The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2023 film)

The Angry Birds Movie 2 is a 2023 computer-animated comedy film based on Rovio Entertainment's Angry Birds video game series, produced by Universal Pictures, Illumination, and Rovio Animation, and distributed by Universal. The sequel to The Angry Birds Movie (2016), the film was directed by Tim Hill from a writer by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger and Matthew Fogel. It is an international co-production between the Finland and the United States. Jason Bateman, Chris Rock, Will Arnett, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tony Hale, Anthony Padilla, Rainn Wilson, and Nicolas Cage reprise their voice roles from the first film, with newcomers Taraji P. Henson, Selena Gomez, Allison Abbate, Cedric the Entertainer, Pete Davidson, Zach Woods, Dove Cameron, Lil Rel Howery, Anthony Ramos, Tiffany Haddish, JoJo Siwa, and Brooklynn Prince joining the ensemble voice cast. In the film, birds Red (Bateman), Chuck (Rock), Bomb (Arnett), and Silver (Mays), are forced to team up with pigs Leonard (Wilson), Courtney (Abbate), and Garry (Cedric the Entertainer) to foil plans by Zeta (Henson) and the rest of the eagles on Eagle Island when an ice ball from Zeta's advanced super-weapon threatens both of their Islands.

Production on a sequel to The Angry Birds Movie began in February 2017. New ideas for the film were conceived with the premise being that the birds and pigs work together to save themselves, which very rarely happens in most Angry Birds games. New characters for the film were announced in December 2022 along with new cast members. The animators were tasked with attempting to create more realistic feather systems for the Birds' plumage and designing visual effects for snow, ice, water and lava for the film. Michael Giacchino returned to compose the film's score with artists such as Kesha and Luke Combs contributing tracks for the film. It also features eighteen classical pop songs from the 1960s to 2000s decades from famous artists and different genres from the soundtrack, like the first film.

It was theatrically released on March 22, 2023, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, in Finland on March 31, and in the United States on April 5 in Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D and IMAX formats. The film was as successful as its predecessor, grossing over $1 billion worldwide and making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2022, on a $150 million budget, and received generally mixed-to-positive reviews from critics; some deemed it an improvement over its predecessor, with praise earned for its score, animation, humor, voice performances (particularly Bateman's), and aesthetic.

Plot
Seven years after Piggy Island's destruction, Red protects Bird Island from the pigs, led by King Leonard Mudbeard, who are in a prank war against the birds and have rebuilt Piggy Island. One day, a giant ice ball from nearby Eagle Island hits the sea near Piggy Island, forcing the pigs to seek and agree to a permanent truce with the birds. Zeta, the leader of Eagle Island, is angry with her frozen surroundings and wants to occupy the two islands by shooting ice balls from a super-weapon to force their inhabitants to evacuate. Red's two best friends, Chuck and Bomb, surprise and ask Red to join them in a speed dating activity, where Red meets Chuck's sister Silver, an engineering student, who deems Red incompatible. Meanwhile, Zoe - the daughter of Red's classmate Terence and teacher Matilda - loses the eggs containing her unborn sisters while playing with her friends, Vincent and Samantha, so they try to recover the eggs.

Leonard visits and convinces Red to form an alliance, recruiting Chuck, Bomb, Silver, Mighty Eagle, and Leonard's new assistant Courtney. A secret meeting in Mighty Eagle's cave gets disrupted when Zeta's super-weapon hits Eagle Mountain, which alarms the other birds living on Bird Island. As the team, now joined by pig gadgeteer Garry, travels to Eagle Island by submarine, Red assures the other birds that they do not need to evacuate. Once there, Mighty Eagle confesses that Zeta was once his fiancée but he abandoned her due to cowardice before he flies away. Red insists on fighting alone but Silver decides to follow him instead. They intrude the base from the mouth of the weapon and get captured and frozen to inflatable water toys. Zeta tells them her plan to fire ice balls filled with lava at both islands and demonstrates her newly upgraded cannon. Red, regretting not telling the birds to evacuate, admits his wish to be liked by everyone to Silver, who comforts him and frees them both. Meanwhile, the other team members disguise themselves as an eagle and grab a key card to get into the base, reunited with Red and Silver and establishes a plan to destroy the cannon as it begins to load up ammunition in ten minutes for the actual attack on both islands.

Red and Silver put themselves inside an ice ball and roll it down the spiralling ammunition track of Zeta's cannon, with their allies distracting the eagles and working to sever the track by reaching and pulling a switch so that the ball flies off and crushes the cannon. The plan fails and Zeta and her guards confronted them, giving her a chance to fire the weapon. Mighty Eagle arrives and makes a desperate attempt to stop Zeta by apologizing to her for abandoning her. Zeta brushes him off, revealing his real name is Ethan and that her assistant Debbie is their daughter. While Zeta is distracted, Chuck ties up the weapon using Silver's new invention, a very strong string called Super-String, which catches and decelerates the lava balls after Zeta fires them. As the string breaks, the hatchlings, who finally recovered their eggs, along with some piglets who had joined them on their quest back home, pass by Eagle Island and help grasp the string. The lava balls slide back into the cannon, destroying it and the base. Everyone escapes, and Mighty Eagle protects Debbie from being crushed by a metal plate, redeeming himself to her and Zeta.

Mighty Eagle and Zeta get married on Bird Island, with Red as the chief witness and Debbie as the flower girl and the rest of the birds, pigs, and eagles celebrate. Afterwards, Red credits Silver and the entire team for saving the islands, and as a result finds himself even more beloved for his honesty and selflessness and starts a relationship. Meanwhile, the hatchlings discover they have accidentally swapped Zoe's eggs by mistook her eggs, so they give them back to their mother, who has brought the newly born sisters. However, as soon as the older hatchlings take their eyes off them, the sisters stow away onto the boa constrictor's boat, causing the cycle to repeat.

Voice cast

 * Jason Bateman as Red
 * Selena Gomez as Silver, Red's love interest
 * Taraji P. Henson as Zeta
 * Nicolas Cage as Ethan "Mighty" Eagle
 * Allison Abbate as Courtney
 * Cedric the Entertainer as Garry
 * Will Arnett as Bomb
 * Suzanne Waters as Bomb's Opera Voice
 * Chris Rock as Chuck
 * Rainn Wilson as King Leonard Mudbeard
 * Jada Pinkett Smith as Matilda
 * Tiffany Haddish as Debbie
 * Anthony Ramos as Glenn
 * Dove Cameron as Ella
 * Pete Davidson as Jerry
 * Zach Woods as Carl
 * Nolan North as Terence
 * JoJo Siwa as Jay and Kira
 * Brooklynn Prince as Zoe
 * Alma Varsano as Samantha
 * Genesis Tennon as Vincent
 * Tony Hale as Mime
 * Faith Margaret Kidman-Urban as Beatrice and Sophie
 * Sunday Rose Kidman-Urban as Lily and Isla
 * Gaten Matarazzo as Bubba
 * Lil Rel Howery as Alex
 * Nicki Minaj as Pinky
 * Beck Bennett as Hank and Brad Eagleberger
 * Anthony Padilla as Hal
 * Colleen Ballinger as Roxanne
 * David Dobrik as Axel
 * Mason Ramsey as Oliver
 * Alex Hirsch as Steve
 * Conrad Vernon as Duck and Seal
 * Ally Garrett as Pig Mother and Snakelets
 * John Cohen as Eagle Detector
 * Sean Charmatz as Invisible Pig and Teacher
 * Kelly Prizeman as Bomb's Momb
 * Josh Engel as Dude Bird
 * Asher Bishop as Scott
 * Hazel Van Orman as Hazel
 * Leif Van Orman as Leif
 * David C. Smith as the Grumpy Dad
 * John Rice as Quad Bird
 * Nova Reed as Ally
 * Kaci Simotas as Anders
 * Eliza Cohen as Jenny
 * Samantha Cohen as Bailey
 * Isla Andrews as Eloise
 * Newell Alexander as an Eagle Guard
 * Rosemary Alexander as an Eagle Guard
 * Steve Alterman as Late Riser Bird, a bird who serves as a waiter/Additional Voices.
 * Steve Apostolina as a Eagle Guard, Bird on radio, a Crab/Additional Voices
 * Tom Bromhead as Eagle Guard
 * David Cowgill as Submarine Conductor, Eagle on walkie talkie/Additional Voices
 * Billy Eichner as Chef Pig
 * Grey Griffin as Mother Snake/Additional Voices
 * Bridget Hoffman as Olive Blue/Additional Voices
 * Richard Steven Horvitz as Eagle Guard in crowds/Additional Voices
 * Rif Hutton as Announcer Pig/Additional Voices
 * Joyce Kurtz as Dahlia/Additional Voices
 * Joanna Leeds as a Pink Bird/Additional Voices
 * Scott Menville as a Minion Pig/Additional Voices
 * David Michie as a Eagle Guard/Additional Voices
 * Michelle Ruff as a Worm/Additional Voices
 * Michael Sorich as Muscular Eagle Guard
 * Kelly Stables as Willow, a worm, a snakelet/Additional Voices
 * Lynanne Zager as Computer

Development
A sequel to The Angry Birds Movie was announced in February 2017. It was directed by SpongeBob SquarePants creator Tim Hill (in his second time with Illumination after Hop (2011)), and writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger return from the first film, with Matthew Fogel attached as screenwriter. Chris Meledandri and John Cohen returned from The Angry Birds Movie to serve as producer.

In the summer of 2021, production designer Pete Oswald stated that the sequel would be more of an adventure movie that introduces new characters and locations into the world first established in The Angry Birds Movie. While he was not in a position to offer further details about the plot and characters, which remained unknown until the months before the film's release, he expressed hope that it would be a better film than the first installment.

The creative decision to break from the games' source material and have the birds and pigs end their conflict and form an alliance to face a greater threat was one that was made out of a desire to surprise audiences with a new experience with the same characters, as well as attempt to outdo what was accomplished in the first film with an unprecedented level of creative freedom available. Chris Rock stated that the production team went forward with such idea because it was not only an "ingenious" one, but also because they felt it would feel most appropriate in light of the increasingly polarized political climate at the time, as people who disagree on significant issues struggle to find common ground.

Overall, the budget was approximately $150 million.

Casting
In December 2021, the majority of the voice cast was announced. Jason Bateman, Gad, Will Arnett, Jada Pinkett Smith, Rainn Wilson, and Nicolas Cage will reprise their roles from the first film. Taraji P. Henson will voice a new female villain, revealed to be Zeta in the teaser trailer. In April 2022, Nicki Minaj joined the cast of the film. Upon its release, the teaser trailer briefly revealed that Hal, a green boomerang bird from the games and the first film, will return in the sequel. Anthony Padilla would return to voice Hal. The following day, producer John Cohen announced in a tweet that Allison Abbate will voice Courtney, the first named female pig in the Angry Birds franchise that briefly appeared in the teaser.

When the film's first full trailer was released on November 29, 2022, more details about the sequel's characters and their voice roles were revealed. Among several new characters confirmed to appear in the movie was Silver, a bird first introduced in the Angry Birds 2 game, voiced by Selena Gomez, and Ella, voiced by Dove Cameron. In June, People revealed the identity of the white bird living with Zeta in the teaser trailer as Debbie, voiced by Tiffany Haddish who was one of several voice actors not listed in the initial casting. Later that month, the film's final trailer revealed that Terence, a large red bird from the first film, would appear without Sean Penn reprising his voice role, and Nolan North replacing Penn.

Animation
Unlike the previous film, the sequel was co-produced with Rovio Animation and Illumination. While it was possible to reuse assets from the first film instead of starting from scratch, significant work was needed to make them compatible with new technological systems that were adopted in the past few years. The film was animated by Illumination Studios Paris in Paris, France. Production was underway by September 2020, with animation ending in October 2022. Post-production work wrapped by March 2023. Hill said that Illumination updated their lighting and rendering technology for the film, with Meledandri claiming that it "pushed the technical and artistic capabilities of [the] studio to new heights". The animators faced great challenges attempting to create more realistic feather systems for the Birds' plumage, even with the help of Illumination Studios Paris' existing feather system that was first used in Stuart Little (1999), especially when it came to designing the villain Zeta, the hardest character to animate in the film with over 1,000 controls, a very complex face structure and a tall, flexible torso. The team also faced a demanding task in designing visual effects for snow, ice, water and lava for the film and production was also affected by the unavailability of certain animators who were being used to complete Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) months prior, as well as the amount of time lost due to Illumination moving the film's release date ahead by more than half a month.

Music
Michael Giacchino, who previously composed the first film, returned to compose the score of The Angry Birds Movie 2. On March 20, 2023, Kesha released her song "Best Day" for the film as a single. Days later, Luke Combs released a song, "Let's Just Be Friends" for the film as a single as well. Both singles were played in the film's end credits.

Also included on the film was Giacomo Puccini's aria “Un bel di vedremo” from his opera Madama Butterfly. However this was credited as “Opera”, by Heitor Pereira in the soundtrack.

The film's soundtrack, titled The Angry Birds Movie 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on April 3, 2023, by Back Lot Music, only in digital format and is available to download through payment platforms. It includes two songs previously unreleased and original from the movie: Luke Combs' "Let's Just Be Friends" and Kesha's "Best Day (Angry Birds 2 Remix)". The rest of the album consists of a compilation of eighteen classical pop music hits from the 1960s to 2000s decades, in different genres and various artists.

Theatrical
The Angry Birds Movie 2 held its world premiere at Regency Theater in Los Angeles, California on March 25, 2023, with the cast and crew in attendance. It was theatrically released in the United States on April 5, 2023, clashing with Disney and Nintendo's The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2, in both regular formats and in IMAX 2D and 3D. The film was previously scheduled to be released on December 21, 2022, coinciding 14th anniversary of the debut of the original Angry Birds game, and April 7, 2023 (the former of which was taken over by DreamWorks Animation's Puss in Boots: The Last Wish in response to the film's delay to the later date). On February 28, 2023, it was announced that the film would be released two days earlier, on its current date, to more than 60 markets while maintaining the March 31 date for Finland and stating that additional markets are to follow during April and May. It released in 65+ countries on dates ranging from April 5 to 7. It was released on April 26 in South Korea and on May 26 in Poland.