Storks | Film review - Family-friendly animated comedy delivers surreal fun

Fizzy family-friendly animated comedy Storks starts with the notion that, yes, storks really did deliver babies until, that is, they took up delivering packages for an online retail giant instead.

However, a series of accidents finds the film's avian hero Junior (voiced by Andy Samberg) saddled with the unwelcome task of ferrying a newborn to its destination after klutzy teenage orphan Tulip (Katie Crown), the only human on Stork Mountain, accidentally activates the site's long dormant baby-making machine.

"Surreal silliness"

The duo duly end up in lots of slapstick scrapes before they can complete their mission, including run-ins with a pack of wolves who can form themselves into such useful shapes as a bridge and submarine - the best visual gags here by far.

At times, the pace is a bit too frantic for comfort, and the endlessly yammering Tulip is a tad exhausting, too, but the film's surreal silliness will leave you smiling all the same.

Certificate U. Runtime 87 mins. Directors Nicholas Stoller, Doug Sweetland

Storks is released on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Download by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

Blu-ray extras

· Storks: Guide to Your New Baby · The Master: A LEGO Ninjago Short (also on DVD) · Music Video for Jason Derulo’s Hit Song Kiss the Sky (also on DVD) · Deleted Scenes · Outtakes · Commentary by directors · Deleted Scenes with commentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m0aIyOEe60

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.