Migration (4 Stars)

This is one of the rare cases where I prefer the German film title to the original title. The Germans call the film "Get out of the pond", which is appropriate. It's about the young ducks Dax and Gwen who live in a small pond somewhere in the north east of America. They spend all their lives swimming in circles in a pond that can't be bigger than 20 square meters. It's not much, but it's all they know, so they're happy with it.

One day a flock of Canadian ducks makes a brief stop in the pond. They say they're on their way to Jamaica. They migrate every year. Dax and Gwen want to travel with them, but their father forbids it. Their Uncle Dan accuses their father of being a coward, so he changes his mind. But the migrating flock has already left, so the family has to find their own way to Jamaica.

Effectively, the film is a road movie. Dax's family has no idea of the distance involved. When they stop in New York City, they think they're almost there. But they have enemies. A master cook has an exclusive restaurant where he prepares roast duck for wealthy guests. He catches the ducks, but when they escape he takes it personally and pursues them on their flight to Jamaica.

This is a delightful comedy. Unfortunately it was spoilt by technical problems. When I arrived in the cinema I was told that the film would be delayed by 15 minutes. That was okay, but after 25 minutes we were still waiting. The cinema kindly showed a short film to keep the children happy. "Migration" finally started 50 minutes late.

From what I've been told, cinema is in a slump at the moment. Things went bad after Corona, and it wasn't until "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" (collectively called "Barbenheimer") that there were big cinema audiences. The momentum continued for a few months, but "The Marvels" started a slump in which even good films are performing badly at the box office. "Migration" is a film that deserves to be a success. Cinema audiences are fickle. Let's see what happens.