Starring: Andy Samberg, Katie Crown, Kelsey Grammer, Keegan Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Aton Starkman, Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell, Stephen Kramer Glickman, Danny Trejo
Directors: Nicholas Stoller, Doug Sweetland
Warner Animation Group
Release Date: September 23, 2016

“Family” seems to be a recurring theme in this summer’s animated movies (although maybe this is true of most animated films). While Finding Dory took the superficial route of “kids need their parents” and Kubo and the Two Strings did a more cerebral analysis of parents and children as being the path to meaningful immortality, Warner Animation’s Storks strikes a middle ground. A sort of Children of Men for the junior set, Storks comedically explores a post-child society and delves into how materialism poorly substitutes for true family.

Storks has fun with the old saw that birds used to deliver children to expectant parents by envisioning an entire society of storks as an efficient delivery service. 18 years ago, the storks suffered a disaster in which one of their crazed members became too attached to a human child and her parents’ address was lost. As a result, the storks quit the babymaking business and transformed themselves into an Amazon.com-analogue, delivering consumer goods instead of children. This changeover sets the tone for the film’s theme, as materialism replaces humanity–illustrated by an expectant couple who excitedly await the storkbound delivery of their new phones. It’s not that the human world loses children–parents mention that there’s “other ways” to have kids now–but the storks have definitely hung up their bundles, and the world is changed by it.

From there, the film splits into parallel-but-intertwined stories about family relationships. In the human world, a boy named Nate (Aton Gardner) longs for a sibling to be his playmate given that his parents (Ty Burrell and Jennifer Aniston) are workaholic real estate agents who talk to each other via bluetooth. Nate learns of the fabled storks and sends them a letter asking for a baby brother. Said letter is discovered by Tulip (Katie Crown), the now-adult orphaned human left with the storks. Tulip, being an out-of-place klutz, is exiled to the storks’ mailroom by Junior (Andy Samberg), a stork who’s desperate to climb the corporate ladder at the direction of his boss, Hunter (Kelsey Grammer). When Tulip creates the first new baby in decades, she and Junior have to secret the child to her parents before Hunter can find out and cost Junior his promotion.

The film very openly plays with the materialism-versus-family themes from there. Junior wants to be the “boss” of the company, to be “brahs” with his fellow Storks despite them having little interest in hanging out with him on the weekend. Nate, meanwhile, wants nothing more than an actual brother, which he hears another kid describe as “a best friend you can take home with you.” Touchingly, Nate manages to guilt his parents into actually spending time with him, constructing an elaborate signal for the storks to find their house. Junior and Tulip, on the other hand, become the film’s odd couple in their efforts to get this baby across the world and wrestling with their own paternal instincts even as Junior just wants to just get rid of the kid.

Storks isn’t a particularly groundbreaking film in that it follows some of the same basic patterns of any kid’s movie: situation, problem, wacky adventures, and heartfelt resolution. A particularly telling point is the inclusion of a pack of wolves (whose leaders are played by Key and Peele) that can transform into a bridge, a submarine, and even a minivan. It’s ridiculous, a bit overdone, and all very normal for a kid’s film. Where it does surprise is in its meaningful exploration of family as more than just something that tends to a child, but as a spiritual unit that finds fulfillment and purpose in expanding itself. Family is an instinctive matter–Tulip understands this when she has a maternal freakout the first time she hears the baby cry–but it’s also a matter of developing the future, seen when Junior has a wonderful glimpse of the baby’s destiny.

Storks‘ voicework  is acceptable enough. Katie Crown does fine as the directionless Tulip and Andy Samberg convincingly shows off Junior’s neuroses. Although Key & Peele’s wolves are over-the-top characters, they at least embrace the ridiculousness of the part. Possibly the low point is Stephen Glickman’s Pigeon Toady, a corporate upstart who’s trying to expose Junior’s failure. Glickman uses an overdone accent for Toady that makes him very difficult to understand, although in fairness, the film has some fun with this problem. The high point is Kelsey Grammer’s Hunter, playing the part of the corporate overlord who sees nothing but dollars and bottom lines. Grammer deserves credit for creating a villainous voice distinct from his Sideshow Bob which still makes use of his erudite thespian skills.

As a bonus, Storks includes a bonus short, “The Master,” a prelude to the upcoming Lego Ninjago Movie featuring Jackie Chan as Sensei Wu. The short is a little too rapid and makes it difficult to follow Chan’s narration–but in the end, it’s a Lego Movie-styled clip about a ninja fighting a chicken, so this shouldn’t matter to the kids.

Storks overall makes a wonderful weekend diversion and should be seen by the entire family. It’s too bad this one just missed the summer rush.

Rating: Four diapers out of five.

Thanks to Allied Washington for supplying the press passes to Storks.