Illumination's Migration

[Daniel]

New upcoming film:

And while little is known about “Migration,” other than it’s written by “The White Lotus” creator Mike White and directed by “Ernest and Celestine’s” Benjamin Renner, audiences at “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” will be among the first to get a look at what Illumination has in store. A trailer for the film will be released alongside the studio’s Nintendo adventure.

In “Migration,” the family of ducks finds themselves at odds. With the weather warming, the father in the family wants to remain safe and comfortable in their pond in New England, while the wife wants them to explore the wider world.

“The film is very beautiful and has a painterly quality that is quite different from anything we’ve done at Illumination,” Meledandri said. “The story is told with humor and heart. It’s a remarkably human story with characters who are very relatable and end up wrestling with issues that we all understand, even though they are ducks. And their qualities as ducks are incredibly well executed, from the smallest detail on a feather to their movements and their flight. So it’s a movie that transports you into this world up in the sky, but at the same time it’s very true to who we are.”

Sounds cute and promising. Eager about the painterly aspect!

[Ben]

Yep, another studio has caved to the current blend of CG with hand-drawn touches aesthetic, which can’t be a bad thing. And a new non-franchise film from Illumination for a change…nice! This sounds like it could be pretty great…fingers crossed!

[Daniel]

First look:



Yeah, their feathers have like a watercolor texture. Nice!

[Ben]

Oh, yeah, that’s looking pretty good!

[gaastra]

[Ben]

Didn’t blow me away (the choice of music track made it feel a bit slow), but didn’t put me off either. I look forward to more promos and clips. Bit of a The Duck and Duckula kind of things going on in the colours and designs.

[Daniel]

I like what I see so far. Designs look very expressive and cartoony. Those tracking shots are pretty cool!

[Daniel]

Description of what was shown:

CinemaCon got an exclusive look at Illumination’s next animated feature Migration, which puts a unique spin on the timeless road trip family comedy but with ducks. Kumail Nanjiani plays an overprotective father duck who’s afraid to leave the safety of the pond while Elizabeth Banks voices the more adventurous mother duck. The voice cast includes Awkwafina, Danny DeVito, and Keegan-Michael Key. The footage showed the conflict between the father and mother duck, leaving their two kids stuck in the middle. After the dad has an epiphany and decides to finally take his family on a migration, they realize the world is bigger than they could have ever imagined.

We see them in hilarious scenarios, like playing “cloud” ball fights in the sky and the youngest child wanting to stop to use the restroom even though the mother insists she just does it from the sky since they’re birds anyway. Their family road trip goes south when they venture into the city and get lost in all the chaos, almost getting hit in traffic and seeing cooked ducks in fancy restaurants. Danny DeVito plays the grandpa duck and Awkwafina plays a street pigeon from the city. The animation is very expressive as expected from Illumination and the story is very reminiscent of National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Still liking the sound of it!

[Daniel]

New poster and trailer:





The bathroom joke.

I can do without Awkwafina, though did chuckle at her character getting run over continuously. Looks so gorgeous.

[EricJ]

After a STRING of Awkwafina jamming her wacky self into every Disney movie she could get her hands on, I could watch a whole movie of her character being run over continuously...

[Ben]

So my thoughts as I’m watching:

Illumination is the new Blue Sky with this movie's settings.

Strong brand recognition to include Minions and the Despicables in their build up. And then we get the Mario logo as the masterstroke. Unless they fowl it up, Uni have another hit on their hands.

"It’s you. With l'orange on top"

Bathroom joke: could do without the "numbe two situation", because it’s already obvious, but this was nicer done than other toilet gags, and kind of cute in how it captures parent/child interaction.

Oh, Awkwafina. "Stick close to me" — I wonder if she's going to get hit? Why, yes, of course. Didn’t see that coming. Oh, look, she gets hit again. Hilarious. I wonder if…yep, she’s hit again. So totally eye rollingly obvious and unfunny, seen what feels like a thousand times before in these kinds of films.

Christmas? Okay, I guess that kind of works, but they’ll bite into their Wicked audience or vice versa. I’d have thought going with a Mario spring release would have given them a bigger hit.

Must say that anticipation went down a little bit with the whole big city thing — again — but I’m hoping the scripting and voices can carry it through. But, yeah, the whole Awkwafina thing has been, and is being, done to death now.

[Dacey]

Wicked isn’t until Thanksgiving 2024, Ben.

The only thing Migration has to worry about is Aquaman 2 (until WB moves the date again!). So unless there’s a huge demand for more Amber Heard, it should be fine. I’m sure Wonka will bring in some cash, but I think Migration will soar all the same.

[Ben]

Oops! I was literally at the studio last week and someone said they were working like nuts to get done for Christmas, so I naturally thought they meant this Christmas! Wow, that’s quite a post run!

Not sure Migration will do better than Wonka once the WB machine cranks into marketing overload, but both should have good showings. I think Aquaman will sink and drown, maybe not completely dead in the water, but certainly on par with the current last four DC movies, and I can’t see Blue Beetle faring much, if any, better either, though that one will be interesting. WB needs to sell the heck out of it, though, as currently most people don’t know it even exists, let alone about to come out, and there’s almost zero anticipation for it. I guess the trailer will get a lot of eyeballs on it on the front of Barbie this weekend.

[Dacey]

So I was kind of shocked by how much I ended up loving Migration. Beautiful animation, a surprisingly gorgeous musical score, endearing characters, and tight pacing. Some of Illumination's best work for sure.

[GeffreyDrogon]

It's good to see original animated films doing well, since Ruby Gillman was largely ignored by the public.