Fine feathered feature for the whole family
“Migration” is a welcome escape for the family.
With a vibrant color palette and appealing characters, Illumination’s latest animated adventure-comedy has a story that packs plenty of laughs that’ll easily win over the young kiddos and keep teens and adults engaged throughout its 91-minute run time.
Directed by renowned French cartoonist and animator Benjamin Renner (“Ernest & Celestine”), with a screenplay by comedy-drama master Mike White (“The White Lotus”), it benefits from the storytelling sensibilities of its creators while leveraging the star power of its impressive voice cast, including Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks and Keegan-Michael Key. Celebrity voice casting can often yield mixed results, but these three have a distinct comedic sensibility that translates readily to animation.
The story centers on the Mallards, a family of ducks living in a New England pond. Skittish paterfamilias Mack Mallard (Nanjiani) is content never to venture past his pond’s shores; he knows it’s a scary world with plenty of creatures ready to eat them, so he’s happy to stay put. But his adventurous wife Pam (Banks) and their children Dax (Caspar Jennings) and Gwen (Tresi Gazal) want to see what lies beyond.
Given the movie’s title, one can reasonably intuit it involves some migrating, so it’s no spoiler that Mack and family — through a combination of necessity and peer pressure — decide to take a family winter vacation to Jamaica, where the weather is warm and the water glows blue (or so they’ve been told).
It’s never that simple. Before long, the Mallards — along with Mack’s curmudgeonly Uncle Dan, voiced by Danny DeVito — find themselves in New York City trying to stay one step ahead of a celebrity chef who’d love to serve them on a platter.
“Migration” arrives the same year as Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” While that film found success thanks to multigenerational nostalgia, this one soars higher by creating an original world and making the audience feel invested in the characters’ journeys.
Speaking of “Super Mario Bros.,” Key was also a voice actor in that film. Here, he plays Delroy, a Jamaican parrot who’s been waylaid in New York and desperately wants to return home.
Renner, who created the charming “Big Bad Fox” comics and directed its feature adaptation in 2017, brings a painterly approach to the character designs, which are evocative of his drawing style despite being filtered through a CGI lens. That approach, coupled with White’s script, which knows when to keep it light and when to edge right up to the darkness (the knife-wielding chef could inspire some nightmares), makes for a dynamic experience with a more distinct authorial imprint than the usual Illumination fare.
Now, this is still a CGI children’s picture, so don’t expect “Magnificent Ambersons”-style interfamily drama a la Orson Welles. But the character moments here resonate, and there are enough stakes to make the final scenes feel meaningful.
Like Mack, one can imagine many parents dreading the hassle of getting the family out of the house and into a movie theater this hectic holiday season. As a father of five, I can relate — the logistics can be exhausting. But if you’re up for the adventure, “Migration” is an altogether pleasant place for families to nestle in for the winter.
If you’re up for the adventure, “Migration” is an altogether pleasant place for families to nestle in for the winter.