War of the Birds () is a 1990 Danish adult animated drama film directed by Jannik Hastrup, about two orphan birds, Oliver and Olivia, who fight against an evil vulture-like bird-of-prey with the help of two mice. It is based on a book with a similar name (Fuglekrigen, or "The Bird-War" in English) from the writer, Bent Haller.
Plot
In a forest lives a peaceful community of birds, including a pair of sparrows residing happily in a nest awaiting the hatching of their seven eggs. During a storm, the sparrows are attacked and killed Fagin, a sadistic and evil vulture-like black bird-of-prey who kills every bird in his path. The issuing struggle causes the seven eggs to fall out the nest with only one surviving and landing near a hole in the tree which is owned by Walter, an owl. Betty, a bluebird, comes and decides to adopt the egg. Some time later, the egg hatches and Betty names the chick Oliver. While Betty is away, Walter tells Oliver a story about Betty saving the dove from a cat. Betty goes to a nearby city and meets Olivia, an orphaned sparrow whose parents were also killed by Fagin, and adopts her as well. Betty introduces Olivia to Oliver, and the pair quickly become friends. Betty goes away again, and Oliver and Olivia wander off and befriend two orphaned mice named Fredrick and Ingolf. They play, but Ingolf, who dreams of flying like a bird, falls into a stream and is saved by the group. The dove appears again and warns them about Fagin, prompting them to run and hide, until Fagin is chased away by a human ornithologist human and his dog. Betty finds them and scolds them for wandering off. In the end Oliver learns to fly with the help of Olivia.
Back home, Olivia starts to develop a crush on Oliver. The two wander off again to town where they eat at a small market, but encounter the same cat. Using the same trick Betty performed before, Olivia outwits the cat, causing him to crash into a box, angering the owner of the fruit stand and ridiculing the cat in front of the other birds. The birds go back to the forest where the dove tells Oliver and Olivia about Fagin. Oliver finds out his real parents were killed by Fagin and decides to fight him. First, he tries to gather several birds to fight Fagin, but they are too frightened to fight Fagin. Oliver, feeling left out, meets again with Armstrong the seagull who invites him to come to his party that night. Oliver comes back to the nest where Olivia teases him into falling in love with her. Walter goes out, and, during the night, Oliver and Olivia sneak off to Armstrong's party. Armstrong sings a song about not being afraid of Fagin, with Walter being there with a number of chickens. Oliver gains the birds' trust and plans to outwit Fagin with a trap.
The following day, Fredrick and Ingolf decide to help Oliver with his battle towards Fagin with the trap being set up with his friends along with Armstrong. However, Fagin hears the dove's talk about Oliver's plan to kill him and decides to fight and kill Oliver first. When Fagin arrives, Oliver tells Fagin about his parents, which he dismisses. Fagin attacks Olivia, Fredrick, and Ingolf. Oliver tries to save them, but is knocked unconscious by Fagin's wing. The dove alerts Betty about the situation. Fagin nearly kills Oliver, but is saved by Betty who slashes Fagin in one of his eyes, making him half blind. He pursues Betty up to the storm clouds, where he apparently kills her. Oliver's friends carry him into a hollow log where Olivia tells him that Betty was killed saving him and the plan didn't work, making him lose hope. After the storm, Oliver and Olivia go back to nest only to see the nest destroyed and Walter gone, leaving them orphaned once again. After a pair of blackbirds try to tell them the error of their ways, they wander off.