83 min | PG | December 22, 2023 | Universal Pictures
A family of mallards lives safe and small on one pond because the father fears everything beyond it. One passing flock convinces them to fly to Jamaica. The animation soars and the story never leaves the ground.
The Mallard family lives on a quiet New England pond. Mack is the father, and he keeps his wife and two children close because the world beyond the water frightens him. A flock of migrating ducks passes through and plants the idea of a trip to Jamaica. Mack relents, and the family launches itself across a continent full of the dangers he has spent his life avoiding. The premise is a father who manages his own fear by shrinking his children’s world. The film is about forcing that father to let them fly.
Kumail Nanjiani plays Mack with a nervous, apologetic energy that fits a duck who flinches at his own shadow. Elizabeth Banks plays Pam as the engine of the family, pushing the trip forward every time her husband stalls. The children carry real weight in the story. Caspar Jennings gives Dax a teenage impatience with his father, and Tresi Gazal makes Gwen the youngest and the bravest of the group. Awkwafina turns Chump, a streetwise city pigeon, into the sharpest comic presence on screen. Danny DeVito growls through Uncle Dan, and Keegan-Michael Key brings a manic warmth to Delroy, a caged parrot who dreams of open sky.
Benjamin Renner directs, and his roots in hand-drawn animation show in the staging. He arrives here from Ernest & Celestine, and he gives the ducks expressive faces and clean silhouettes that read at a glance. The animators light water and feathers with real attention. A night flight through a storm and an encounter with a heron in a fog-choked marsh both use shadow and reflection to build genuine tension. Mike White writes the script, and he keeps it moving fast. The jokes land in quick exchanges instead of bloated set pieces, and the film never stops to catch its breath.
The result is a clean, attractive family adventure that hits every beat you see coming. The overprotective parent loosens his grip. The timid child finds her courage. The detour becomes the real journey. Renner and White execute the formula with skill and never once bend it. Migration looks better than it needs to and reaches no further than it has to.