Migration

Directed by Benjamin Renner, Migration follows a family of ducks, including Kumail Nanjiani’s Mack and Elizabeth Banks’ Pam, as they run into a series of obstacles during a trip to Jamaica. Filmmaker Renner, armed with Mike White’s screenplay, delivers a briskly-paced and thoroughly entertaining endeavor that benefits from its vibrant visuals and raft of appealing voice performances, as, in terms of the latter, Nanjiani and Banks offer up engaging, compelling work that proves instrumental in securing the picture’s ongoing success – with the actors’ first-class efforts certainly matched by eclectic periphery players like Keegan-Michael Key, Awkwafina, and Danny DeVito. It’s clear, too, that Migration‘s success can be attributed to its appealingly episodic narrative and recurring emphasis on laugh-out-loud funny bits of comedic silliness (eg Awkwafina’s grizzled pigeon is run over by two separate buses while attempting to lead Mack and Pam to Key’s Delroy), while the exciting, satisfying third act ensures that the whole thing concludes on about as positive a note as one could envision – with the end result a better-than-average animated family picture that does, in addition, lend itself well to repeat viewings.

***1/2 out of ****