Angry Birds (franchise)

''Angry Birds'' is a Finnish action-based media franchise created by Rovio Entertainment. The game series focuses on the eponymous flock of angry birds who try to save their eggs from green-colored pigs. Inspired by the game ''Crush the Castle'', the game has been praised for its successful combination of fun gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to many spin-offs; versions of ''Angry Birds'' created for PCs and video game consoles, a market for merchandise featuring its characters, ''Angry Birds Toons'', a televised animated series, and two films; ''The Angry Birds Movie'' and its sequel ''The Angry Birds Movie 2''. By January 2014, there had been over 2 billion downloads across all platforms, including both regular and special editions.

By July 2015, the series' games had been downloaded more than 3 billion times collectively, making it the most downloaded freemium game series of all time. The original ''Angry Birds'' has been called "One of the most mainstream games out right now", "One of the great runaway hits of 2010", and "The largest mobile app success the world has seen so far". The first main-series video game sequel, ''Angry Birds 2'', was released on 30 July 2015.

The first game in the series was initially released on 11 December 2009 for iOS. At the time, the 2009 swine flu epidemic was in the news, so the staff decided to use pigs as the enemies of the Angry Birds. The company released ports of the game to other touchscreen smartphone operating systems, including Android. In early 2019, all remaining ''Angry Birds'' games released before October 2014 (with the exception of ''Friends'') were discontinued and removed from app stores, though ''Bad Piggies'' was added back in early 2020. Rovio has declined to explain their reasoning behind the decision apart from a brief tweet and support response, both giving different answers. However in June 2021, by popular demand of the fans, Rovio announced that the classic games will be available on the stores again sometime in the future. A recreated version of the original ''Angry Birds'' game known as ''Rovio Classics: Angry Birds'' came to mobile platforms on March 31, 2022.

Video games

Spin-offs

Upcoming/In developments

Compilations

Cancelled

These games were soft-launched in select countries but were discontinued after a few months of its release. Some of them never made a release.

Promotional

From 2011 to 17, Angry Birds has collaborated with many other companies and released variations of the game in the respective companies' theme. Most of them were Flash-based. All of the games featured exclusive levels and elements that aid in promotion.
*''Angry Birds Chrome''
*''Angry Birds Google+''
*''Angry Birds Free with Magic'' (specific NFC-compatible Nokia phones only)
*''Angry Birds Volcano'' (Fazer's Tyrkisk Peber Volcano)
*''Angry Birds Breakfast'' (Nesquik cereal)
*''Angry Birds in The Hunt For The Golden Pistachio'' (Wonderful Pistachios)
*''Angry Birds Vuela Tazos'' (PepsiCo's Tazos)
*''Angry Birds Cheetos''
*''Angry Birds Lotus F1 Team''
*''Angry Birds McDonald's'' (China only)
*''Angry Birds Coca-Cola'' (Chinese Olympic team partnership, China only)
*''Angry Birds Heikki'' (Heikki Kovalainen partnership)
*''Angry Birds Telepizza''
*''Angry Birds Fuji TV''
*''Angry Birds in Ultrabook Adventure'' (Intel's Ultrabook)
*''Angry Birds Philadelphia Eagles''
*''Angry Birds Starburst''
*''Angry Birds Radox''

Cameos

This features Angry Birds and Bad Piggies as playable characters or exclusive rewards featuring them, along with some miscellaneous references to the franchise.

Media

Rovio is investigating ways to expand the ''Angry Birds'' brand, including merchandise, television shows and movies. Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio Mobile, has envisioned a feature film in the stop-motion animation style of Aardman Animations. To that end, Rovio has purchased a Helsinki-based animation studio to prepare ''Angry Birds'' short cartoons on the Nicktoons station's Nickelodeon Extra, the first of which was a Christmas special named "Wreck the Halls" that debuted in December 2011. Hed acknowledges that such a film would be years away, and that Rovio must keep the characters relevant until then, by producing sequels or new ports of the original game.

Television adaptations

''Angry Birds Toons'', a TV series based on the game, made its debut on 16 March 2013. ''Angry Birds Toons'' is released through third-party video distribution platforms, including Comcast's Xfinity On-Demand in the US, Samsung Smart TVs, and Roku set-top boxes. It is also available in a number of countries on traditional television broadcasts. ''Angry Birds Toons'' is available on mobile devices by an additional ''Angry Birds Toons'' channel on all of the ''Angry Birds'' apps homescreens. DVD version for the TV series was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The series has a total of 3 seasons.

On 11 April 2014, Rovio released ''Piggy Tales'', a stop motion animated series. It tells the stories of the Minion Pigs' life.

On 1 November 2014, Rovio released ''Angry Birds Stella'', a 2D/3D animated series, telling the stories of Stella's life and that of her friends on their own island.

On 3 July 2015, Rovio released the ''Rocket Science Show'', an educational live-action-animated series, the NASA tell viewers facts about planets in the Solar System.

On 12 July 2015, ''Real Angry Birds'', inspired by the game ''Angry Birds'', premiered on ''Nat Geo Wild''.

In 2016, Rovio released ''Fun Game Coding'', another educational live-action-animated series, containing insightful instructions from tech-savvy Rovio employees.

On 10 March 2017, Rovio released ''Angry Birds Blues'', a computer-animated series based on ''The Angry Birds Movie''. It shows the lives of the Blues having fun, while the Hatchlings were doing random stuff and ruining their plans.

On 3 July 2017, Netflix and KidsClick picked up every ''Angry Birds Toons'', ''Angry Birds Stella'', and ''Piggy Tales'' episode in the form of 23 compilations.

On 1 June 2018, U.S. television production company Big Fish Entertainment announced that they would be partnering with Rovio to create a game show based on ''Angry Birds'' currently called ''Angry Birds Challenge''.

On 9 June 2018, a series titled ''Angry Birds BirLd Cup'' was released on YouTube. It follows two teams (Team Red & Team Chuck) of rambunctious kids ready to put their soccer skills to the test. With Everton stars Wayne Rooney, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Tom Davies, and Cenk Tosun on hand to lend their expertise and officiate the competition, the two teams will go head to head in a series of soccer-centric challenges to earn points. The team that scores the most points will claim the illustrious BirLd Cup, and BirLdwide acclaim.

On 3 October 2018, a series titled ''Angry Birds Zero Gravity'' was released on YouTube.

On 17 November 2018, a series titled ''Angry Birds on the Run'' was released on YouTube. The series focuses on the birds being sent to the real world on a girl's phone causing mayhem while the pigs are looking for them.

In late 2018, Rovio announced that a new, long-form ''Angry Birds'' television series titled '' Angry Birds: Summer Madness'' is in production and was originally set for release in 2021 on Netflix. It was pushed and was released in January 2022. It focuses on Red, Stella, Bomb, and Chuck as teenagers in summer camp causing mayhem with their teacher being the Mighty Eagle.

On 1 June 2019, a series titled ''Angry Birds MakerSpace'' was released on YouTube. It features the birds and pigs working together in a shared workspace.

On 18 January 2020, a series titled ''Angry Birds Slingshot Stories'' was released on YouTube. It features structures from the original ''Angry Birds'' game and shows the birds and pigs' life outside the levels.

On 31 August 2020, a new series titled ''Angry Birds Bubble Trouble'' was released on Amazon Freetime Unlimited and YouTube. It shows Red, Chuck, Bomb, Silver, and Stella in their ''Dream Blast'' designs having fun and dreaming.

Film adaptations

A 3D computer-animated film adaptation, ''The Angry Birds Movie'', was released on May 20, 2016 which fully anthropomorphizes the characters for the first time in franchise history, giving them limbs and voices. Developed, produced and financed by Rovio Entertainment, it is animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks and distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Entertainment under their Columbia Pictures banner. It is directed by animation veterans Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly in their directorial debut. Jon Vitti wrote the film's screenplay, and John Cohen and Catherine Winder served as the producers. Rovio also hired David Maisel, former executive producer of Marvel Studios films such as ''Iron Man'', to be the executive producer of its feature-length films.

A sequel, ''The Angry Birds Movie 2'' was released on August 13, 2019 which was co-produced by both Rovio Animation and Sony Pictures Animation. Directed by the creator of ''The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack'', Thurop Van Orman, the sequel breaks from the series' source material by having the Birds and Pigs ending their rivalry to form an alliance to battle a larger threat, as well as becoming one of the most critically well-received video game film adaptations ever made, garnering an unprecedented score of 73% from Rotten Tomatoes.

Merchandise

Toys

There have been several toys made from ''Angry Birds'' characters. The game's official website offers plush versions of the birds and pigs for sale, along with T-shirts featuring the game's logo and characters. In May 2011, Mattel released an ''Angry Birds'' board game, titled "Angry Birds: Knock on Wood". Over 10 million ''Angry Birds'' toys have been sold thus far. Rovio opened the first official ''Angry Birds'' retail store in Helsinki on 11 November 2011 at 11:11 a.m. local time. It expects to open its next retail store somewhere in China, considered the game's fastest-growing market. Merchandise has been successful, with 45% of Rovio's revenues in 2012 coming from branded merchandise.

The most notable toys are the Telepods, created by Hasbro. These figures are created for ''Angry Birds Star Wars II'', ''Angry Birds Go!'', Angry Birds ''Stella'', and Angry Birds ''Transformers''. Telepods use a similar digital toy hybrid concept as Skylanders or Disney Infinity characters, but there is a different technology behind it. These are figures used to "teleport" a character of the corresponding figure into the game by scanning a tiny QR code via the device's camera. The Telepod platform technology was invented by ReToy, a bMuse company, in partnership with Hasbro. Telepods figures are not only for this use, but can also be used with the toy set that comes with the toy, like other Angry Birds board games.

One of the 2012 New Models for Hot Wheels cars from Mattel is based on the Red, Blue, and Yellow Birds from ''Angry Birds''. The package card bears both the Hot Wheels and Angry Birds logo.

In 2016, Lego released six sets based on ''The Angry Birds Movie''.

Print publications

On 2011, Rovio published a cookbook titled ''Bad Piggies: Egg Recipes'', along with doodle books based on some characters of the game. After a few weeks of the release of Angry Birds Space, they also released Angry Birds Space books about numbers, alphabets, and stickers.

On 20 March 2012, ''National Geographic'' published a paperback book titled ''Angry Birds Space: A Furious Flight Into The Final Frontier'' shortly before the release of ''Angry Birds Space'' which became available on 22 March 2012. National Geographic also has a book titled ''Angry Birds Feathered Fun'' for learning all about birds.

In the same year, Rovio created a contest with the prize ''Angry Birds: Hatching a Universe'', a book about the franchise and all the characters. It was released for sale by Titan Books on May 24, 2013; And again by Insight Editions on June 4, 2013. The book was written by Danny Gordon with a foreword by Mikael Hed.

As of 10 March 2014, IDW Publishing announced that they will be publishing Angry Birds Comics starting in June 2014, with Paul Tobin being the writer.

In the summer of 2017, GoComics announced that it will be running a comic strip series based on the world of ''The Angry Birds Movie'', with each issue available to view on its website. The strip ran for over a year, from 3 August 2017 to 20 September 2018.

Food products

In early 2012, Olvi started to manufacture Angry Birds soft drinks, after licensing with Rovio with two different tastes: ''Tropic'' (tropical fruits) and ''Paradise'' (pineapple-mandarin). In September 2012 Olvi released two new tastes to the soft drink collection: ''Lagoon'' (pear-apple) and ''Space Comet'' (orange-cola).

Parks and attractions

Angry Birds Land

The game's characters have been used, officially or otherwise, in amusement park attractions. In September 2011, the Window of the World theme park in Changsha, China opened an unlicensed ''Angry Birds'' attraction. Visitors to the park use a large slingshot to launch stuffed versions of the bird characters at green balloons that represent the pigs.

Upon learning of the attraction, Rovio Entertainment was reported to be considering working with the theme park to officially license it. In March 2012, Rovio announced plans for an official ''Angry Birds'' Land, that opened on 28 April 2012, at the Särkänniemi adventure park in Finland. Angry Birds Land opened in May 2014 at Johor Bahru City Centre in Malaysia.

The first Angry Birds themed park in the UK was created in Sundown Adventureland, in the Nottinghamshire countryside.

It was announced that UK theme park Thorpe Park would open their own Angry Birds Land themed area within the park in May 2014, with a "4D Cinema" showing a 10-minute Angry Birds film with 4D effects, Angry Birds Dodgems, and a slight re-theme of existing drop tower ride Detonator.

Angry Birds Activity Parks

Rovio opened "Activity Parks" of the game. The first one opened in Lightwater Valley, England, with dance floors, playgrounds that include slides, and touchscreen devices for visitors to play Angry Birds. The attraction also opened in Vuokatti, Finland, with obstacle courses and races, and a separate "Angry Birds Town" with kids' cars.

A park opened in Malaysia, but closed after six years on 5 April 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Angry Birds Space Encounter

In June 2013, Rovio and NASA opened the ''Angry Birds Space Encounter'' theme park at the Kennedy Space Center. It offers creating characters and shooting birds at pigs, as in the video game. It also opened in the Space Center Houston.

Angry Birds World

Angry Birds World theme park at Doha Festival City opened in April 2019; the indoor part had opened in June 2018.

Angry Birds Not-So-Mini Golf

Rovio opened a miniature Angry Birds golf course at American Dream Meadowlands in East Rutherford NJ USA on October 1, 2020.

Reception and legacy

The first game received critical acclaim for gameplay and style, and is considered one of the greatest video games ever made.

According to Metacritic. Only four games in the franchise received highly positive reviews with a score of 80% and above, while the two games received mixed reviews with a score of 60% and below.

Global impact

Television

The ''Angry Birds'' characters have been referenced in television programs throughout the world. The Israeli comedy show ''Eretz Nehederet'' (in English: ''a Wonderful Country''), one of the nation's most popular TV programs, satirized recent failed Israeli-Palestinian peace attempts by featuring the Angry Birds in peace negotiations with the pigs. Clips of the segment went viral, getting viewers from all around the world. The sketch received favorable coverage from a variety of independent blogs such as digitaltrends.com, hotair.com and intomobile.com, as well as from online news media agencies such as ''Haaretz'', ''The Christian Science Monitor'', ''The Guardian'', and MSNBC. American television hosts Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart and Daniel Tosh have referenced the game in comedy sketches on their respective series, '' Conan'', ''The Daily Show'', and ''Tosh.0''. In the ''30 Rock'' episode "Plan B", guest star Aaron Sorkin laments to Liz Lemon, "Our craft is dying while people are playing ''Angry Birds'' and poking each other on Facebook". He then provides a tip for Liz to improve her score in the game. In February 2011, American journalist Jake Tapper mockingly introduced U.S. Senator Chris Coons as the "Angry Birds champion of the Senate" during the National Press Club's annual dinner. Some of the game's more notable fans include ex-Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom, who plays the iPad version of the game, and author Salman Rushdie, who claims he is "something of a master at ''Angry Birds''". Basketball star Kevin Durant is an avid fan of ''Angry Birds'', and regularly plays other NBA stars in matches, although he is wary of cheating. In August 2011, the Milwaukee Brewers played the ''Angry Birds'' theme song during the pre-game introductions of the arch-rival St. Louis Cardinals players, in reference to former Cardinals' manager Tony LaRussa's propensity to bean opposing players. ''Angry Birds'' also appears briefly, for comic relief, during a scene in the 2013 film '' G.I. Joe: Retaliation'', in which Zartan plays the game while waiting for the world leaders' response to his threats of annihilation. Angry Birds were featured in the 2013 Helsinki episode of ''Veep''. ''Angry Birds'' was referenced in the film ''The Starving Games'', a parody of ''The Hunger Games''. A group in the Indian show ''Dance+'' have done a dance based on Angry Birds.. ''Angry Birds'' was referenced in the ''Family Guy'' episode "Turban Cowboy" where one failed skydiving attempt by Peter results in him landing in a level. The TV show ''Robot Chicken'' also parodied ''Angry Birds'' in one sketch.

Advertisements

''Angry Birds'' and its characters have been featured in advertisements for other products. In March 2011, the characters began appearing in a series of advertisements for Microsoft's Bing search engine. At the 2011 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Nokia used scrims on a downtown building to project an advertisement for its new N8 handset that included the game's characters. A June 2011 T-Mobile advertisement filmed in Barcelona, Spain included a real-life mock-up of the game in a city plaza, while Nokia used the game in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to promote an attempt to set a world record for the largest number of people playing a single mobile game. Finnair has also used Angry Birds in their advertising, including taping an Airbus A340 airliner with the Angry Birds figures and holding an Angry Birds tournament on board a flight to Singapore. Rovio has also prepared a number of web-based promotional variants of ''Angry Birds'' themed around creations of other companies, such as Finnish snack company Fazer, Spanish pizza delivery chain Telepizza, and Japanese television network Fuji TV, as well as promotions of American brands including Cheetos, Wonderful Pistachios and Coca-Cola. In November 2013, Indian brand Parle started a marketing campaign in which a trading card is included in each packet of Parle's Wafers and it included a related contest to win Angry Birds merchandise. In February 2016, Cadbury India had Angry Birds small figurines or tattoos in Cadbury Gems packs or Surprise balls. In June 2016, Kurkure India started an offer to win daily themed prizes and a trip to Angry Birds Activity Park in Malaysia.

Finnish Formula One driver Heikki Kovalainen used an Angry Birds-themed helmet in the 2012 season, following a sponsorship deal with Rovio. Angry Birds also sponsored the Lotus F1 Team that year, with its logo on the top of each Lotus Renault F1 car's nosecone. As part of the deal, fellow Finn Kimi Räikkönen ran an Angry Birds 'Space' logo on his branded caps.

Hockey Bird, an angry hockey playing bird, was the official mascot of the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. It was designed by Toni Kysenius and Rovio Entertainment.

Premier League association football club Everton F.C. signed a deal with Rovio in 2017, whereby the Angry Birds logo appears on the club shirt's left sleeve beginning from the 2017–18 Premier League campaign.

Video games

The game's popularity has spawned knock-off and parody games that utilize the same basic mechanics as ''Angry Birds''. For example, ''Angry Turds'' features monkeys hurling feces and other objects at hunters who have stolen their babies. Another game, titled ''Chicks'n'Vixens'' and released in beta form on Windows Phone devices, replaces the birds and pigs with chickens and foxes, respectively. The developer of ''Chicks'n'Vixens'' intended the game as a challenge to Rovio Mobile, which stated at the time that a Windows Phone port of ''Angry Birds'' would not be ready until later in 2011. The ''Angry Birds'' theme song (''Balkan Blast Remix'') and its characters appear in ''Just Dance 2016''.

Religion

''Angry Birds'' has inspired works of religious analogy. A five-part essay titled "Angry Birds Yoga — How to Eliminate the Green Pigs in Your Life" was written by Giridhari Dasa of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness of Brazil, utilizing the characters and gameplay mechanics to explain various concepts of yoga in Gaudiya Vaishnavism as understood and interpreted by the Hare Krishna. The piece attracted much media attention, in Brazil and abroad, for its unique method of philosophico-religious presentation. The piece was also recognized and appreciated by Rovio Mobile's Peter Vesterbacka, who was prompted to comment on Twitter, "Very cool! I can see Angry Birds Yoga becoming a worldwide craze;-)".

Education

Rovio also launched the Angry Birds Playground in partnership with University of Helsinki. Based on the Finnish national curriculum the program covers maths, science, music, language, arts & crafts, physical education and social interaction. Focused on preschoolers of kindergarten age, the program introduced interactive learning material including books, posters, games and digital content. In 2015, a spin-off from the Rovio Angry Birds Playground was established a
Fun Academy
by co-founder and CEO Sanna Lukander, former Rovio's vice president of learning and book publishing, and co-founder , former Rovio's ‘Mighty Eagle’. Fun Academy is currently present in 9 countries across the world.

Controversy

Leaking user data

In January 2014, it was revealed that ''Angry Birds'' was considered a "leaky app" and was used to collect data about its users including their sexual orientation and location by the National Security Agency (NSA) and GCHQ. In retaliation, anti-NSA hackers defaced Rovio's website. Claims were made by Edward Snowden that the app was ''leaky'' and that they were capable of siphoning data.

According to ''The Register'', the information was leaked through the in-game advertisement code like that embedded by Millennial Media: "Millennial's tracking software generates a personal record for each user that can store information from their political affiliation and sexual orientation to whether their marital state was single, married, divorced, engaged or 'swinger'. This information is used to target in-app ads more effectively, and can be collected by UK and US intelligence agencies for analysis". In a statement to the press, Rovio denied that they were providing any information to the intelligence agencies, but did not exclude the possibility that their advertisers might do so.

Following this revelation, on 29 January, the Angry Birds site was defaced by hackers who replaced it with "Spying Birds" via a DNS hijacking attack. According to Rovio, "The defacement was caught in minutes and corrected immediately". The Syrian Electronic Army tweeted after the incident that the attack had been carried out by "a friend" of theirs.

See also

* ''Boom Blox''

References

Further reading

*

External links

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{{Rovio Games

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