Character Assassination Rant - Red
small disclaimer: This will not be focused on his character outside the movies. This is purely focused on the movie's take on the character(s) personalities, motivations and attributes. It's also all over the place as I am a very recent re-enjoyer of the franchise after a five year absence, who was already really critical of the movie back in 2019, so bear with my ramblings that I may not get some things right or misinterpret them. Yada yada.
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Since a third installment of The Angry Birds Movie's coming out this year and that I've return to my interest with the franchise after my five year absence from it, I think it's time I finally let out my feelings on a certain movie that butchered a lot, and I mean, a lot, of what was already well established in the first movie. This includes a character that's not even in my top ten, and we all know who it is from the picture above.
Red's entire shtick is his anger issues and that he's lonely. It's a simple thing that was explored and handled in the original. We felt his struggles of essentially being the lone wolf of his community and, from what we can imply, had to care for himself throughout most of his life. He even stated in the original that his house on the beach took FIVE years to make. FIVE. All on his own I'm assuming! With no real help and having to see it be destroyed like that from Leonard's ship anchor was an EXTREME blow on him. I'm surprised he didn't crash out then and there. But other questions are now added to the mixture. Did anyone adopt him when he was a hatchling? Who cared for him? Did he have to attend school himself? Who did he even live with as a child? All we know is he was neglected and made fun of throughout his entire livelihood, and the original movie took that into genuine consideration. They let us, the audience, sympathize with a pessimistic guy who had no real, honest friendships or someone he could reliably talk to. Even when later on his life that the village's perceptions of him worsened through his own actions, we still looked at him and said, "Man, must suck for what he has to go through." Everything was worked through subtle beats as we saw his character change overtime, and it slowly paid off throughout the movie. He still was ABLE to be his usual self, and the only thing that changed was the actions he committed throughout the movie, including him being the main guy to be wary about King Leonard and the pigs.
Now when you look at the scene of them on Piggy Island, you, or well, me, often asked these questions when rewatching it,
"Did he ask to save the eggs? No. Did he worry about the potential of losing his life for the sake of saving the eggs that belong to the many group of birds that treated him less than a microbe? Maybe. Would he have cared if he lost his life if it meant the eggs were saved?" Judging what he had to do, it's likely. The entirety of the 2016 movie not once downplayed Red's issues, even when they played his loneliness for laughs during the trailers. His entire character was meant to let us, the audience know, "I care for them even if they didn't for me. If I didn't care for them, I wouldn't have fought my life to save their unborn young. I knew from the start those pigs had something heinous going on. I was right and I knew they wouldn't believe me because why would you believe the guy who everyone hates?" And what do you know? The guy many birds either hated or ignored ends up becoming the guy that kept your child from becoming an omelette for Piggy Island. You're essentially indebted to him, right? After all, he was the main one who grew suspicious of their activity prior to them taking the eggs. Of course, the birds of Bird Island respected his efforts and in turn, they rebuilt his home—not within the same spot but in the heart of the village, showcasing how much they've grown to respect his efforts, even if it was only because he saved their unborn children. To Red, that's better than nothing. To Red, it means it wasn't too late for him, and thanks to Peckinpah's recommendation of him going to Anger Management class, he wouldn't have grown to befriend Chuck and Bomb, who were also the catalyst to his additional findings regarding King Leonard's true intentions.
It's why I have such high regards for the movie. It was a movie that stayed true to what the game was about—birds defeating pigs, with the ultimate high point of the movie was them using that signature slingshot. A slingshot originally owned by King Leonard himself. I still think it's interesting of an explanation on how the birds in the original game got their hands on a slingshot in the first place. Of course, this is the movie, not the actual game as a movie.
So, even after all what I said, can any of y'all guess how all of what he fought for, what he had nearly scarified for, and what he was willing to do to save the eggs for the village he cared for even if they didn't reciprocate the same? Can any one of y'all guess how the movie took his decades of isolation and constant feelings of feeling like he'll never have a true belonging in the island?
Oh? You don't have an answer? Okay! Just imagine the 2016 trailer where his loneliness was played for laughs but if it was an entire movie instead and missed the entire point regarding what he had to go through!
That's the best explanation I can give to The Angry Birds Movie 2. It's a very prominent character assassination of a guy who had to go his entire childhood and adolescence having no one but him around all the time and eventually sucking up to the assumption that no one will be willing to tolerate him so he'd rather go all out and worry about the consequences later. Do y'all know how many times the sequel mentioned how LONELY and SUPPRESSED he was? Countless times!
"Oh we hated your guts but hey look we love you now!" Paraphrased but GOD I hate that dialogue and I still hate it now. It sounds exactly like it came off from a family friendly comedy movie and not from The Angry Birds Movie 2. That's not something you'd say to Red. Like, at all?? Why would you say that to the guy who kept your child from getting eaten by the pigs? Overthinking this but it's justified. So. Much. Just from this one piece of dialogue. A direct spit in the face for all what he did so your—and essentially 95% of the dang island's—stupid bloodline wouldn't be in a permanent standstill.
There's a real lack of subtly in the sequel where we don't just, get shown how Red's taking his newfound fame and the overall village's switch to now treating him as a local hero. It's unsurprising he'd develop an ego, feeling as if he should spend every moment protecting these birds. But it's strange. Red wouldn't be that obsessed. Let alone for a PRANK WAR????????????
Why and how did they switched from the tactic of pigs slowly taking control of your village and fooled them enough to keep them under control whilst they stole all their eggs and completely put their village into ruins, got turned into a silly billy prank war? A prank war? After all what they've done? That's the best thing Piggy Island was left to do? This was what Leonard thought of during the ending scene with him within the ruins of his kingdom? Red would NOT be THIS LOCKED IN for a PRANK WAR. A PRANK WAR. Let's be for real here. He would consider this a waste of his time and only retaliate if he knows they're in actual, genuine danger.
Yes, I am aware of the crabs they threw, along with magnifying glass but I'm really sure getting a bunch of crabs thrown all over you and maybe, just maybe, getting temporarily blinded is very different from being in fear of the Piggies finding some newfound way to steal the village's eggs again. Like, sure, I get it, repeating the first movie's goals would've been repetitive. But I would've expected a lot better from the same guy who enacted the original "performative hospitality and taking advantage of a village's ignorance to the fact an island other than theirs exist in order to lure them in enough before we take their eggs and them blow up their village and Mighty Eagle monument—all before them planning to hard boil an entire generation of unborn hatchlings in front of a live crowd of pigs—without zero hesitation btw" plan. But, that's just me. Mmhf.
But enough about Leonard, I still have more questions about Red here. So why did they treat Red's post-ABM1 experience like this? What's the point of constantly having everyone remind him about his loneliness? Why haven't they actually talked to him? Asked him if he was interested in hanging out with them? Do they essentially not owe this guy for saving the lives of an entire, literal generation of unborn eggs? Sure, Red would definitely know the birds are only caring for him because of this instance, which IS and COULD HAVE been something they could've explored pretty well if done right. Isn't that what the first movie did with Bomb and Chuck? How these two guys wanted to befriend him but Red was so used to being neglected and put aside that someone actually wanting to befriend him felt incredibly foreign???? It's what made his transition to actually liking the two feel so earnest. We saw how closer they got, and did all of that without even telling about their friendship!
Like, for example; Chuck's passive-aggressive-to-friendly dialogue to Red when he first encountered him to Red jokingly pretending he wanted to be left alone in his rebuilt home, only to invite Chuck and Bomb in after? That was a TIGHT script. A TIGHT point from A to B in regards to their friendship—all without constantly telling us. And now not only Chuck and Bomb favor him but the entire village does. So, you would expect for the sequel to continue with a character who's now cemented among the island's history for saving their eggs and their overall island to actively have additional friendships outside of Chuck and Bomb, take part in hangouts that he usually would get rejected to, or maybe even be a special guest for a hatchling's birthday party? Can any of you guess the major thing the sequel does to Red's character?
If you guessed, "Reverting everything he had gone through in the first movie to constantly make jokes about how lonely he is" for 500, then you've won this season's Jeopardy! After all, it's a silly kids comedy movie, so why even bother with continuity of his character? Don't even! Just make everyone still treat him no differently from the first movie, with little changes to how they see him outside of blindly glazing him when the movie needs them to. What was even the point? What was the point of Chuck and Bomb trying to get him a girlfriend? Why couldn't the movie expand upon the relationship between the trio? The sequel already sucked major Piggy Snot in doing anything with his friends that weren't them doing shenanigans, helping along with the plan to stop Zeta's thermal-infused ice balls or, in Chuck's case, constantly getting in Red's face about how he interacts with Silver, a sister of his he somehow never told Red about UNTIL NOW.
It's no wonder barely anyone has words to say about the sequel. There's nothing to say about it outside of complaining of everything it did WRONG. okay not really there are some positive things but it's not in regards to the movie but personal preferences shh njrnjhenrjher
But if y'all thought that was bad, oh MAN, how do I even START with how the sequel did Red and Silver? For one thing, AB2's Silver significantly outweighs ABM2 Silver by a large margin. Another thing is how the movie tried to make us feel sympathetic for her. Like,
"Guys, guys... look. Look how sad she is. Everyone's ignoring the lady with the countless Engineering achievement awards that she personally bragged to Red about obtaining! Look how no one takes her super sciency science seriously... see you guys? This is how her and Red were meant to be together and now canonically have five kids for The Angry Birds Movie 3!" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH That's NOT how it works. Red doesn't NEED a girlfriend. He doesn't need anyone generally! He needs a friend! Wasn't that the BIGGGGGGG point of the first movie? That Red was lonely and him being able to befriend Chuck and Bomb became a gradual but obvious conclusion that felt incredibly satisfying by the end of the movie??? You're giving a character with LITTLE to no real flaws to a character with a TON of flaws that very well could've been explored that wasn't related to OTHERS self interest but rather his own because... look what he's BEEN through. Y'all really thought he was gonna easily ACCEPT doing something he had no real experience with? Heck it, the movie was barely about Red and his motivations and interests! No, no. That's SELFISH. Let's have him make incredibly stupid decisions and not just... THINK things out and investigate before doing anything big and serious. After all, the audience was meant to treat HIS interests as a bad thing, so let's have him make BAD decisions so we can root for him to work together with his friends and the Piggies instead of just... oh, I don't know, let it NATURALLY happen? Without it being in our faces?! Subtlety? Where? It's GONE, Red. It's GONE. HOW ever did THE Thurop Van Orman think any of this was a good idea? No shade to this dude at all, goated director/animator/producer and all but I have no idea what he was thinking with this movie. God himself only knows how the third installment will be done.
I am already saying way too much right now and I really want to press the submit button so I'll keep it brief in regards to Red and Silver's interactions throughout the movie: Third movie bait. That's all I will say. Red deserved better and we know he'll be a further joke in the third installment. More character rants to come.