Storks no longer deliver babies, opting instead to deliver packages. This does raise some questions, though: are there any other baby-making factories out there? Is there an alternative solution to making them since the birds and the bees do not exist in this world? Since the baby-making factory was shut down, what if the world is like the movie, Children of Men, where children are not born anymore? It's probably best not to think about it too much.
The movie centers around the delivery stork named Junior who is on his way to being promoted. That is, until a mishap with the human worker, Tulip, causes the creation of a baby that they have to deliver in secret. They go on this journey to deliver the baby while also working off of each other, blah blah blah.
A lot of people praise the chemistry between Junior and Tulip and how they serve as substitute parents to that baby. I couldn't buy it. Most of their interactions are just them trying to one-up one another, which gets old really fast. Junior is just lacking in any strong characteristics that isn't looking forward to being a boss or failing to fire Tulip. I've grown a fondness over adorkable characters like Anna from Frozen, but I think Tulip is just way too adorkable for my tastes to the point where she gets pretty annoying. I know she's got a somewhat interesting backstory that starts off the plot which makes her an endearing character, but there is one thing holding me back from doing so, which I'll get to.
One thing that I managed to tolerate was its animation. I will admit, the character models are pretty good, especially with the animals. The film also follows a pretty fast pace like Warner Animation Group's last entry, The Lego Movie, so the animators knew how to time things right, I guess.
I also managed to tolerate the scenes with the family who requested the baby. Yeah, it follows that horrible cliche of the workaholic parents who are never there for their child. However, when it shows them working together to make the signal and bonding in the meantime, I actually found their scenes to be genuinely heartwarming. They weren't enough to save the movie for me, though.
What held me back from enjoying this movie was its humor. Remember that this is primarily a comedy and if it makes me laugh, it works. This was me the whole time...
Yup, I was nothing but annoyed. I found the humor to be extremely desperate for a laugh, relying on uninspired slapstick that is more aimed at children and several jokes shoved in at every minute without even letting the audience breathe for the most part. Seriously, this movie is on caffeine, and not in a good way. The interactions between the characters also suffers because of its really fast pace. Again, the interactions between Junior and Tulip are mostly them just trying to one-up one another. Why not, as AniMat would put it, make one of the pair the straight person? It worked with Marlin and Dory in Finding Nemo and Monkey and Beetle in Kubo and the Two Strings, so why not here?
Want an example of how desperate the movie is for a laugh? Allow me to mention that pigeon character. He was absolutely insufferable to watch. Every time he spoke with that "bruh" talk or went into one of his unfunny fantasies, I wanted to strangle him so much. The fact that he is one of the supporting characters who plays a huge part makes it worse. I've also heard people say that the wolves delivered some of the funniest scenes in the movie. I got nothing out of them; not even their ability to shape shift into various objects got a bit of a chuckle out of me.
The comedy which takes center stage is the reason why I could not stand Storks. No bright and colorful animation can save me from its bland characters and painfully unfunny humor. However, if you're looking for a fun time and this type of humor is your kind of thing, by all means check it out. I'm not stopping you. That's why Storks gets my rating of...
THINK FOR YOURSELF
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