There’s a well-known clip of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone at NYU talking about writing. One of their key pieces of advice is that the beats of a story should be connected through words like “but” and “therefore.” If scenes are connected by “and then,” you’ve got a problem and likely a boring story. Illumination Entertainment’s latest animated feature, Migration, fails in this regard. Writer and director Benjamin Renner tries to subvert the family-movie archetype and ends up with a boring narrative that dribbles along rather than rapidly progressing toward a satisfying conclusion.
The film centers around Mack, voiced by Kumail Nanjiani, the conscientious patriarch of a family of mallard ducks. While other avian clans migrate south for the winter, Mack insists they stay in their quaint pond, away from the dangers of the outside world. But when his wife and kids meet a flock passing through, Mack finally obliges, and the family heads south to Jamaica. They immediately encounter a slew of threats, from eerie herons to pugilistic city pigeons to deadly human food-service workers. We watch the crew take on one challenge after the next, just barely escaping each one. Though the action is swift and plentiful, the underlying story feels hollow, resembling a silly vacation flick instead of the heartwarming family story we tend to expect from this kind of film.
When you think back on the most highly regarded family movies of the last decade or so, they mostly follow a similar arc. There’s some adventure that serves to teach the characters (and audience) an important lesson, which is typically centered around family values. Sure, most of these films follow formulaic narrative conventions, but it’s the central message that drives the plot forward. In Migration, though, the creators forget the importance of the moral. By the end, you’re unsure what the point really is. It seems to be something about having a sense of adventure; but, if anything, the journey shows us that Mack was right to worry. In a short time, the ducks run into harrowing predators and a cavalcade of dangers, narrowly escaping with their lives.
Migration is a heat check for Illumination Entertainment, known for the Despicable Me franchise and the recent box-office record-setter The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Director/writer Renner, whose previous experience is quite limited, teamed up with Mike White, an industry veteran who wrote School of Rock and the HBO series The White Lotus. Watching the film, you get the sense that the crew just weren’t all on the same page. This even extends to the voice cast — most do a fine job, but no one particularly stands out, and Danny DeVito completely phones it in as Mack’s cowardly uncle. All in all, the pieces are there, but something is missing — the plot isn’t that exciting, the bits aren’t that funny, and the heartwarming message is nowhere to be found. Even with its 90-minute runtime, Migration can feel like an unsatisfying slog to get through, which the kids might not even laugh at.
Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
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