Migration: Just Misses the Trip South

MOVIE INFO VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES:

This holiday season, Illumination, creators of the blockbuster Minions, Despicable Me, Sing and The Secret Life of Pets comedies, invites you to take flight into the thrill of the unknown with a funny, feathered family vacation like no other in the action-packed new original comedy, Migration.

REVIEW:

Migration is a road trip movie where the main characters are ducks. Interesting idea, but done much better in other animal trip films like Finding Nemo where the trip turns into a quest, a hero’s journey of self discovery. There’s no such thing in Migration. The birds simply migrate, go from one place to another, get lost, get back on track, bicker and argue some, but generally get there as a harmonious family living in duck paradise. There’s nothing accomplished beyond the usual road trip checklist items.

Mack and Pam Mallard (voice of Kumail Nanjiani and Elizabeth Banks) are duckling parents to Dax and Gwen (Caspar Jennings and Tresi Gazal). Mack doesn’t like to go anywhere, choosing instead to fill his children’s minds with tales of all the terrible things that might happen to them if they leave the vicinity of the nest. Pam and the children want to spread their wings, leave one paradise for another.

The genetics of Migration are never explained. Neither is Mack’s phobias for leaving home. But go they must, because if they didn’t, there be no Migration and thus no plot. Essentially they migrate because that’s what bird are born to do. And even though these are talking birds, they still are birds- or at least the directors, Benjamin Renner and Guylo Homsy, plus scriptwriter, Mike White want to aspire this family of highly intelligent avians to that quacky ideal. This brood becomes birds by doing what the birdies do. Tweet, tweet, tweet.

The Mallards have no natural enemies, and unlike, Bambi, hunters and the human threat don’t exist here. They only meet man when they get lost and detour to a city for the purpose of encountering some additional bird characters- running afowl of some pigeons and making nice with their leader (Awkwafina), tangling with a mute celebrity chef who specializes in mallard cuisine, free a captive Macaw (Keegan Michael-Key) who agrees to guide them to Jamaica. Personality wise this family of buffleheads lack character identity. We never know who they truly are, their goals and reasons. It’s enough to entertain kids, and may become endearing to them when played on constant repeat, but parents would have dreams of sharpening knives and making some duck confit.

Migration is not entirely bland. The animation is solid. Some of the backgrounds are nicely lush and painterly. Sequences like the broods first flight above the clouds and the neon tilt adventure through Manhattan streets are often lovely, sometimes nicely chaotic and action packed enough to keep the family engaged and admiring the film’s technical competency. The gags are often more hit than miss. And the best, that at 92 minutes, it’s short.