister corporate world. Junior, voiced by Andy Samberg, is the top delivery stork at Cornerstore and he only has one thing in his way from becoming CEO of Cornerstore: Orphan Tulip, voiced by Katie Crown. Current CEO Hunter, voiced by Kelsey Grammer, will hand Junior his job if he can fire Tulip, which Junior doesn’t have the heart to do so he sends her to wait for letters from families who want a child. Tulip does finally receive a letter and mistakenly creates a baby girl which terrifies Junior and his desire for the CEO job. The unlikely duo decide to go and deliver the baby to its new family.

Storks is the first animated film directed by Nicholas Stoller, who has directed films like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Neighbors, and it shows that he has a good grasp on how to tell a story to children as well as adults. It does help that Stoller is sharing directing credit with Doug Sweetland, who directed the 2008 Pixar short Presto and has worked in the animation world since 1995 with the early Pixar films. The animation in this film is never the problem, it is always colorful and pleasing to watch. One of the issues comes from the story itself, which is written by Stoller. The story tries to balance two stories; the first with Junior and Tulip and the second with Nate Gardner, voiced by Anton Starkman, and his parents Henry and Sarah, voiced by Ty Burrell and Jennifer Aniston. Both stories by themselves could easily fill the 90 minute running length, but when both are trying to steal the screen from each other, the story becomes muddled. Another issue with the film was the score by Mychael and Jeff Danna. The score sounds like a carnival at times, which is frustrating because Mychael has written great movie scores for films like Life of Pi and Moneyball.

The film has two areas where the film shines brightly: the charm and innocence the film wears on its sleeve and its fantastic use of montages. The film features the song “Holdin’ Out” by The Lumineers which by itself is such a heartwarming song and then when it’s put scenes that are meant to pull on your heartstrings you might feel your heart breaking and some tears coming out. The Lumineers also composed the moving song “The Hanging Tree” for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, so needless to say we should expect nothing but the best from this group.

Storks doesn’t reinvent the wheel but I don’t believe it tries to, it offers a feel-good, light-hearted film that will keep children entertained and bring a smile to every adult.

Rating: Rent It

-Jonny G