In May 2016, when
The Angry Birds Movie was released to the public, people were questioning the movie's theming throughout the feature film.<a href="
https://angrybirds.fandom.com/wiki/Angry_Birds_(series)/Controversies#cite_note-16"><span>[</span>16<span>]</span></a><a href="
https://angrybirds.fandom.com/wiki/Angry_Birds_(series)/Controversies#cite_note-17"><span>[</span>17<span>]</span></a> Issues covered in the first movie includes:
- Red coming off as an unlikeable yet relatable character for the first few scenes being the catalyst of the controversy, including but not limited to:
- When Red slapped Dr. Wingstein, many people took it as a reference to antisemitism, since the doctor's last name on his diploma is a pun on the Jewish surname "Weinstein".
- Red tells a bird with Dreadlocks "Have you ever heard of bird control?"
- Red doesn't seem to like Hipsters and cultural elements associated with them (Apple Store, Jazz, Fedoras).
- Red seems to find it odd that a male bird is taking care of an egg.
- Most of the movie has strong ties of the issues Germany that was facing with Islamic refugees during the start of the 2010s in Europe. There have been many conspiracies including:
- Bird Island from above looks like the European Union (EU) flag and the “Anger management lesson” represents the liberalism in Europe.
- Red, Chuck and Bomb are the colors of the present day German Flag.
- The pigs are supposed to represent Islamic Refugees.
- The museum of happiness might seem like people wanting to change the history of people by letting them forget situations in history (like what Germany did during the cold war and present day).
- Mighty Eagle is supposed to represent the United States (Used to be strong, but is now old, fat, weak, and conceited).
- Judge Peckinpah trying to look tall by standing on another bird (Cyrus) to force his power on other birds.
- The pigs are all of male gender.
- The Pigs use a lot of TNT throughout the film.
- The Mighty Eagle knows what's going on, but doesn't want to do anything about it.
- There is a "Coexist" bumper sticker on the car Terence gets the birds on.
- Bomb doesn't like "Pig in Airplanes".
- Mighty Eagle's final speech.
- The new statue at the end credits Mighty Eagle more than Red.
Sony most likely realized what people were thinking, so they took creative control away from Rovio and revamped their scripts for
The Angry Birds Movie 2 to circumvent the events of the movie. However, an interview with
Josh Gad confirmed that the sequel also had some political undertones within the movie,<em>[citation needed]</em> despite not being as “overt” as those in the first one. Some of the commentary includes:
- Bird Island and Piggy Island being a commentary for the war between Europe and the Middle East that ultimately doesn't have to so with anything.
- Red could be seen as an allegory of Gen X, trying to showcase how heroic he is. Silver could be seen as a Millennial—or more likely, Gen Z—due to her being smart and knowing about technology and proper planning. All of the Eagles serve as a metaphor for Baby Boomers and only think about themselves, even if they cause problems around others.
- The main antagonists being a direct correlation to environmental problems, mainly Global Warming.
- Red giving the younger generation the credit they deserve.
Reviewers during this time were opinionated with the film, like a Vox writer saying the film would be better "if it went full Trump"<a href="
https://angrybirds.fandom.com/wiki/Angry_Birds_(series)/Controversies#cite_note-18"><span>[</span>18<span>]</span></a> and The Atlantic calling the movie an allegory for "commercial success as an implicit artistic rebuke", prioritizing property over characters.<a href="
https://angrybirds.fandom.com/wiki/Angry_Birds_(series)/Controversies#cite_note-19"><span>[</span>19<span>]</span></a>
Besides that, there were a lot of controversies within the fandom that is still being talked about to this very day. According to a tweet by John Cohen, he described Jay with she/her, female pronouns; as opposed to he/him, the male pronouns that Jay originally used in the games.