Angry Birds (video game) was being played, the staff liked the characters, and the team elected to design a game around them. In early 2009, physics games, such as "Crush the Castle", were popular flash-based web games, so the Rovio team was inspired by these games. During the development of "Angry Birds", the staff realized the birds needed an enemy. At the time, the "swine flu" epidemic was in the news, so the staff made the birds' enemies pigs. Angry Birds was the studio's 52nd produced game and on its initial release, the game did not sell many copies. After Angry Birds was a
The Angry Birds Movie to think of it". In his review for "TheWrap", Alonso Duralde wrote, "Let's be clear, then: "The Angry Birds Movie" isn't pointless because it's based on an app. It's pointless because it's pointless". Stephen Whitty of the "New York Daily News" gave the film one out of five stars, writing, ""The Angry Birds Movie" is just fowl". In August 2016, Rovio had begun working on a sequel to the film. The sequel, titled "The Angry Birds Movie 2", is planned for an August 16, 2019 release, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the original video game. It will be directed