Desiree Eaglin of The Funny Mom Blog invited my family and I to a blogger event for a new animated movie called A Stork’s Journey. This event was fun and interactive where we bird-watched, hiked, crafted, chatted, ate and played! I call that a good day! All of this for an animated film? Yes! And, what a film it is!
We started the morning with our own journey to Franklin Canyon Park in Beverly Hills. This is a side of Beverly Hills that is not splashed all over TV or movies. The park is nestled in the hills via narrow weaving roads and is a nature lover’s playground! We were greeted at the parking lot of the William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom and shown to the Sooky Goldman Nature Center just up the hill where we met with other families and our guide for the family hike, Scott Logan of Wild Wings Backyard Nature. Mr Logan educated and created interest. He guided us along the trail, past the lake and to a shaded pond making sure we saw the various species of birds including ravens (different from crows I learned), red-tail hawks (whose tails do not always look red because the sun needs to shine through them to create the red…another nugget of knowledge I carried away), several types of ducks, a little yellow warbler and other critters like red-eared sliders and beautiful koi.
After the hike, the kids were treated to several craft tables where they got to use paints, markers, glitter glue and feathers to paint pictures and make bird masks. These wonderful folks worked with my antsy son and 2.5yo granddaughter keeping them busy and interested while I sneaked to the other side of the room to meet A Stork’s Journey composer, Eric Neveux to learn more about the movie and his participation in the film.
A Stork’s Journey, directed by Toby Genkel and Reza Memari stars the voice talent of Drake Bell as Richard, a sparrow who truly believes he is a stork. Jane Lynch voices Olga, an owl who has a rather unique friend and a heart of gold. Justine “iJustine” Ezarik also lends her voice talents in a role that fits with her social media stardom (watch for the social media pigeons…funny!) .
Richard is a sparrow that was orphaned even before he hatched and was taken in by a family of storks. As far as he knew, he was a stork like the rest of his group. Until winter was approaching and the group was going to migrate to Africa. Sadly, Richard was left behind. His father felt there was no way he’d make such an arduous journey and, frankly, he didn’t have much faith in Richard. Richard was determined! He was going to migrate with this family no matter what! A Stork’s Journey is a heart warming, exciting and funny tale of Richard’s adventure to join his family.
Composer, Eric Neveux was approached 2 years prior to actually participating in the film. It was one of those jobs that he thought just wasn’t meant to be, until “one fine day” he got the call. I learned that once you get the call, you meet with the folks that make the film happen and then get to work! To the tune of 120 tracks in one and a half months (yep, that pun was intended). Each track is recorded once, so perfectionism is key! Mr Neveux’s talents help give the film more depth of feeling. After you’ve watched the movie, watch again and try closing your eyes and just listening to the music. You’ll find that the music, the characters and the action go hand in hand.
At the time of the event, my family and I had not yet seen A Stork’s Journey. After the event, we went home and downloaded the movie for free from Google Play before it’s release on 6/30/17, popped up some popcorn and rounded out our super-fun-family-day with a wonderful-family-movie-night. Thanks for the adventure and the much needed quality family time! We had a great time!
A young sparrow raised as a stork must prove he has what it takes to be a stork when the family animated film A STORK’S JOURNEY is available NOW to download for FREE on Google Play for a limited time from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
