Free Birds

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jimmy Hayward directs. Dominic Lewis scores. Chris Cartagena cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Mid-budget at $55M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
• 2Released 13 years ago.
• 3Original score by Dominic Lewis. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 4Editor Chris Cartagena shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler carry the top of the cast.
• 6Marketing tagline: "The greatest turkey movie of all time.".
• 7IMDB entry: tt1621039 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 8Released under 11 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Original score

Dominic Lewis

Editing

Chris Cartagena

Production design

Kevin R. Adams

Sound

Randy Thom

Runtime

91 min · 1h 31m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$55,000,000

Box office

$110,000,000

Return

200% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG

IMDB

Free Birds (2013) ↗

Also by

Jimmy Hayward

• 
  Horton Hears a Who!

  2008 · ★ 6.5
• 
  Jonah Hex

  2010 · ★ 5.0

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Behind the Scenes

  Featurette · Official
• 

  ▶
  "Time Travel"

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  "Living on a Prayer" TV Spot

  Teaser · Official
• 

  ▶
  "Meet the Baby Turkeys"

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  "Meet the Flock Featurette with George Takei"

  Featurette · Official
• 

  ▶
  "I Was Born Ready"

  Clip · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Reno2016-06-24
  ★ 7/10

  Mission thanksgiving. The turkeys time to fight back! It is definitely an underrated animation. Okay, I agree, Disney is solely dominating the animation industry, especially at present. But this film is no masterpiece like that Disney makes yet not bad to ignore complete. Yes, there are flaws in it, but very acceptable as they're just minors. In the animations, the real world logics won't apply. So you should try to enjoy it than trying to find the errors. This film is targeted for children, but then anybody can watch it because it is a beautiful theme with some real laughs in it, only if you forget that you are an adult for a 90 minute. Technically the film quality matches with Disney, Pixer, Dreamworks and even the Sony animation. It is a fine achievement for an outside/new production house to come up with like this. I hope Reel FX would make more animations in the future and compete directly with these top companies. It was really a star studded cast. I did not know who were they all, but I identified them by their voices. As far as the story, too easy to predict, but somehow it managed to keep me glued to it with its entertaining contents. It is a time travel theme and a quite entertaining film made by the 'Horton Hears a Who' director. Some are saying it is anti-thanking giving film, but I think it is just a fun film. Although, it was kind of like 'Happy Feet', where a bunch of turkeys tries to loose their kind from the humans grip. But narrated differently, something like in the line of 'Penguins of Madagascar'. I don't think anybody can regret watching it, but then there are people with expectations, so it might fail at them. Overall, it was a decent film for sure if not great as other animations that came in the same year. Waiting for its sequel about 'mission turducken'. 7/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Reel FX Creative Studios

  US

• 

  Relativity Media

  US

Key crew

• AnimationPaul Downs
• AnimationJimmy Almeida
• Lighting ArtistTyler DeLisle
• AnimationSue Houston Safianoff
• AnimationAndy Hass
• AnimationDixie Pizani
• AnimationTravis Tohill
• AnimationJay Jackson
• ProducerScott Mosier
• Digital SupervisorDavid Esneault
• Executive ProducerAron Warner
• Digital SupervisorScott Peterson
• Executive ProducerDavid I. Stern
• Head of StoryJeff Biancalana
• Production DesignKevin R. Adams
• Supervising AnimatorRich McKain
• Executive ProducerJohn J. Strauss
• EditorChris Cartagena
• CastingKerry Rock
• Co-ProducerAlonzo Ruvalcaba
• Associate ProducerGeoffrey Stott
• Assistant DirectorChris DiGiovanni
• Sound DesignerRandy Thom
• Supervising Sound EditorDennis Leonard

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• holiday
• freedom
• thanksgiving
• duringcreditsstinger
• playful
• 3d animation

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2013-11-01PG

Also known as

International titles

• TurkeysUS
• 火鸡反击战HK
• 时光鸡大作战CN
• Mission dindonsCA
• Drôle de dindesFR
• 터키KR
• Purani u bijeguHR
• 火鸡总动员CN
• 愤怒的火鸡CN
• Giải Cứu Gà TâyVN
• 火雞反擊戰HK