Storks – movie review

There is a mythological link between storks and babies in many cultures. A quick search of the Internet reveals references by the Greeks, Germans, Chinese, Egyptians and Israelis, to name but a few. Regardless of the veracity of those myths, that is the starting point or, perhaps that should read “flying point” at the heart of this hectic animated feature.

Writer/director Nick Stoller and director Doug Sweetland take us on a road trip like no other, as a super-focused stork with big ambitions and an 18-year-old orphaned girl with some wild ideas rush to make one very special delivery. The action is centred on a global Internet retail giant called Cornerstore.com, which used to deliver babies, but now doesn’t — due to a mishap — and found that relaying packages was far more lucrative. The retailer’s bombastic head, Hunter (the voice of Kelsey Grammer), is about to be bumped upstairs to be made Chairman of the Board. That gives the company’s top delivery stork, Junior (Andy Samberg) the chance to be promoted. His only test is to fire the company’s one human employee, Tulip (Katie Crown) and that proves mighty tricky, to say the least.

Tulip is an openhearted and optimistic young lady with a talent for inventing and a powerful desire to help that is directly proportional to the amount of trouble she creates every time she touches anything. Junior finds that out first hand. You see, Tulip accidentally activates the Baby Factory on his watch, producing an adorable – and wholly unauthorised – tot. Desperate to deliver this bundle of trouble before the boss gets wise, Junior and Tulip race to make their first-ever baby drop … encountering all sorts of problems.

The spark for the story came from Stoller’s own life. The father of two girls, he explains, “We were lucky with our first daughter, and it was a big surprise when having the second one wasn’t so easy and required a bit of science. “That experience made me appreciate having children even more and I believe it also made me more present as a parent.” So that was his inspiration, but it wasn’t until later that the idea popped into his head about storks and the myth concerning how they once delivered babies and how that might impact a youngster who wants a sibling.

Storks is fun, fanciful and colourful. Its premise is sound, namely the importance of family, although explaining just where babies come from may become a little awkward if this is the template.

Storks has a zany and, at times, convoluted script, so it is best to suspend belief and just go with the flow. Nevertheless, the film was also a little too frenetic, too frenzied, for my liking. I didn’t really laugh a lot, or even smile a great deal. I sat there watching without feeling much involvement. The story tries hard to generate warmth but I didn’t connect. Still, I dare say youngsters, who may not understand all of the narrative, will like the movement and the characters.

Rated G, Storks scores a 6 out of 10.

Director: Nicholas Stoller, Doug Sweetland
Cast: (Voices of) Andy Samberg, Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell, Kelsey Grammer
Release Date: 22 September 2016
Rating: G

Alex First