FLIGHT OF FANCY

MIGRATION Love and adventure collide in a quackers new animation...

- KIM TAYLOR-FOSTER

To launch an entirely original movie in the franchise era is a bold gesture. This is especially true of animation, where takings for Pixar originals in recent years have plunged in comparison to 2019’s billion-dollar-busting Toy Story 4 and 2018’s follow-up to The Incredibles. The folks at Illumination are no strangers to box office-bothering franchises themselves. The architects behind Despicable Me, they also raked in a staggering $1.362 billion with 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It’s perhaps no surprise that they’re feeling confident now as the studio throws down the feather gauntlet for Migration, a wholly original new animated feature about a family of ducks.

A BIGGER POND 

‘“We want to make a movie about love… with ducks,”’ director Benjamin Renner says, quoting Illumination boss Chris Meledandri’s Migration pitch to him. ‘Which I felt was a terrible idea. Then I started understanding what he wanted to do.’ Namely, explore how a couple can grow apart as one craves stability and routine while the other seeks new challenges, and how they might overcome this difference. Ultimately, the film is a simple story about a family of ducks – mum Pam (Elizabeth Banks), dad Mack (Kumail Nanjiani), ducklings Dax (Caspar Jennings) and Gwen (Tresi Gazal), and Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito) – venturing out from their small New England pond to head to Jamaica.

CANNY CANARDS