Storks: EW review

Even our feathered friends aren’t immune to the rise of the internet economy. Storks, the first animated effort by writer/co-director Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors), introduces a world where the titular avians have given up on manufacturing and delivering babies and now ferry packages for an Amazon-like delivery service, Cornerstore.com. Their fastest flier is a stork named Junior (Andy Samberg), who’s all set to be the next boss. The only thing standing in his way is an undelivered orphan named Tulip (Katie Crown), now 18, who inadvertently manufactures an adorable pink-haired infant. It’s up to Tulip and Junior to deliver the babe to her family secretly and without incident.

There’s a delightfully madcap pace to Storks, and most of the rapid-fire jokes land, whether our heroes are running from a frenzied wolf pack who keep transforming themselves into suspension bridges and submarines, or silently battling a sinister penguin gang to avoid waking a sleeping baby. Less interesting is a subplot about the kid’s intended family, an overworked couple (Jennifer Aniston and Ty Burrell) who largely ignore their existing son. Add in Tulip’s quest to find her own family, and an annoying, bro-ish pigeon antagonist (Stephen Kramer Glickman), and Storks starts to feel a little stuffed. Still, the film’s lesson about finding your family never comes off as saccharine, and although there’s nothing particularly innovative about its message, Storks is a little bundle of joy. B