Richard the Stork

Richard the Stork (Released in North America as A Stork's Journey, German: Überflieger — Kleine Vögel, großes Geklapper and also known as Little Bird's Big Adventure) is a 2017 animated adventure film. It was directed by and Reza Memari. Richard the Stork premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany on February 12, 2017. Animated movie was released for a limited time on Google Play on June 1, 2017. It premiered in theaters in the United States on June 30, 2017.

A sequel, Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel was released in April 2023.

Plot
Richard, an orphaned sparrow, is adopted and raised by a group of storks. But when they leave on their annual migration south for the winter, Richard, a little non-migrating bird, endeavors to embark on the long arduous journey to stay with his stork family that must reveal his true identity and leave him behind in the forest, since he would not survive the journey to Africa. Determined to prove he is a stork after all, Richard ventures south on his own, joined by an eccentric pygmy owl named Olga with an imaginary friend named Oleg and a narcissistic, disco-singing budgerigar named Kiki. Along their epic journey, they run into many obstacles, like deadly bats, internet-addicted pigeons, mafia crows and a thundering jumbo jet. When they finally find their way to Africa, it's up to Richard to rescue his stork brother Max from the clutches of a monstrous honey badger. The tiniest stork must learn to see himself as the greatest sparrow to unleash his true potential and be reunited with his family.

Cast

 * Cooper Kramer (original dub) and Drake Bell (Lionsgate dub) as Richard, an orphan tween house sparrow main protagonist,
 * Shannon Conley (original dub) and Jane Lynch (Lionsgate dub) as Olga, a pygmy owl that was disliked by her family because of her large size.
 * Marc Thompson as Kiki, a budgerigar who lives in an karaoke bar
 * Erica Schroeder as Aurora, a female white stork, the adoptive mother of Richard.
 * Jonathan Todd Ross as Claudius, a male white stork, Max's father
 * Jason Griffith as Max, a young white stork, Claudius's son
 * Michele Knotz (original dub) and Justine Ezarik (Lionsgate dub) as Social Media Pigeons

Production
Studio Rakete in Hamburg, Germany and Studio 352 in Luxembourg created the storyboard. Studio Rakete was also responsible for the design of the main characters; Studio 352 designed the supporting characters. Most of the character animation was done by Bug AS in Norway. Lighting/shading, FX simulations and compositing of the final pictures was done by Walking the Dog from Belgium and Rise FX in Berlin. The movie was animated and rendered using Houdini with over 500 shots to be finished.