Movie Review: Migration

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A very fun new animated movie from Illumination. 

This movie marks the first American film from French animator and director, Benjamin Renner (one of the co-directors of Ernest & Celestine). Here he brings much of the same charm that makes his French films so special. Like those movies, this is a warm-hearted film that truly cares about its characters. Over the course of the film, we grow to care about them as well. With our main duck family, each one has their own well thought out personality. While they do conform to certain stereotypes (the overprotective father, the seemingly eternally optimistic mother, the sweetest and cutest little duckling you ever saw, the son who wants to prove himself to his father, the goofy uncle), they are not simply defined by these stereotypes. There is more to their personalities than the simple one note characters they could have been in lesser hands. There even times when they defy the simple stereotypes they could have been. Not only are each of these characters likable as individuals but they work perfectly as a group. You believe the relationships between each one of them and there is never a moment when they don't feel like a real family. Each one has a slightly different relationship with each member of their family. This goes a long way to making these characters feel very real to us.

The storyline itself is simple, but like in many of the great family movies, there is a certain charm to this simplicity. I also enjoyed how even with this simplicity; this movie felt like taking an adventure with these characters. This feeling is enhanced by the number of places our heroes travel to and the number of characters they meet along the way. It is also enhanced by the wonderful artwork throughout this film. With this and The Super Mario Brothers Movie, it is obvious that the Illumination studio is stepping up their visual game. The humor is often quite good and at times even laugh out loud funny (I love the ending gag). Even the gags that didn't make me laugh out loud made me smile. 

This film does have its flaws though. One is that there is a very weak villain here. He never feels either as fun or threatening as he should be. He also comes off the one-dimensional stereotype that our heroes avoided being. Another flaw though is that there are many story points that are overly familiar and we never have any doubt about where the story is going. 

This movie is proceeded by a fun little short film starring the Minions called Mooned.