Why one Vancouver animation company is considering Angry Birds a major Canadian success

Perseverance pays off for Canadian producer Catherine Winder. More than three years of dedicated devotion to The Angry Birds Movie is finally reaping rewards.

Winder and folks at a Vancouver-based animation company are quietly celebrating a $43 million U.S. take in 73 international markets for the animated motion picture based on Rovio’s video game series.

The early box office counts as good news for the potential Angry Birds franchise, and the film, which opens in Canada and the U.S. this weekend.

Directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly, the movie showcases happy flightless birds Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis), Chuck (Josh Gad) and Bomb (Danny McBride), who try to figure out what’s up when green piggies invade their island.

Voicing other characters in the laughfest are Peter Dinklage, Sean Penn, Tony Hale, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader and Kate McKinnon.

Certainly, the film has a built-in audience. The video game puzzle was created in 2009 and has since sold over 12 million copies world-wide.

Subsequently, Winder along with producing partner John Cohen, spearheaded the movie transformation while deciding that Vancouver’s Sony Pictures Imageworks would be the main production house.

For Toronto native Winder, now a Vancouverite, the planned Angry Birds animated motion picture might be her biggest test, although she’s faced creative challenges before.

As a Japan-based executive, she managed various anime productions. Stateside, she landed at the famous animation company Hanna-Barbera, before transitioning to Lucasfilm as executive producer on the animated Cartoon Network series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

She was also head honcho at Vancouver’s Rainmaker Entertainment for four years before taking on the Angry Birds project. Winder returned to Toronto recently to offer her thoughts:

On the clear Angry Birds priorities:

“You must have a good story with compelling characters who relate or it
doesn’t matter what format you have,” Winder says.

On the complex challenge of managing the animated movie:

“My favourite thing to do is identify talent that is about to break out and put them together, and if you get lucky you make that magic chemistry,” Winder says.

On her single-minded approach:

“I’m one of those producers who likes to be very much involved from the start to finish, on the big and smallest details,” she says. “Whatever is needed.”

On overseeing the creative side:

“It’s a huge undertaking,” says Winder. “But it’s a tremendous amount of fun because these characters are so easy to transform into ‘dimensionalized’ funny characters thanks to the crew we have and the actors we hired.”

On keeping a perspective:

“First and foremost this is an animated comedy so we went after the people who are best suited,” she says. “We also see them as franchise characters.”

On the Angry Birds master plan:

“It expanded immediately into a trans-media property,” says Winder.

On deciding on the animation mini-studio in Vancouver:

“When I started Angry Birds, we combed the world to figure out where the best place to start the Angry Birds franchise would be,” she says. “There was no better place.”

On the global popularity of the game and its impact on the release of the film:

“What this speaks to is that the movie is opening up in 90 per cent of the international territories first and then in North America,” says Winder.

On the game’s demographics:

“People want to see this film,” she says. “Angry Birds is multi-generational and loved by all.”