Storks

Storks is a perfectly standard and somewhat forgettable animated feature that has a surprisingly touching and heartwarming final five minutes.  If the movie had fallen on this winning formula a lot sooner, we'd be looking at something truly special.  As it is, co-director and writer Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising) all too often confuses chaos for laughs.  This is the kind of movie where something is always happening, and the characters are constantly talking (often over each other), yet it never reaches any big laughs.

The premise is at least likable.  In this movie's world, the storks used to deliver babies to expecting couples until an incident 18 years ago, where a delivery stork fell in love with a baby it was supposed to fly to its waiting parents, and tried to keep it.  Ever since then, the current CEO of the storks, the bold and brash Hunter (voice by Kelsey Grammer), has had the birds delivering for an Amazon-style website called Cornerstore.com.  The very idea of this could have led to some pointed satire on consumerism, all of which the movie avoids.  The baby that was never delivered, Tulip (veteran voice actress Katie Crown), has lived among the storks ever since, doing odd jobs around the factory.  Now that she is old enough to go out into the world on her own, Hunter plans to fire her, and lays the task at the feet of Junior (Andy Samberg), a bright young stork who is up for a big promotion within the company.

Junior doesn't have the heart to fire Tulip, however, and instead sends her to the mail department, which has been inactive ever since they stopped delivering babies.  However, one letter does suddenly show up from a young boy named Nate (Anton Starkman), who is tired of being ignored by his workaholic parents (Ty Burrell and Jennifer Aniston), and wants a baby brother to play with - one preferably with ninja skills, he stresses in his letter.  Tulip starts up the old factory equipment, and before Junior can stop it, the first baby in 18 years has been produced and is ready to be delivered. (Although it does create a girl instead of a little brother for some reason.) Wanting to keep it a secret from Hunter, Junior and Tulip team up to deliver the baby themselves.  This leads to various misadventures, as the duo try to keep the baby safe from a wolf pack who fall hard for the little bundle of joy and want to make it part of their group.  They will also have to stay ahead of Pigeon Toady (Stephen Kramer Glickman), a kind of spy for Hunter who catches on to the baby situation.

Storks is a movie that constantly seems to be on the verge of clicking, but it never quite does.  It's certainly fast and frantic, but it seems to think that this is enough.  It thinks that as long as the characters are moving and talking really fast, the kids in the audience will be entertained.  Maybe they will.  But it's never as smart as it could have been.  It's also not very inventive, save for the scenes involving the wolf pack, who have the ability to join together and create different forms, such as a suspension bridge, a submarine, and a mini van.  These moments create the best visuals in the film, but again, not as much is done with this funny idea as it should have been.  The script feels like it needed another draft or two to completely round out what it wanted to do.

I will admit that the destination the movie reaches is surprisingly warm and sweet.  There's a lot of heart, and the film seems to suddenly find it's footing, unfortunately far too late.  The whole movie, I was kind of wondering why it wasn't quite working, and I got my answer during its final moments.  It needed more of the heart and genuine emotion that's on display here, and to tone down on the chaotic gags that don't quite hit.  Storks is never outright bad, but it often feels busy and jumbled.  It was not until the last few minutes that things slowed down enough for me to realize what was missing.  I only wish the filmmakers had reached that discovery a lot sooner.  As it is, the movie is bright and colorful, and has obviously been made with the best of intentions.  It just never comes together until the resolution.

Since it's the only animated film out there right now, it will probably find an audience, and I can see it doing well on the home market.  I just can't shake the feeling that this movie could have been so much more.

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