MIGRATION - Mark Reviews Movies

Migration, Universal Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 22, 2023

Migration is so harmless and sincere that it almost feels mean to also point out that it's far too familiar, too lazy in its humor, and slim in developing both its plot and its characters. It mainly seems to serve as a distraction for kids, but children deserve better than the mere distraction of motion and colors. So, too, do the rest of us who appreciate the limitless possibilities of animated fare.

All of this is very much limited, though. The screenplay by Mike White is little more than a string of episodes, revolving around a family of talking ducks who decide to migrate—mostly against the father's wishes—to Jamaica for the winter.

There's some peril, although never too much of it. There's a villain, who shows up at the end of the second act and whose actions overtake the third in a way that makes it seem as if White simply ran out of ideas. There's a cast of eclectic personalities, but all of them come across as too tame for the movie to even approach the wackiness it's clearly attempting.

How much of that is the material, and how much of it is the result of the movie's aesthetic? Here, we have yet another computer-animated project that assumes visual fidelity to reality is the point of the medium. It looks quite good, such as a moment in which the ducks hide under a small dock and raindrops hit a lake in such a way that one might think director Benjamin Renner simply filmed a scene of nature for it. The same goes for the main ducks' home in an idyllic pond, the movie's re-creation of New York City, and assorted other natural and human-made spaces.

The animation house behind the production is Illumination, which often comes across as a more juvenile and cartoony studio compared to their competition (The Minions, those little yellow creatures, have become the studio's most famous creation, so that should give one an idea of the source of that comparison). For some reason, the artists here almost give the impression of wanting to prove a point. They can do the stuff the more established and respected animation houses can do, too, if just given the chance. The point has been made, but in making so much of this look realistic (including the animal characters, apart from the big eyes), have the animators here sacrificed the potential visual charm of material that desperately needs some of it?

The duck family, for example, is a broadly amusing notion, but it's nothing more than that. The father, named Mack (voice of Kumail Nanjiani), is a homebody, who found this remote pond to settle down with Pam (voice of Elizabeth Banks) and their two offspring, Dax (voice of Caspar Jennings) and Gwen (voice of Tresi Gazal). He doesn't want to leave it—ever. It's a safe place for all of them, and Mack basically has brainwashed the youngsters into believing that predators are everywhere else beyond their home.

The family encounters another flock of ducks, making a stop in the pond on their way to Jamaica, and Pam, Dax, and Gwen announce they want to follow the group. Mack agrees to it in pretty quick measure, after his uncle Dan (voice of Danny DeVito) points out that he has never left and is happily lonely for it, so the adults and their brood start flying south.

From there, the story is quite slim. The family meets assorted strangers: a heron named Erin (voice of Carol Kane) who might be a threat or a help with an unfortunate way of actually helping (It's the funniest scene in the movie, which isn't saying much, but the character's presentation of a frying pan as a bed is a solid gag), a pigeon named Chump (voice of Awkwafina) who's a tough negotiator and accident-prone, a Jamaican-born parrot named Delroy (voice of Keegan-Michael Key) who's locked up in a chef's office, and a duck guru named GooGoo (voice of David Mitchell) who has the air of a cult leader. Apart from Mack discovering that he can be brave under certain circumstances, that's about it in terms of any arc to this story. Oh, there is the chef, who develops a rather personal vendetta against Mack and Pam, leading to an action-heavy climax that's the stuff of formulaic routine.

Other than that last bit, the simplicity of this tale would be fine, perhaps, if the characters, jokes, and assorted situations possessed some spark of imagination or humor beyond the obvious. None of them does, though, despite some quirky vocal performances (DeVito, Kane, and Mitchell are the standouts, in spite or because of the fact they're underutilized) and some flashes of cartoonish energy. Everything about the story and characters of Migration feels half-hearted, even if the artists can be proud that, regardless, they've made a fine-looking movie.

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