Angry Birds 2 - Enemy friends forever

History

The birds and the pigs are always at war with each other, after Piggy Island has been rebuilt, due to the previous battle with the birds. But a threat looms over them: A giant ball of ice from a nearby island called Eagle Island hits the sea near Piggy Island, thus forcing the pigs to seek an emergency respite with the birds.

Zeta, the chief of Eagle Island is fed up with its frozen environment and wants to occupy the two islands, shooting ice balls to force its inhabitants to move elsewhere.

Leonard, the king of Piggy Island, meets Red at his home and convinces him to forge an alliance with pigs, so Red recruits his friends Bomb, Chuck, Great Eagle and Silver, Chuck's engineer sister. The group meets at the Great Eagle cave, but their reunion is interrupted by a giant ball of ice that hits Eagle Mountain and destroys it. As the team travels to Eagle Island in a submarine, Red assures the terrified villagers that they don't need to evacuate. Upon arriving on Eagle Island, Big Eagle confesses that Zeta is his ex-girlfriend, whom he abandoned due to his cowardice to retire to Bird Island. Red proudly wants to fight alone and Silver decides to disguise himself as "Trojan Eagle" to steal the key card that will allow them to enter the base. They are discovered and captured, but not before pushing the Guardian Eagles to a hilarious breakdance battle, which allows them to escape.

Meanwhile, three cubs of birds find the eggs they had lost in the sea, on a small island, but these are guarded by a dangerous python snake, which they manage to defeat thanks to their cunning. The three birds want to return to Bird Island, but they take the wrong route and arrive at Piggy Island and are greeted by three pigs, who take them aboard their balloon.

Meanwhile, Red and Silver are confined to the ice island and Zeta reveals her plan to shoot lava-filled ice balls at both islands. Red, who regrets not telling the islanders to evacuate, has the remorse of being selfish, out of a desire to be appreciated by all. Silver comforts him and manages to find a way to free both of them, thanks to his long crest, and then rejoins the group. Red gives up being the leader of the group in favor of Silver, who has a plan to destroy Zeta's weapon.

In the days leading up to the film's release, Josh Gad declared that the sequel Angry Birds 2 was made with the intent of overcoming the first film and trying new ideas, one of which was the bird alliance with pigs to face a new enemy, which doesn't happen in most Angry Birds video games. Gad then explained that the production team pursued this idea, also because they believed that these days, it would be a valuable lesson, since two factions warring with each other, such as two political parties, can find an agreement to face a common enemy, (such as the environmental emergency).

As for the animation work, unlike the previous film, the sequel was co-produced with Rovio Animation and Sony Pictures Animation. In the processing of Angry Birds 2 - Enemies friends forever it was possible to reuse the resources of the first film, such as the construction of the environments and 3d characters, but it took a great job to make everything compatible with new software and technological systems modern, adopted in recent years. The animators faced great challenges in trying to make the birds' plumage more realistic, also thanks to the specific software for feathers, already used by Sony Pictures Imageworks for the Stuart Little film. Particularly when it came to building the character of the bad Zeta, characterized by its thick plumage, an animation structure with over 1.000 controls was required, both for the face and for the tall and flexible torso of the character. The team also faced a challenging task in designing the special effects of snow, ice, water and lava. The production of the film was also penalized by the unavailability of some animators, who had been hijacked and employed to complete the film Spider-Man: A new universe, as well as the time lost due to the fact that Sony advanced by over 15 days the release date of the film.