ingredients : lost parrot trying to get home , friends 
synopsis : a russian janitor named misha ( tony shalhoub ) discovers a little old parrot languishing in the basement of a science research facility . 
 " paulie the talking parrot " ( the voice of jay mohr ) soon regales misha with his life story . 
as a young bird paulie is raised by marie ( hallie kate eisenberg ) , a little girl with a speech impediment . 
by attending marie's speech lessons , paulie learns to act/speak like a regular person . 
unfortunately , after being unfairly blamed for an accident , paulie is taken to a pawn shop and sold . 
paulie's biggest wish is to return to marie . 
many years later , and after a succession of memorable owners ( gena rowlands , cheech marin , and jay mohr ) , paulie falls in with a bad crowd and is apprehended in los angeles trying to steal jewelry . 
he is sent to a cruel research facility , where he refuses to participate and is imprisoned the basement . 
will misha help paulie get back to marie ? 
opinion : every time people watch movies that portray animals as beings with cute human personalities , some well-meaning audience members go out next christmas or birthday and buy a dalmatian or whatever creature is currently popular . 
soon enough , " birthday kid " loses interest and the purchased pup ends up at the local pound , a victim of neglect . 
my sister owns a real paulie : it thinks like a parrot , bites like a parrot , and requires as much attention as a newborn human infant . 
please think twice before buying one . 
okay . back to the story . 
in movies , parrots usually play support characters , but paulie might be the first movie where the ( animatronic ) bird gets main billing . 
paulie , like those side characters in disney cartoons , is cute and sassy , a strutting , miniature human . 
actually , paulie is the voice of jay mohr ( he played jennifer aniston's boyfriend on picture perfect ) doing his best buddy hackett impression ( which is interesting , since hackett himself cameos as the pawn shop owner , and mohr doubles as a customer ) . 
paulie is for kids . 
while watching paulie you hear little tykes in the theater laughing hysterically when paulie calls the cat a " stupid furball . " 
sometimes , however , there are statements the kids don't get . 
for example , when paulie's elderly owner ivy ( gena rowlands ) dies , paulie explains , " well , one day , the cat got her . " 
and you hear kids exclaim , " what cat ? ! " 
imagine lassie come home , except with a doll-sized human dressed as a bird , and you'll have a good idea of the plot and characterization . 
bird tries to get home . 
bird meets elderly friend . 
bird loses elderly friend . 
bird meets eccentric friend . 
bird loses eccentric friend . 
bird meets bad influence . 
and so on and so forth , with paulie meeting friends and saying goodbye at a meandering pace until he finally makes it back to marie ( trini alvarado ) . 
the bottom line ? 
break out the popcorn money , moms and dads . 
paulie may be the low end version of lassie , bambi , or babe , but he'll do . 
sometimes the wisecracks go over their heads , but i'm sure youngsters can appreciate a story about a little person ( paulie ) trying to get home , meeting friends and experiencing moral lessons on the way . 
and good luck explaining what it means when paulie says of ivy , " well , one day , the cat got her . "