Storks, film review: Get over your gadgets, guys

Storks is short on radical ideas, but Jennifer Aniston puts in a winning performance, says Charlotte O'Sullivan
Charlotte O'Sullivan14 October 2016

A popsicle-coloured, 3D cartoon with a pertinent, if somewhat hard to explain conceit. I’ll do my best. Storks no longer deliver babies; instead, they handle inanimate, if no less precious, goods (like smartphones). Babies are still born but gadgets get the lion’s share of adult attention.

Our 18-year-old heroine, Tulip (Katie Crown), has grown up with the storks. She’s also a disaster magnet. When she answers a letter from a lonely boy, Nate, who wants a baby brother, the well-laid plans of a macho stork supremo, Hunter (Kelsey Grammer, hilarious) — along with his dutiful No1 helper Junior (reliable Andy Samberg) — are derailed. Soon Tulip, Junior and a despotic baby are on their way to Nate’s home with a whole host of creatures determined to make sure they never arrive.

The scriptwriters, borrowing from Elf and Monsters Inc, squeeze laughs (and a pinch of pathos) from the idea that blood ties don’t entirely define who we are. When sophisticated gags come along, they’re beautifully delivered by the likes of Jennifer Aniston (as Nate’s mum).

For years now, Aniston’s comedic juices have overflowed in cartoons. Here, as in 1999’s The Iron Giant, she captures the jittery joys of modern parenthood via the simplest of inflections.

An uncannily flexible (but not infallible) pack of wolves are also a blast. You get the feeling that the animators, infected by the zany mood, never want the chase scenes to end.

The finale goes for bold (we see babies being delivered to a same-sex couple, a single mum and a woman in a wheelchair). Alas, unlike Inside Out or Zootopia, Storks is short on radical ideas and leaves bright ones hanging.

Cert PG, 87 mins

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