Überflieger - Kleine Vögel, großes Geklapper

Sparrow "Richard" has been brought up by a family of storks firmly believing that he is one of them, just a bit different. When his family plan to migrate, though, they don't intend on taking him with them and so the poor wee critter awakens one morning to find mum, dad and brother "Max" have set off and left him behind. Desolate, he sets off after them towards Africa. It's going to be a tough challenge on his own, but luckily he has his scatty friend "Olga/Oleg" - an owl with a pretend friend, and the self-adoring parakeet "Kiki" who thinks he's really Donna Summer. Their journey is riddled with dangers but also with opportunities to meet new friends and do some self-discovering along the way. Can he catch up with his family though? Well no, this isn't really very original nor is there an whole heap of jeopardy as the film progresses, but there are still some fun characters and the disco-bird has a few good lines as it builds to a denouement with a fearsome honey badger. It's a story about not judging a book by it's cover and though a bit long and maybe just a bit prone to some (negative) male stereotypes, it's still quite an enjoyable animation that moves along fine.

What a cute and sad drawing, the pobi already loses his family in the beginning and then the adoptive family abandons him without mercy, sad, he gets a little lighter with the comical side when the little owl and the other little bird enter.... The graphic it's beautiful, but the strong point of the film is the story, a perfect script development, in a mix of heavy drama involved by a light comic vein, in addition to the captivating characters...

When his family makes their annual migration, a young sparrow has to travel alongside them. To do this he will have to count on an owl with her imaginary friend, and a parakeet who is a fan of disco music. Along the way he will encounter everything from evil bats to a jumbo jet.

The film is a very beautiful work; the film gives the viewer messages of perseverance, effort and courage.

The characters are very lovable, friendly and well thought out. Highly recommended for the whole family, plus you will want to see it again and again, although it does not comes to surpass the Disney and Dreamworks classics.

Although there are segments of animation that look pretty good, like land and water, it's clear they were not from the same animation house that did the storks. The overall animation is of the level of 20-25 years ago with limited use of camera techniques used in CGI films in the last few years. With most of the characters blend with the surroundings.

The story is sadly overdone and completely underwhelming. The sparrow that thinks he's a stork and a stork flock that doesn't share nearly enough screne time to believe or have emotional buy-in to the conflict that is supposed to be there.

Poor writing on top of that. Conscious animals don't know what a train is but are aware of puns, city names, and more.

That said, if you imagination only needs to be at a 6-year-old level, go for it.

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.