At Moosehead Pond up in New England, Mack Mallard (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani) is a scared and anxious mallard duck who does everything to keep his family safe, including staying in their home pond because of the potential dangers that come with traveling. After a chance encounter with a family of great blue herons, Mack’s wife Pam (Elizabeth Banks) and two kids (Caspar Jennings and Tresi Gazal) peer pressure Mack into making the trek south for the winter. On the way, they find themselves in New York City where they meet Delroy (Keegan-Michael Key), a scarlet macaw, being held in a cage by a famous cook. The Mallard family helps him escape in return for his help leading them to his native Jamaica. While the birds get some much needed rest at a hotel along the way, the cook finds and captures them, forcing the kids to save their parents and their travel party.
Migration has all the charm you’ve come to expect from Illumination feature projects. The animation is fun and familiar, the cast brings their characters to life and the story is great for families of all types. While logically Mack is the main character, a case could be made that adventure is actually the main character here. From the Mallard family being reluctant to go on theirs to Delroy being locked up and unable to go on his, every plot and subplot of this film revolved around adventure.
From a story perspective, after the initial 45 minutes, the pacing and energy really slows down. Numerous yawns (from all ages) were heard in the theater after a certain point and my 11 year old even rested his head on my shoulder for a few minutes during the lull in action. Put another way, there was a noticeably different vibe in the room during the second act. Family movies typically need to be adrenaline producing machines in order to keep the kids engaged but this one obviously hit a speed bump.
All in all, Migration is a slightly above average family movie. At 83 minutes, it’s got a perfect run time for kids, it’s got enough humor and playful suspense to keep the adults interested and it’ll be non-annoyingly rewatchable for families of young ones who like to view things they enjoy ad nauseam. It’s nothing special but it absolutely gets the job done and nobody has to suffer it while it works.
JKG SCORE: 6.5
Untitled Film Project 