‘Yellowbird’ plot nosedives as story on migratory flight loses its direction
YELLOWBIRD. Director: Christian De Vita. Starring: Seth Green, Dakota Fanning, Elliott Gould, Arthur Dupont. Showing at: Nu Metro Walmer Park; and Hemingways.
A BIRD orphan from an unspecified sedentary species has to lead a flock of migratory birds that have just lost their leader to Africa in the computer-animated feature Yellowbird from director Christian De Vita, a storyboard artist on Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie.
Featuring somewhat blocky and studiedly nonrealistic visuals designed by Ernest and Celestine’s Benjamin Renner, this first feature from France-based animation studio TeamTO is a strictly-for-kids affair with a straightforward and often clichéd story.
Despite some nice 3D effects in the many airborne sequences, the film falls short of its promise given its voice cast includes Seth Green, Dakota Fanning and Danny Glover and a screenplay co-credited to Cory Edwards (Hoodwinked). .
The titular hero (voiced by Green) literally sees the light of day in the first moments of the film, with a neat point-of-view shot from inside the egg as it cracks to let out the little bird.
No parents or others of his species are in sight, though the kid does strike up an unlikely friendship with a ladybug (Yvette Nicole Brown), who not very subtly tries to push Yellowbird to venture out of his comfort zone and into the real world.
“Tough just isn’t me,” he informs her, though the movie of course makes it its duty to prove the feathered anti-hero wrong.
In practically the next scene, Yellowbird finds himself beak-to-beak with the dying head of a family of blue-feathered birds, Darius (voiced by Glover), who entrusts him with the details of a new route to Africa, that will help his flock avoid the dangerous “iron birds” (planes) that have started appearing on their usual route.
But not only is Yellowbird not cut out for leadership; he’s not even an ac- tual migratory bird.
Practically from the start, the young animal seems to confirm the suspicions of Karl (Jim Rash), the young and cocky wannabe leader, who does not trust this inexperienced intruder. and who feels he’s the rightful heir to Darius.
After a first stop in stinky Paris, the arrival of the flock in the Netherlands is similarly signalled by a view of a landscape full of windmills, though here it isn’t only Africa-bound Yellowbird who is lost, as the film’s gigantic, Dover-esque coastal cliffs don’t actually exist in the Netherlands, a country famous for being flat as a pancake.
The story of Yellowbird’s slow, obstacle-filled path to becoming an actual leader, as well as his growing interest in the pretty Delf (Fanning), is largely predictable and won’t hold any surprises. The characters aren’t particularly funny or clever either, and practically all animals besides the protagonist, Darius and Karl, remain vague non-entities or one-trait caricatures.