Fresh and Exciting

Absolutely the worst movie.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Orphaned at birth and raised by storks, the teenage sparrow Richard believes he is one of them. But when the time comes to migrate to Africa, his stork family is forced to reveal his true identity and leave him behind in the forest, since he is not a migratory bird and would not survive the journey. Determined to prove he is a stork after all, Richard ventures south on his own. A Stork's Journey has a nice and thoughtful set of characters but also some pretty good animation in general but unfortunately the storyline and the pacing was totally off to be honest. (5/10)

I have not written a review for a long time, but after seeing "Richard the Stork" today, I felt obligated to warn others off this appalling film. The story line about an animal trying to fit in with a different species is overused and cliché. None of the different bird characters Richard hooks up with are funny, interesting, or believable. The simple plot of the story is that Richard, in trying to stay with his adoptive Stork family, follows them on a haphazard route to Africa. His entanglements are absurd, emotionally uninteresting, and chaotic. There is no real drama in this film or heartfelt relationships alá "Beauty and the Beast", "Toy Story", or even "Bambi". The writing was hardly clever and the dialogue for most of the film was utter nonsense. Even the conflict between mama and papa Stork on whether or not Richard could be a member of the family was mind-boggling simplistic and cliché. I give it a 3, but only for the animation.

"Richard The Stroke" was a really fun family movie to watch. I must confess I had never heard anything about it before today and I thought it was a Dreamworks or Pixar movie that was kept at a low profile. It's an European movie (German/Belgian) and I admit me and my kids had our doubts about it but as the movie progresses our doubts became completely unfounded because "Richard The Stork" was really, really entertaining. It has a slight darker edge than typical Dreamworks or Pixar fare and the story is a bit in the lines of "Finding Nemo", so if you enjoyed that one you will definitely enjoy this one too. Richard is an orphan sparrow who is found by Aurora, a lovely stork who becomes his stepmother. The pigeon grows believing his just a "short" stork, but his stepdad, Claudius, is reluctant in having him as his stepson, arguing that sparrows don't migrate and when the time comes to do so it will ultimately kill little Richard. When fall sets in, Aurora, Claudius and Max (Richard's stork brother) leave the small pigeon behind and fly off to Africa, although Aurora and Max are reluctant but ultimately obey Claudius orders. Upon waking up, Richard is all alone in the stork nest and the rest of the movie is his story in going out to look for his stork family."Richard The Stork" has a lot of funny and heartfelt moments and this European kids movie does try to emulate to some extent the storytelling style of Dreamworks or Pixar movies but adds its own along the way. Grown ups and kids will surely love it, my family enjoyed it wholeheartedly!

I had the opportunity to watch it at the Anima Festival (Brussels) before it gets released in the theaters in my country. Very nice surprise! The main character is a bit stubborn like children can be, while the supportive characters are mostly crazy, fun, kind and emotional, which makes an interesting cocktail. As the film is centered on birds, it's kind of a (sky)road movie with enriching encounters, discoveries about yourself for the main character and interesting places.Some very funny scenes for both kids and adults, it's been a pleasure! Go and watch it... and bring your kids / godchildren / little cousins, etc.!