Movie Review: Migration

December 22, 2023

by G. E. Uke, Reporter

These days most great animated films have some sort of moral or ethic to teach. As time goes by these morals become more targeted and specific, mainly because the “mainstream” ones were covered years ago in other movies. Each movie *should* ideally tackle something new, as society has plenty of ills yet to be addressed. Elemental, for example, was all about reconciling the generation gap between immigrants and their children. It was an emotional film about self authenticity and finding catharsis in acceptance of change. Elemental had many layers to it. There were elegantly crafted moments of intense emotion which took us from point A to point B. It was the Swan Lake of growth stories. Migration from Illumination also has a lesson to teach, but it does this with much less finesse than other animated releases.

Mack (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani, aka Kingo from Eternals) is a homebody duck who fears traveling and experiencing new things. He keeps his duck family in a pond and refuses to migrate with other birds, but when his family disparages him for cowardice he decides to prove them wrong by setting off on a journey from New England to Jamaica. Mack learns courage throughout the film, but his growth isn’t particularly deep. Shame and regret push him out the door, and all subsequent acts of bravery are desperate bids to protect his family from danger or their own stupidity. The best part of how this all plays out is that it’s more or less exactly how most homebody dads get forced out the door. Mack is an everyman, and he is highly relatable to lots of fathers.

That said, Migration is an entertaining film. It has enough comedy, wit, and danger to make the concept of a “crazy family vacation for ducks” exciting to watch. Elizabeth Banks (Wyldstyle from the LEGO Movie) does a good job voicing Pam, the sensible adventure-seeking wife of Mack, and Dannie DeVito has emerged from the mists of semi-retirement to voice “Uncle Dan”, a degenerate old duck who I loved because I love Danny DeVito. The other voice actors were decent, nobody was awful, but I didn’t find any of them particularly show stopping.

The primary antagonist of Migration is a crazed knife-wielding celebrity chef who dresses Matador-Thug and has a thing for cooking duck a l’orange. Not getting turned into duck a l’orange becomes the objective of about 50% of the movie. The chef commits a number of colorful crimes during his mad pursuit of the Mallard family, ranging from property damage to violation of Los Angeles airspace in a customized helicopter with a net gun, none of which he is arrested for. If being a celebrity chef is actually that awesome, I’m in the wrong industry.

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives Migration – 3.5 of 5 culinary jokes. It was fun to watch, but didn’t do anything particularly groundbreaking to wow me. I still think it’s very much worth going to see. Don’t go into this one expecting a super deep movie, and you’ll have no problems.