This has been a big year when it comes to animated films. Cinema lovers have been fortunate enough to witness great features like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Boy and the Heron and Nimona, which are among the best movies of 2023. The year may almost be done, but there are still a number of other flicks that are just taking flight. The newest is Migration, which is the latest production that hails from industry giant Illumination. Critics have now seen this big-screen offering and, as a result, they’re sharing their thoughts on the flick.
This fine-feathered film tells the story of the Mallards, a family of ducks seeking to shake things up by traveling to Jamaica by way of New York City. While the plan sounds solid enough, nothing quite turns out as planned. The birdy brood does, however, find itself embarking on a wild adventure, during which they make some eccentric new friends. With a fun-sounding premise and a voice cast consisting of Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, Keegan-Michael Key and more, the movie has received mostly positive reviews thus far. However, CinemaBlend’s own Eric Eisenberg is less than impressed, calling Illumination’s latest entry visually stunning but boring in his 2.5-star review:
French director Benjamin Renner was the director at the helm here, and he was working from a screenplay written by Mike White – the creator of HBO’s The White Lotus. While Eric Eisenberg isn’t high on the movie, Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter enjoyed it. She specifically commends its brisk pace and lauded White’s screenplay for providing “plenty of real laugh-out-loud moments.” She also said:
When discussing this movie, it’s hard not to bring up Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros., which proved to be one of the biggest smash hits of the year. CinemaBlend’s Mario review wasn’t too positive as well, and many other critics weren’t too high on the video game adaptation either. The film still managed to win over its fair share of fans, though, and became 2023’s first billion-dollar hit at the box office. The notion of the studios’ latest feature reaching such heights doesn’t seem as likely, but that doesn’t deter a pundit like Deadline’s Pete Hammond from finding it charming:
Still, there are others, who weren’t quite as taken by the production. Variety critic Peter Debruge criticizes the film for being directionless and compares it unfavorably to the 2023 Netflix release Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. All in all, Debruge thinks this one is for the birds:
Michael Ordoña of the Los Angeles Times can see cracks in this particular motion picture. However, he also conveyed that there are certain charms to be found. He says “isn’t exactly unique, but it’s different enough. And in today’s factory filmmaking, that’s almost as unlikely as milking a duck.” Ordoña also had nothing but glowing thoughts in regard to the animation:
So all in all, the consensus seems to be that this entry on the schedule of 2023 new movie releases doesn’t exactly break the mold in any way. Yet it still manages to entertain with its vibrant visuals and warm themes of family and adventure. You can decide for yourself whether the film soars or needs to be grounded when Migration opens in theaters on December 22.