Illumination's new animated film, Migration, offers a light-hearted form of escapism, which will provide harmless fun for kids, but may leave adults wanting to tag along a little longer. Illumination is the production company behind the hit Despicable Me/Minions franchise, the Sing-musicals, and this year's mega hit, Super Mario Bros. Movie.
The migration, which is already occurring in some parts of the world and will soon debut in others, is a bird, or rather a duck, of a different feather. It is an original story, written by Mike White and Benjamin Renner, the latter directing the film with Guylo Homsy.
Directors: Benjamin Renner, Guylo Homsy
Writers: Mike White, Benjamin Renner
Stars: Isabela Merced, Elizabeth Banks, Awkwafina
It tells the story of the Mallards, a family of ducks who inhabit a beautiful pond somewhere in New England. Father Mack (Kumail Nanjiani) is happy to stay where he is, but mother Pam (Elizabeth Banks), son Dax (Caspar Jennings) and daughter Gwen (Tresi Gazal) would like nothing more than to emigrate to Jamaica to spend the winter.
Since Mack is a bit of a pushover, it's not long before the Mallards go on their merry way, even taking lonely old Uncle Dan (Danny De Vito) with them. This is definitely the shape of things to come, as along the way the flock continues to grow.
During a stop in New York they manage to free the parrot Delroy (Keegan-Michael Key), who turns out to be from Jamaica and can show them the way to the tropical island. However, his escape means incurring the wrath of the Manhattan restaurant's chef (Jason Marin), who likes to make orange duck and now wants to serve real ducks as his next dish.
The problem is that Chef, who is presented as the Big Bad of the film, is not a very interesting villain. Which makes the film's middle section feel like a necessary evil, before the Mallards and company can resume their journey to sunnier locales.
Migration is clearly a story about overcoming your fears and discovering everything the world has to offer. Which is fine as a starting point, but when your movie is written by Mike White (of The White Lotus fame), you can wait a little longer. There are many thematic possibilities, such as migration versus immigration, or travel versus tourism, that remain unexplored.
Also, the Mallards are a nice bunch, but the family dynamic seems pretty predictable. Mack would choose safety over adventure any day of the week, but when the going gets tough, he can still be a hero. Pam is the heart and soul of the family, the dynamo that sets everything in motion. Dax is at the age where he wants to experience first love and also wants to earn the respect of his father. And Gwen is the little sister, who is as adorable as she is annoying. Or vice versa.
One of the best sequences occurs early on, when the mallards are taken in by a pair of elderly herons, begging the question: Will the ducks eat them or can they all be friends? This sequence achieves a kind of will-not-will ambiguity that the rest of the film lacks. Or perhaps director Renner, who earned an Oscar nomination for Ernest et Celestine (2012), thought the film might become too scary for the tween audience it's ostensibly aimed at.
Visually, the film looks quite attractive, especially the soft autumn tones of New England and the big-city look of Manhattan, without being exceptional. The voice cast is also good, with Akwafina standing out in what is basically an extended cameo as the leader of the New York pigeons, Chump.
I saw Migration on Sunday afternoon at the local Pathé Theater and enjoyed it enough not to go home disappointed. Migration is a lot of fun, but you wish a movie about an adventure could have been at least a little more adventurous in its own right.
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