What better way to celebrate the holiday season than to kick back with the family and take flight into the thrill of the unknown in the newest action-packed comedy from the creators of Minions and Despicable me – Migration.

Birds of a Feather

Migration features the Mallard family being in a bit of a rut where father Mack (played by Kumail Nanjiani) is content on keeping his family safe padding around their new pond in New England forever. However, mother Pam (played by Elizabeth Banks) is eager to shake things up and show their kids Dax (played by Caspar Jennings) and Gwen (played by Tresi Gazal) the whole wide world.

After a migrating duck family alights on their pond with thrilling tales of far-flung places, Pam persuades Mack to embark on a family trip to Jamaica.

As the Mallards make their way South for the Winter, their well-laid plans quickly go awry. But the experience will inspire the feathered family to expand their horizons, open themselves up to new friends and accomplish more than they ever thought possible.

Flocking Together

The movie starts off where Mack tells a horror story to his children about the dangers of the outside world before going to bed. After that, we are then introduced to the peaceful life of the Mallard family in their pond until the arrival of a group of other birds who stop by the pond to rest before leaving again to Jamaica.

The Mallard family who have been stuck in the pond for such a long time and hearing all sorts of amazing stories about the outside world, they finally made the move to embark on an unexpected adventure.

The plot of the movie is very straightforward and it is suitable for the whole family to watch during this holiday season. It’s filled to the brim with humour as well as visuals that are sure to captivate the viewers. One particular scene that stood out to me the most was the scene with the family flying in the air, accompanied by the musical score from John Powell. It was just a beautiful and magical moment that’s reminiscent of the pleasant vibes from How to Train Your Dragon.

But of course, what’s a movie without bumps on the journey? The Mallard family are met with some challenges that happen along the way, but they are often helped by other kindhearted birds and ducks.

Considering how the Mallard family were extremely sheltered prior to their new adventure, it was nice to see how they indirectly learn something new about themselves. The father of the family, Mack was originally a timid person, but had gone through character development throughout the movie. However, that mainly only extends to Mack as the other family members didn’t quite show any significant changes to their characters.

Illumination has a good track record at making their movies look visually colourful, and Migration is no exception as it shows off various different environments, from the usual pond, abandoned houses inhabited by a crazy heron, to the vast blue skies and bustling cities. This also extends to the other birds that the audience will meet throughout in this movie.

The voice acting for each of the characters is also something worthy of praise, as each of the actors carry out their characters very well. The one performance that stood out to me the most was definitely Carol Kane as the crazy heron, Erin who manages to make Erin feel so unhinged where the audience are left wondering if she’s actually a good heron.

Verdict

All in all, Migration is just an overall fun movie for the whole family to watch. It’s full of humour and it gives a great sense of adventure to an imagined destination and gives the audience the feel of wanting to go out and explore new worlds.

Migration will be available in Malaysian cinemas on 28th December 2023.