"Poultry in motion, like we've not seen before..."

Jimmy Hayward’s Free Birds tells the story of renegade turkey Reggie (Owen Wilson), who is cast away by his coup during the Thanksgiving period, while all of his peers are soon to be laid out on the dining room table. Instead, Reggie is pardoned by the President and taken to Camp David, where he lives the life of luxury, eating pizza and watching TV.

He then comes across Jake (Woody Harrelson), and the two unlikely friends “accidentally” commandeer a Time Machine, to travel back in time to the first ever Thanksgiving dinner, in order to take Turkey off the menu once and for good. In a tale of friendship that stands the test of time.

Free Birds is a warm hearted, family friendly tale that is beautifully animated and has witty dialog and has some of the cutest poults that you will ever lay your eyes on. Meanwhile the plot is easy to grasp and doesn’t get easily muddled like various other time travel films, and it is inventive enough for audiences to just have some harmless fun and simply enjoy it.

The voice cast are brilliant, as both Harrelson and Wilson play wonderfully against each other, while Amy Poehler (who voices Jenny – a love interest for our hero Reggie) is wonderful as the fiery wild turkey. The stand out, however, is hearing Star Trek legend George Takei as the voice of S.T.E.V.E. – the time travel machine that the turkeys commandeer.

Whilst Free Birds isn’t groundbreaking in the technology used or the conventional plot that we are presented with, it does serve to be an interesting ‘What If’ story that is more than fun to watch.

With kids being the target audience, that’s the job done.