Migration

One of Illumination’s more recent outings, Migration, had every opportunity to repeat the mediocrity of the company’s lineup, yet against all odds, actually managed to sidestep that labelling. While the studio has become more competitive in the animation space due to the plentiful amounts of cash they’ve earned from their Despicable Me franchise, this usually comes regardless of the overall quality of their films, which are passably inoffensive but also annoyingly simple and pandering. Some like Sing 2 can avoid this negative connotation but movies like The Lorax, The Grinch, The Secret lives of Pets, and Hop have little to offer outside of nice imagery and an occasional chuckle, so it wouldn’t be surprising if a film about a duck family deciding to migrate for the first time would be the same, and yet, this didn’t pan out.

A family of mallard ducks live peacefully in a tranquil pond, but this solitary life that involves never leaving on migration is slowly getting to the mother, Pam (voiced by Elizabeth Banks), who wishes to take her kids, Dax and Gwen (voiced by Casper Jennings and Tresi Gazal) on an adventure, but this is prevented by their overly anxious father, Mack (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani) who never wants to leave the pond. After realizing that his cautious attitude is making his loved ones miserable, Mack decides to suck up his courage and take his family on a migration trip to Jamaica (where a flock of other birds who recently visited the pond were travelling to). Taking flight along with their uncle Dan (voiced by Danny DeVito), their trip to Jamaica doesn’t go as smoothly as anticipated, with various crazy situations and characters getting in their way which forces Mack to confront the dangers he often spoke of and realize how to be a better father and husband along the way.

Migration isn’t a great movie by any means as it is stuck with a seriously cliched storyline and not a ton of character or intelligent scripting to save it, but with that said, the film is much stronger than anticipated as it houses a few decent lines, very colorful and expressive animation, and some very strong voice talent.

Probably one of the main reasons this film feels above other Illumination films is that it features different people leading the project. While the CEO of Illumination, Chris Meledandri, is still attached as a producer and the distinct personality of the studio is still present with the high-octane slapstick and vibrant color palette, the direction and writing feel slightly improved compared to other outings, featuring less childish jokes and miscellaneous subplots in exchange for something more condescends and focused. The set up is incredibly simple and the notion of an overbearing father needing to learn to let his family live a little while going on a dangerous quest is such a tired narrative route that it was already setting itself up for failure, but not only does the movie thankfully avoid several tropes associated with this narrative, but the energy that comes out of the animation, voice acting, and script helps make it feel a little more enjoyable. The film is a quick sit at roughly 80 mins and with its main focus of travelling from location to location and meeting colorful characters,  it manages something simple, but insanely likeable, and this is due to the director, Benjamin Renner, whose rose to prominence for directing Ernest & Celestine and The Big Bag Fox and Other Tales, traditionally 2D- animated movies which had an earnest and even classical atmosphere which made them wonderfully approachable and charming even if they weren’t overly complicated.

While some of that distinct personality is slightly smoothed over by the all-too-familiar Illumination identity, some of their good qualities do help this film out, like the wonderfully designed and expressive characters, the great voice talent, and the zippy dialogue, resulting in a nice blend of styles that arguably help balance out each other’s shortcomings. The script is honestly not terrible from a humor standpoint, with that probably coming from Mike White, known for working on comedies like School of Rock and Nacho Libre, but mainly for creating the hit HBO black comedy, The White Lotus. While it isn’t always hilarious and there is an occasional childish joke snuck in, the strong chemistry between the actors and the speed of the jokes keeps things moving at a good pace, and the somewhat deranged and crazy sense of humor means it’s at least better than something that plays it safe and fails to leave a mark. While the film is a quick sit and mostly enjoyable, it does feel like even within this short length, it does get sidetracked a few too many times, mainly during the middle when they’re in the city. Character arcs start to feel confused, a throwaway antagonist is pointlessly added in, and when it finally finishes, the experience will have been positive, but not very meaningful either.

The characters follow very basic archetypes and risk being incredibly uninteresting due to how repeatedly they’ve been spotlighted in a variety of children’s entertainment, but the film thankfully knows how to use these characters in a way that benefits the story and not waste time with pointless conflict, even if this has its own consequence of leaving them feeling half baked. This is felt the most with the lead, as Mack is set up to be the overly anxious father who’s afraid to travel to the outside world and confront danger, and while this archetype would normally go through an arc of overcoming this fear, the movie’s decision to avoid parts of the trope leaves him without an arc, which is a problem shared with the rest of the cast. Pam starts off with the most drive and purpose (making it seem like she’s going to be the lead), yet she’s quickly pushed aside in favor of the kids (who themselves have a haphazard arc thrown together last minute which doesn’t feel properly built up), it’s a little all over the place, and because the film is very plot-free and mainly run by jokes, it doesn’t have any time to flesh out proper growth come the end of the story.

While the roles might be poorly handled, the characters themselves are given very solid designs that not only look very distinct from one another but are incredibly expressive and fluidly drawn, which feels like a component of Renner’s decision to traditionally animate the picture before 3D technology was placed on top of it, allowing the 2D elements to stay intact underneath the extra dimension. The voice cast is also incredible, picking a lot of talented funny people who know how to work with even lame material which results in some very charming performances. Kumail Nanjiani starts off as a pretty irritating trope, but becomes more likeable as the film continues, Elizabeth Banks is very likeable as Pam and brings a nice perky motherly warmth to the part, the kids aren’t that annoying and have a few good bits throughout, Danny DeVito feels pretty pointless as Uncle Dan, but he can get a few decent moments, and supporting roles from people like Awkwafina, Carol Kane and Keegan Michael Key also manage to be pretty memorable, but never overstay their welcome either.

The look of the movie definitely has the stable Illumination trademark, and unlike the other components that make up their filmography, this isn’t a negative as they have consistently released nice-looking pictures with strong distinct coloration and hyperactive movements and slapstick, which has helped them create a child-friendly identity. While they don’t have the elegance or realistic textures of the bigger studios like DreamWorks or Disney, they have created a niche for themselves and seeing how they’ve upgraded with each passing film has been interesting, and this movie continues the uptick very nicely. It might even be more impressive than given credit as it’s hard to imagine how much personality and expression you could get out of a family of ducks, but each one looks distinct and has some very solid expressions and movements.

It’s a movie where the movements are very bouncy and exaggerated (definitely feeling like it’s trying to pander to children), but even with that in mind, it does still allow for moments of stillness and personal reflection, and the specific art style doesn’t clash with these instances. The colors are incredibly bright and vibrant, the textures of some of the landscape and water almost looks real from a distance, and the movie looks its best when it’s spent in the air (which is fitting given the main characters are migrating birds). The camera angles and imagery that’s displayed when the characters are flying is very dynamic and would’ve made for a fun viewing experience in the cinema. The movie looks like it was intended to be shot in 3D as there are several awkward shots where characters are positioned directly in front of the camera (which is a gimmick only Illumination seem to want to keep using as it’s a trend that has thankfully been dead for a while) and while it can be a little distracting, it makes sense when these flying scenes come up, because they are filmed to highlight the open space very nicely, the twists and turns are elaborate but not to the point where it would be nauseating, and the speed at which the characters fly through things (particularly when they enter the city) feels like it would make for a fun ride in 3D.

Migration is a decent movie, which sadly makes it one of the better films to come out of Illumination, but considering this is one of their newer films, it might mean that with time and if they continue collaborating with different talent, it could result in a future where they actually deserve the money they continually get. Even though this is an improvement, it doesn’t even reach the level of the first Despicable Me movie (arguably their best film) as that movie was more consistent with its character arcs and its emotional familial centre, whereas this one gets on the right start but kind of falters during take-off. You’ll enjoy your time with it as it features some great voice actors, colorful imagery, and a few decent laughs, but in terms of emotional weight and substance, it’d be best to check out another feature.