Storks (film)

Storks is a 2016 American 3D computer-animated comedy adventure film produced by Warner Animation Group, RatPac-Dune Entertainment and Stoller Global Solutions. It is directed by Nicholas Stoller and Doug Sweetland (in his feature debut), written by Nicholas Stroller and stars the voices of Andy Samberg, Katie Crown, Kelsey Grammer, Jennifer Aniston, Tye Burrell, Keegan Michael-Key, Jordan Peele, and Danny Trejo. It is the thirty-ninth Warner Animation Group film.

The film follows a hotshot package delivering stork (Junior) and his teenage human partner (Tulip), working at the distribution center of an online store, Cornerstore.com, situated high in the mountains. After a young 4-to-6-year-old boy (Nate) sends a letter to the company, the two create a baby girl using the defunct baby factory the storks had formerly used in their original business of making and delivering babies. In order to protect the baby from the company's manager and ensure Junior's promotion to succeed him, the two set off on a journey to deliver the baby to her family.

Storks premiered in Los Angeles on September 17, 2016, and was released by Warner Bros. on September 23, 2016, in 3D, IMAX and conventional formats. Storks received mixed reviews from critics and it earned $182 million worldwide during its theatrical run.

Plotedit | edit source
For generations, the storks of Stork Mountain delivered babies to families around the world, until one stork named Jasper attempted to keep an infant girl for himself. Jasper accidentally destroyed the infant’s address beacon and went into exile. Unable to deliver the orphaned girl, the storks adopted her under the name Tulip. CEO stork Hunter discontinued baby deliveries in favor of package delivery with Cornerstore.com.

17 years later, Tulip, now a bit older, tries to promote new ideas for Cornerstore, which backfire and cause the company to lose stocks. Hunter declares her to be a severe burden and liability due to this incompetence (the charts even justify this, as every time she tries to help, their profits go way down, and when they do make progress, it is when she's absent). Hunter assigns top delivery stork Junior to fire Tulip so he may be promoted to boss. Junior cannot bring himself to do so and instead transfers Tulip to the mail room.

Meanwhile, a young boy name Nate Gardner, who lives with his workaholic parents Henry and Sarah, is feeling lonely and wants/needs a younger sibling. He sends a letter to Cornerstore and it reaches Tulip, who enters the defunct baby factory and inserts the letter into the baby-making machine, causing it to create a pink-haired baby girl. Junior injures his right wing while trying to shut down the machine in the process. Afraid Hunter will fire him, Junior agrees to accompany Tulip and secretly deliver the baby to her family using a makeshift flying vehicle that Tulip invented. They eventually crash, escape a pack of wolves that fall in love with the baby, and reach civilization, during which Junior and Tulip bond with the baby and name her Destiny. In the meantime, Henry and Sarah immediately turn to Nate’s desire for a younger sibling and spend time with their son by building a beacon to signal the storks.

Junior, Tulip and Destiny encounter Jasper, who had followed them from Stork Mountain. Jasper has nearly repaired Tulip’s delivery beacon, but is still missing one piece, which had been in Tulip’s possession for years. Junior confesses to Tulip that he was supposed to fire her, and a depressed Tulip leaves with Jasper to meet her family while Junior continues alone to deliver Destiny. pigeon employee Toady learns about Destiny and informs Hunter, who transmutes her address beacon and leads Junior into a trap. Hunter fires Junior and has Destiny taken away to live with penguins until she is older in order to silence the plummeting stocks. Meanwhile; at the Gardners house, a policeman which was hired by Hunter warns them that the lights have to get torn down. Nate then tells the policeman that they cannot tear it down because it is for a delivery for his new brother/sister but his parents are afraid to then tell him that nobody has what they are after. Nate becomes sad and upset. After the policeman leaves, Nate then goes outside and then looks at his picture he drew earlier and it starts to get rained on and ruined. Because of this, he then sadly starts tearing the lights that power the beacon down and then breaks down in tears.

Tulip reunites with Junior and they return to Stork Mountain during the highly anticipated Stork-Con event to save Destiny from the penguins. When they are cornered in the baby factory by Hunter and the other storks, Junior sends millions of archived letters from families into the baby-making machine, causing it to produce one million babies and distract the storks. Hunter seizes control of a crane and tries to destroy the factory, only to have him stopped by Destiny, Junior, Tulip and abused birds help make the Corner-store building collapse off Stork Mountain, causing Hunter, who is tangled in the cables and trapped inside his crane, to get blasted out and plummet to his death.

After Hunter's diminish-ion, Junior rallies all the storks to deliver all the babies to their families all over the world and return to delivering babies (while "Fire and the Flood" is on). As Junior, Tulip and Jasper are finding Destiny's home to deliver her to her family (the Gardners), Nate and his parents see the other storks with babies flying by which they get Nate the put the lights back up onto the beacon, switches the power back on and the beacon activates its light making Destiny's address device turn green, which they head into the direction of the light and when they land outside of the Gardner's house, Junior then gives Destiny to her family and the family is happy to see and have their new family member. After that, Tulip finally unites her missing family, and Junior continues working as a good manager and boss of Stork Mountain.

Castedit | edit source

 * Andy Samberg as Junior, a white stork working at Stork Mountain as the company's top delivery stork, in hope of being promoted to becoming boss/manager.
 * Katie Crown as Tulip, a 17-year-old teenage human worker at Stork Mountain, who is determined to find her missing family.
 * Danny Trejo as Jasper, an enormous white stork working at Stork Mountain. Before the baby process was temporarily stopped, Tulip was the last infant to be made, and Jasper wanted to keep her to himself.
 * Kelsey Grammer as Hunter, a cruel golf-obsessed and unpleasant white stork who is the executive CEO of Cornerstore and has a cruelty and hatred of baby deliveries. And pretty much should be arrested for that.
 * Keegan Michael-Key as Alpha, a caring wolf and the wolf pack leader who wants to take care of Destiny.
 * Jordan Peele as Beta, Alpha's brother. The wolf pack adore the infant Destiny as they treat her like one of their own.
 * Anthony Starkman as Nate Gardner, a 4-to-5 year old boy whose parents are distracted by computer work and is surrounded by brotherhoods leaving him lonely.
 * Jennifer Aniston as Sarah Gardner, Nate's workaholic overprotective mother who opposes the idea of a brother/sister for Nate's important reason, but changes her mind after Henry convinces her with their desire.
 * Tye Burrell as Henry Gardner, Nate's workaholic father who supports the idea of having a daughter/son for family reasons.
 * Stephen Glickman as Pigeon Toady, an awkward, nosy pigeon working at Corner-store who is eager to get any kind of attention, and who has been on Hunter's scheme by going after Junior and Tulip to prevent the delivery of the baby to Hunter.
 * Christopher Nicholas Smith as Dougland, a chicken incapable of flight who uses a jetpack.
 * Awkwafina as Quail

Ike Barinholtz, Amanda Lund, and Jorma Taccone provide the miscellaneous stork voices. Different baby sound effects were made to provide both Destiny's voice and other babies voices too.

Productionedit | edit source
The project was first announced in January 2013, when Warner Bros. formed its animation "think tank" with some directors and writers to develop animated films, Nicholas Stoller was hired by the studio to create and write Storks, while Doug Sweetland was attached to direct the film. On April 20, 2015, Andy Samberg and Kelsey Grammer were added to the voice cast of the film, and it was announced that Stoller and Sweetland would co-direct the 3D film, while Stoller would produce the film along with Brad Lewis. The original idea film was developed under Warner Bros. Animation. Sony Pictures Imageworks provided the film's animation service. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele were also announced in the cast who provided their voices for the film. On June 15, 2016, Jennifer Aniston was announced in the cast.

Releaseedit | edit source
Storks was originally going to be released on February 10, 2016, which Warner Bros. had reset for The Lego Batman Movie. The film was released on September 23, 2016, which was previously set for The Lego Ninjago Movie, which has now moved to 1 year later. Storks is preceded by The Master, a six-minute short film based on the Lego Ninjago line of sets, the short was later re-released in theatres with The Lego Batman Movie in selected theatres in England and Australia.

Home Video releaseedit | edit source

 * Main article: Storks (video)

Storks was released by Warner Home Video on Blu-ray (2D, 3D and 4K Ultra HD) and DVD on December 20, 2016, with a digital release on December 6, 2016. Extras included a two-minute short film, titled Storks: Guide to Your New Baby (with onscreen title Pigeon Toady's Guide to Baby's), and the Lego Ninjago short film, The Master.

Box officeedit | edit source
Storks grossed $72.7 million in USA and $109.7 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $182.4 million, against a budget of $70 million.

In USA, Hawaii and Australia, Storks opened alongside The Magnificent Seven was originally projected to gross around $30 million from 3,922 theaters in its opening weekend, with some estimates reaching $36 million. The Hollywood Reporter noted that in recent decades, Warner Bros. has not been able to produce very successful and lucrative animated films except for The Lego Movie in 2014 and that the studio is hoping Storks would duplicate that success. It grossed $435,000 from its Thursday previews and just $5.7 million on its first day, lowering weekend projections to $20 million. It ended up opening to $21.8 million, finishing second at the box office behind The Magnificent Seven 's $35 million debut.

Internationally, the film opened in conjuncture with its American debut across 34 foreign territories, including the likes of Asia, China, India, Japan and France.

Critical responseedit | edit source
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 63% based on 115 reviews and has an average rating of 6/10. The site's consensus reads, "Colorful animation and a charming cast help Storks achieve a limited liftoff, but scattershot gags and a confused, hyperactively unspooled plot keep it from truly soaring." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 56 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review and said: "There's a nice, snappy playfulness in the rapport between Samberg and engaging newcomer Crown. That lively, back-and-forth vibe also extends to the Aniston/Burrell and Key/Peele dynamic." Peter Hartlaub of San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "Whoever is running Warner Animation Group appears to be allowing the lunatics to run the asylum. And that is a wonderful thing." Tom Russo of The Boston Globe gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and said "Storks are known for delivering bundles that are irresistible, exhaustingly active at times, and frequently pretty darn messy. How completely appropriate, then, that Warner Bros.' 3-D animated feature Storks delivers the same."

Owen Gleiberman of Variety gave the film a mixed review and called it "a strenuously unfunny animated comedy." Samantha Ladwig of IGN gave the film 4.5/10 and said "Storks starts off well enough and delivers a few laughs, but ultimately it isn’t quite sure of what it is." Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club noted the "filmmakers' assumption […] that if lines are said very fast and in silly voices, they will become funny," and criticized Warner Bros. for putting out a generic animation along the same, safe lines of what "other second-tier animation houses" are producing: "The Lego Movie brought with it the hope that the studio might reclaim some of the animation territory it has long ceded to other studios. Storks, though, is just another okay cartoon."

Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal gave the film a negative review, saying "The whole movie seems to be on fast-forward, with crushingly brainless dialogue, hollow imagery and no way of slowing down the febrile action or making sense of the chaotic plot." Barbara VanDenburgh of The Arizona Republic said, "Storks is charmless with rote obligation. This is a kid's film for hire, with none of the creativity, emotion and design that elevate the genre to art, or even simply a fun time at the movies."

Triviaedit | edit source

 * This is the first Warner Animation Group film to be animated feature created by Sony Pictures Imageworks, followed by Smallfoot.
 * Despite being animated, this is the first Warner Animation Group film not to include cartoon sound effects.