Migration Review: A Bland Riff On Pixar Fails To Take Flight
Illumination is a rare animation studio, in that they have landed upon a formula for the majority of their films and they seem perfectly content in hewing to that formula no matter what stories are being told. The studio thrives on mid-budget films that bring together a recognizable ensemble, some pop songs, and stories that feel vaguely cribbed from Pixar Animation Studios without being out-and-out plagiarism. Illumination, like DreamWorks, also leans heavily on turning its films into lengthy franchises, which has given us the obnoxious and leaden "Despicable Me" series (including its multiple "Minions" spin-offs), the obnoxious and leaden "Sing" films, and the obnoxious and leaden "The Secret Life of Pets" films. (The latter films are perhaps the most egregious in terms of being inspired by Pixar, what with their riff on the "Toy Story" films but replacing them with domesticated animals.) For this holiday season, Illumination is trying to do another original film, but much like the first "Secret Life of Pets", the new film "Migration" is original in name only, while feeling like a flavorless mishmash of "Finding Nemo" and "Ratatouille."
When "Migration" begins, we're following the Mallard family as they live in relative luxury and boredom in a New England pond. Pam (voiced by Elizabeth Banks) and her two duckling kids Dax and Gwen (Caspar Jennings and Tresi Gazal) want badly to do what most ducks do — migrate to warmer climates as the temperatures up North get cooler. But the family patriarch Mack (Kumail Nanjiani) and his uncle Dan (Danny DeVito) are both stridently against migrating because of the various terrors that may be waiting to befall ducks. Push comes to shove soon enough, and Mack begrudgingly gives into the family desire to travel south to Jamaica, leading them on an adventure through the big city and getting out of their comfort zone.
If there is any benefit to "Migration," it's the same one that applies to many other Illumination animated features: this film's story is exceedingly simple and is all too willing to sidestep any deeper emotions or complexities. Mack's intensely neurotic and controlling nature towards his family recalls that of Marlin in "Finding Nemo," and Nanjiani is undoubtedly well cast as a kind and caring but also incredibly nervous and fearful sort. But in "Finding Nemo," as neurotic as Marlin is about the dangers of the ocean, it's made immediately clear why he's so neurotic due to a previous family tragedy. Though the opening of "Migration" seems ready to tee up a potentially darker backstory for Mack to explain why he's so deadset against migrating, there's no twists to come; he's initially unwilling to migrate because that's what the script (by Mike White) calls for.
An uninspiring adventure
In spite of the pedigree of White as writer (and yes, it is that Mike White, of "The White Lotus" and "School of Rock"), and Benjamin Renner as director (following up on his very sweet and tender 2014 animated film "Ernest & Celestine"), "Migration" rarely approaches a level of excitement or creativity that might be hoped for with a big-budget animated feature. There are, of course, obstacles in the Mallards' way of getting to their vacation spot, but the only true antagonist is a vicious, carnivorous designer chef whom the Mallards enrage while he's in the middle of an evening in his kitchen. (The fact that this chef never says a word feels less like an artistic choice and more like a sign of the studio or Universal Pictures being unwilling to cast someone in a clear villainous role.)
The cast is about as predictably OK as possible; the only notable casting choice is that of Carol Kane as a strange heron, primarily because it means that Kane and DeVito have a reunion of sorts decades after co-starring in the sitcom "Taxi." Nanjiani and Banks are fine, doing roughly exactly what you would expect in fairly one-dimensional roles. Keegan-Michael Key gets to flex slightly as a caged Jamaican parrot only too willing to help out the Mallards as long as he can join them and return to his home. Awkwafina (who has now appeared in features from at least six different animation studios, and apparently will be appearing in Laika's next film, getting her much closer to filling out her animated film bingo card) is, like Nanjiani and Banks, doing the bare minimum of what anyone would expect as a tough-talking pigeon who feels like a blend of Kevin Hart's chatty bunny in the "Secret Life of Pets" films and one of the Goodfeathers from "Animaniacs".
It feels like a guarantee that each year, studios wait until the back half of the calendar to release more animated films. It's one of the reasons why Illumination's last film, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," did so well — as much as the film benefited from a world-renowned intellectual property, there was also no competition at the multiplex for months. "Migration" is not going to be so lucky, arriving a week after "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget" and two weeks after Hayao Miyazaki's "The Boy and the Heron." It is a weird coincidence that all three of these films are somewhat avian in nature, just as it's coincidental that "Migration" — like "Dawn of the Nugget" — has a sequence in which farmers attempt to herd animals to their doom or that it — like "The Boy and the Heron" — features the eponymous bird as a potential antagonist. Coincidences and box-office futures aside, "Migration" arrives for the Christmas holiday but does so in a relatively dull fashion. The competition at the multiplex is fierce this month. There are unquestionably better animated films you should be watching. "Migration" doesn't hit the mark.
/Film Rating: 3 out of 10