Free Birds Director: Jimmy Hayward Voices by: Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Dan Fogler **

Reggie the turkey (Owen Wilson) has been chosen as the bird the US president pardons each year at Thanksgiving. But his cushy life is threatened when he’s recruited by Jake (Woody Harrelson), a freedom-fighting turkey whose plan is to travel back to the first Thanksgiving and stop turkey becoming the main dish on every holiday menu. So goes the plot for this surprisingly humourless animated movie that tries to equate the plight of some birds with the slaughter of Native Americans and somehow pass it off as entertainment. The few gags present are ones aimed at adults, the action is forgettable and the film’s only saving grace is some cute baby turkeys that don’t get enough screen time. If you don’t know the story behind the US tradition of Thanksgiving, it’s all pretty incomprehensible. For kids it’s just dull.

[ artslife@thenational.ae ]