It's a known fact that kids are curious beings. And though that's a wonderful quality that is difficult to retain into adulthood, it has the potential to throw grown-ups into uncomfortable sputtering. I'm not even a parent and I've still had to field the innocent query "Where do babies come from?" from a child. Thank goodness for the stork myth; helpful particularly when you're addressing other people's children. (I find a good "I don't know" works too, but they usually see through that.) Perhaps inevitably, the stork myth has finally made it to feature animation. I have to admit, the 2016 take on an old avoidance technique looks pretty cute. Warner Bros. Pictures's Storks arrives in theaters Sep. 23 and features the voice talents of Andy Samberg, Jennifer Aniston, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jordan Peele, among many others. Is this the makings of a new animated franchise? So far, there are no announced plans for a Storks sequel yet, but a follow-up could start gestating any minute. (I'm so sorry.)
When Storks begins, the long-legged birds are out of the business of delivering babies. Instead, they deliver packages from a big-box online store. (So that's why Prime shipping is so fast.) Samberg plays Junior, a stork who teams up with his human friend Tulip (Katie Crown) to deliver one last baby — an "unauthorized" child who was never supposed to exist — to a family waiting on another bundle of joy. Of course, Junior and Tulip aren't supposed to be doing any such thing. Zany, madcap actions follows; my favorite moment of the trailer is when Junior finds trying to navigate through several dozen planes of glass.
The good money is on a happy ending, which ought to leave room for a sequel. Again, Warner Bros. Pictures hasn't indicated that they're planning on it, but box office is obviously a big factor. Then again, this is the same animation studio that produced the massive hit The Lego Movie in 2014. The Wrap reported that a sequel script was already being written before the first was even released. (The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie come out next year. The Lego Movie Sequel is due in 2018.) That studio confidence was likely driven by the toy brand tie-in. Lego has been around for nearly 70 years, so it holds nostalgic value for parents plus cool points with their kids. Storks has its stake in an entirely new, unproven concept.
Child-free adults might know Storks screenwriter and co-director Nicholas Stoller best as the co-creator of TV's The Carmichael Show or for writing R-rated movie comedies like Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and Get Him To The Greek. But he's also proven his aptitude for writing family comedies that are as hilarious as they are kid-appropriate. “I wrote Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted so to me it’s the tone and genre,” Stoller said told Slash Film. “It doesn’t have to be dirty to be funny."
Storks intrinsically doesn't have the same sight-unseen age crossover appeal of a Muppets or a Lego movie. But if it can delight kids and parents at the same time, it could make a respectable run at earning a sequel.
Images: Warner Bros. Pictures
