Since the whole point of talking animals in animated films is to anthropomorphize typical critter behavior, children who view such films form the opinion that animals are just like us and probably are taken aback when they eventually discover they aren’t. The latest offering from Illumination Studios is quite bold in this regard. Its center of attention is a family of mallards named the Mallards who live in a pond in New England the year round because the paterfamilias, Mack (Kumail Nanjani), is too paranoid to leave familiar environs to migrate south, which is what mallards do in the winter. Not much mention is made of what the Mallards do in the winter, though I imagine they get very cold; but such a supposition already accepts the logic of the natural world posited by the movie, which means I’m already being sucked into that world against my better judgement. If I, a bona fide senior citizen, can fall for such subterfuge, what chance does an 8-year-old have?

Maybe more than I would normally give an 8-year-old credit for. The adventure that ensues when the rest of the Mallards—wife Pam (Elizabeth Banks), Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito), teenager Dax (Caspar Jennings), and little Gwen (Tresi Gazal)—convinces Mack to grow a pair and start flapping those wings south, may not be exciting enough to stimulate an imagination already conditioned by Pixar and Disney, not to mention some of Illumination’s more inventive films. First of all, the duck family ends up lost due to inexperience in bird navigation and find themselves in New York, where they get bullied by a bunch of pigeons (or “vermin” as Mack calls them, already showing the prejudice born of a parochial life) and turned on to a parrot from Jamaica (Keegan-Michael Key) who endeavors to tell them how to get to his native island. Unfortunately, the parrot is imprisoned in a cage in an upscale restaurant whose specialty is Duck L’Orange, so freeing the parrot comes with a certain measure of danger that the filmmakers fail to capitalize on. 

That lack of tension may come with the brand. Illumination, whose trademark is the yellow, pill-shaped Minions, mainly trades in broad slapstick-oriented comedy, of which there is much in Migration, though none of it connects as easily as it does in the Despicable Me franchise—or even as easily as it did in last year’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the studio’s biggest hit to date. Migration is a relatively minor effort, and I imagine my hypothetical 8-year-old would prefer a documentary about migration. Give credit where credit’s likely due. 

In Japanese subtitled and dubbed versions. Opens March 15 in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), 109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku (0570-060-109), Shinjuku Wald 9 (03-5369-4955), Shinjuku Piccadilly (050-6861-3011), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5002), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Migration home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2023 Universal Studios