Storks – Blu-Ray Movie Review

By: Gabriel Lowe

Storks deliver babies…or at least they used to. Now they deliver packages for global internet giant Cornerstore.com. Junior, the company’s top delivery stork, is about to be promoted when he accidentally activates the Baby Making Machine, producing an adorable and wholly unauthorized baby girl. Desperate to deliver this bundle of trouble before the boss gets wise, Junior and his friend Tulip, the only human on Stork Mountain, race to make their first-ever baby drop – in a wild and revealing journey that could make more than one family whole and restore the storks’ true mission in the world.

Storks tells the story of Junior, a stork with grand dreams of becoming boss of the entire Cornerstore.com operation, and Tulip, a girl that was never delivered by the storks to her parents but now resides with the storks, and their adventure to deliver an “accidental” baby. Junior is tasked by the main boss with relieving Tulip of her duties, after which he would be promoted to boss. Of course, Junior’s conscience steps in and rather than fire her, he tricks her into thinking she has a job in the mailroom (which never gets any mail since storks stopped delivering babies years ago). Of course, shortly thereafter, a single letter requesting a new baby actually arrives, and sets the chain of events into motion. The baby had been requested by Nate, an only child whose parents, while loving, spend most of their time working. Nate had seen a pamphlet in his attic about the storks baby delivery service that had long been shut down in favor of the cornerstore.com business. On their journey to deliver the new baby, Junior and Tulip bond in a parent-like way over the baby, making for some touching and funny moments. On their tail is a wolf pack who also want to claim the baby for their own. The alpha and beta wolves, played by the hilarious Key and Peele add some wonderful comic relief. Also adding to the humor is Pigeon Toady, the requisite hipster who addresses most people as “Brah”. We get some good catch phrases and key moments of retributive humor involving the annoying fowl.

Parallel to this storyline, we follow Nate as he eventually gets his workaholic parents to pay him attention, but when they finally do it is with the same intensity with which they conducted their work. The family bonds over building a huge platform on top of their house on which the Stork delivery would eventually land. It’s nice to see the change of heart without some traumatic event occurring to change their minds, rather, Nate expresses his feelings to first his father, then his mother, and they understand and change.

While I definitely enjoyed the movie, some of the over-the-top sarcasm and banter by the characters was a bit much for me. I think most of that is an attempt to get kids to laugh, and it certainly achieved that in my household. Andy Samberg is terrifically funny in most of what he does, and he does a good job here, but again, even for him it seemed a bit forced at times. This is perhaps my only real complaint about the film.

Visually, the film is quite outstanding. Stork Mountain is particularly beautiful as a majestic peak jutting out from the clouds. The detail in the wolves and their creations is tremendous. Even the opening scenes inside of the Cornerstore.com warehouse are impressively complex – showing how far we’ve come with CGI. The DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack sounds fantastic, though perhaps nothing demo-worthy here. There are several scenes where the full breadth of the 7.1 channels is used, such as when Tulip and Junior speed off in Tulip’s plane.

Storks is an enjoyable family film that hits most of the right notes. There is comedy, sincerity, and excitement – things that all ages can enjoy. While some of the character portrayals were slightly over the top for my personal taste, they follow the mostly successful formula that’s endearing to kids. The deleted scenes, outtakes, and other extras round out a solid Blu-Ray release that is worth the price of admission.

• Storks: Guide to Your New Baby
• The Master: A LEGO Ninjago Short
• Storks “Kiss the Sky” Sing-A-Long
• Commentary by Douglass Sweetland, Nicholas Stoller, John Venzon and Matt Flynn.
• Deleted Scenes
• Deleted Scenes Commentary
• Outtakes