Migration

Grade: C+

Migration would have made an excellent animated short. As a feature film, even at an hour and 23 minutes, it feels very padded. The first act is delightful. There’s a great family dynamic (except for one persistent gripe that I’ll get to in a minute), a couple of fun MacGuffins laid out for us, some beautiful scenery…I was thinking I’m good with all of that. Let’s go ahead and fly to the resolution, and not belabor or taint anything. Unfortunately, the movie piles on forced unnecessary conflicts and subplots.

We begin by meeting a duck family of four – five if you count Uncle Dan, who they tolerate as a permanent fixture. Otherwise, we have Pam and Mack, and their children Dax and Gwen. Due to Mack’s overprotectiveness of his family, and perhaps his fear of something bad happening to HIM, they have never left their residence in a modest New England pond. When everyone else migrates south for the winter, they stay put. However, this particular year, they hear Jamaica is nice. That’s where a traveling family they meet is en route to – and there’s a lovely young duckling that Dax develops a crush on. Mack is finally convinced to go, so the five of them start their journey.

Here’s where the manufactured conflicts come in. They go the wrong way, failing to pick up on the red flag that literally everyone else is flying in the opposite direction. They end up in New York City. There’s a hullabaloo in Central Park over a sandwich, they befriend an imprisoned Jamaican bird in a cage who dreams of going back home, and they get into some Ratatouille-type situations in the process of getting the key to set it free. Most of this business seems extraneous and not only fails to land, but it doesn’t fly either.

There’s a disappointing, mean spirited through-line that made me sad, and that’s the various jokes/comments/references to Uncle Dan – how they hope he doesn’t come with them, or they hope he got lost, or when they think he’s dead, they’re just like “Oh well, he lived a good long life.” He’s their flesh and blood, their family, and I didn’t get the animosity. Danny DeVito as Uncle Dan is a standout in a cast with some strong voice talent. As Mack, the father of the family, Kumail Nanjiani has a strong vocal presence. He has a lot of cartoon/voiceover work on his resume. It looks like he’s been heard more than seen, and he’s got a great voice. Carol Kane is effective as an eccentric heron that appears to be dangerous, but first impressions can be deceiving. Just keep watching.

I thought about barely recommending Migration, but the dealbreaker was the dance-off on the beach at the end. Just more filler and business to bloat up the runtime, which is still under an hour and a half. I imagine just about every human went through a phase where they wished they could fly, or wondered what it would be like. All the flying sequences are awesome to see and it looks so peaceful and spectacular, so it’s ironic that the movie itself never consistently soars.

Grade: C+