Migration Footage Reaction: Kumail Nanjiani And Elizabeth Banks Are Funny As Duck [CinemaCon 2023]
There are tons of great comedies about family vacations, but few of them feature a family that's a feathered flock. That's the premise behind Illumination Animation's "Migration," an upcoming animated film about a family of ducks who go on a vacation migration! (It's the latest sensation!) The film stars Kumail Nanjiani as the voice of the protective father duck who just wants to keep his kids safe while the family takes their journey, and is nervous about leaving the safety of their home pond. On the flip side, his wife (voiced by Elizabeth Banks), is eager to get out and explore the world. Their children will ultimately get caught between these two desires, and have to figure out how to rule the world outside the roost in the meantime.
At CinemaCon in Las Vegas, attended by /Film's Ben Pearson, Illumination shared some new footage from the upcoming family film, and it looks like some sweet, silly fun guaranteed to make kids get the giggles. Illumination CEO and "Migration" producer Chris Meledandri said that the ducks "work beautifully to convey the relatable quirks and truths of a modern-day family," though I'm going to guess most people don't have to worry about molting or getting up early enough to get the literal worm. You can learn more about the footage from "Migration" below, and check out the movie when it hits theaters just in time for the holidays this December.
Sometimes you gotta leave the pond
In the footage shown at CinemaCon, audiences got to see an early part of the movie, where our family of ducks is chilling on their pond when the idea of migration comes up. Daddy duck isn't having it and tells them that migration is a "stupid idea," but his wife disagrees, telling him that she doesn't want to miss out on life because he's too chicken to leave the pond. This is enough to convince him, and the family gets together to head out. They head out with some fanfare, flying through the trees and heading to the wide-open skies.
Much like every family road trip, the youngest kid needs to use the bathroom at an inopportune time. The ducks can't exactly pull over behind some bushes, so they tell him to just drop a deuce from the sky, but he's pretty freaked out about the whole thing. If I were a duck, playing target practice on people's cars would be my raison d'être, so I don't know what he's on about. The family realizes that they're going the wrong way when they see other birds headed in the opposite direction, and they arrive in a city, where country ducks definitely don't belong. They have to dodge cars and trucks and somehow end up inside a dance club, too! There's a lot of adventure in store for this web-footed family, and it looks like the kind of thing to make their human audience counterparts feel like birds of a feather.
"Migration" will fly into theaters on December 22, 2023.