Delivering the goods

By Paul Hall

Have you ever wondered about the life of a stork? In the new animated film Storks, the birds — long thought of as the sole delivery method of baby brothers and sisters everywhere — have moved on. They have gotten out of the baby delivery business and are now the main delivery vehicle for the great products purchased from cornerstore.com.

Junior (Andy Samberg) is an eager go-getter who is ready for the challenge of becoming the boss. He’s given a task: fire Tulip (Katie Crown), an orphan who wasn’t delivered to her home when the storks were in the baby delivery game and who just doesn’t quite fit in. But he just can’t do it, assigning her instead to the letter-delivery handling job, a lonely post that’s only for actual letters — and who really writes letters anymore?

Nate Gardner (Anton Starkman) wants a baby brother. He reaches out to the storks to place an order and begins building a contraption (the only good word to describe it) for the storks to drop off his new sibling. His parents Sarah and Henry (Jennifer Aniston and Ty Burrell) finally have to put down their smart devices and pay attention to him and start working together on this project as a family.

Nate’s letter gets through to the storks and after Tulip processes it, Junior and Tulip head out on an adventure-filled trip to deliver one last baby.

Storks is a wonderful animated package that gets delivered out of nowhere. Sitting down to experience the film, I really didn’t know what to expect. What I got was witty, fun and incredibly enjoyable.

The jokes were appropriately mixed between kid-friendly and intelligent adult fun and delivered between comedic moments that visually tickled the senses. I found myself constantly engaged and in a genuinely happy place during the film.

Featuring new songs from Jason Derulo and The Lumineers, Storks will have your toes tapping throughout and leave you wanting more. The characters are fun and engaging, the voice talent is imaginative and adds personality — you can’t go wrong with this film. In an animated film market that is becoming more and more crowded, Storks delivers the goods.

Storks
Rated: PG
Voices of: Andy Samberg, Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell
Directors: Nicholas Stoller, Doug Sweetland
Grade: A-

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