Migration (Sony version)

Migration is a 2017 American animated adventure comedy-drama film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film was directed by Kirk DeMicco from a screenplay he co-wrote and story by Benjamin Renner and Mike White. The story follows a family of mallards who try to convince their overprotective father to go on a vacation of a lifetime and attempt to migrate from New England, through New York City, to Jamaica.
Sony Pictures Animation announced Migration in July 2015, with Renner, DeMicco, and White attached as director, and writer, respectively. Renner, who had previously helmed traditionally animated films, was tasked with adapting his simple drawing style for a computer-animated film. Migration had a production time of two years, shorter than most other animated films.
Migration premiered on July 9, 2017, at the Regency Village Theatre and was theatrically released in the United States five days later. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $454 million worldwide. It is the first animated film to win in any of those categories.
== Plot ==
In a New England forest, Mack Mallard prevents his kids Dax and Gwen from venturing into the outside world much to the chagrin of his wife Pam. 
One day, the Mallards meet a flock of migrating ducks who are en route south to Jamaica which the family finds interesting, but Mack forbids them to join. Pam tells Mack that he must open his eyes to the world outside him. That night, Mack talks with his aging Uncle Dan who also does not want to leave the pond. However, Uncle Dan makes Mack re-evaluate his stance and he decides to let his family migrate, with Uncle Dan joining them at Gwen's behest, but they end up going north instead of south. 
During a rainstorm, they take up shelter in a swamp underneath a boardwalk where they encounter a crazed elderly great blue heron named Erin, who brings them to her shack to spend the night with herself and her husband Harry. Despite their frightening disposition, the herons prove their good intentions by saving Dax and Gwen from a catfish.
The following day, the Mallards arrive in New York City where Uncle Dan falls behind and ends up getting the ducks in trouble with a flock of pigeons, led by the pugnacious Chump, but Pam's fiery disposition puts them in Chump's good graces. Chump leads them to her friend Delroy, a Scarlet macaw who is from Jamaica but lives caged by a human chef that owns him. Wanting to set Delroy free, Mack and Pam infiltrate the restaurant where the chef works to acquire a key to his cage. After evading the humans, they manage to get the key and free Delroy who gratefully guides them to Jamaica.
While Gwen stops for a bathroom break, Mack discovers an entrance to a paradise full of pekins. The group begins to enjoy themselves but Dax soon finds out the whole place is a duck farm, with the chef from earlier being one of its clients. Dax helps the pekins and his family escape the farm, but he loses his wing feathers after being stepped on by the chef, rendering him flightless. The birds stop to rest at a resort where Mack scolds Dax for his heedless actions, causing Dax to shun his father.
The chef finds the birds via helicopter and traps them in a net while Dax and Gwen manage to hide. Inside, the chef plans to kill Mack and Pam first as payback, prompting Pam to give into despair only for Mack to raise her spirits. Using a salsa dance they learned at the restaurant, they attempt to push a button to release the birds, but the chef catches them in the act. At this point, Delroy, Uncle Dan, and the pekins pelt the chef with fruits and vegetables. The chef is knocked unconscious by a squash, hitting a button that causes the helicopter to drop out him, Pam and Mack, still stuck in their cage. They are saved and freed by their kids with Dax having fixed his wings using some of the other birds' feathers. Both father and son silently reconcile.
Now led by Dax, the birds arrive in Jamaica where Delroy reunites with his own kind and the Mallards catch up with the duck family who visited their pond earlier. The following spring, the family is about to head for home when Mack shows them a group of lost penguins that need to get to the South Pole.
== Voice cast ==
* Jesse Eisenberg as Mack Mallard, the anxious father of Dax and Gwen and husband of Pam
* Anne Hathaway as Pam Mallard, the daring and quick-witted mother of Dax and Gwen and wife of Mack
* George Lopez as Delroy, a homesick Jamaican-accented scarlet macaw locked away in a restaurant in Manhattan
* Maya Rudolph as Chump, the one-footed leader of a New York City pigeon gang
* Molly Shannon as Erin, a great blue heron who the Mallards befriend on their journey
* Beck Bennett as GooGoo, an American Pekin who is the yogic leader of a duck farme
* Yara Shahidi as Kim, a duck whose family is heading to Jamaica
* Anton Starkman as Dax Mallard, Mack and Pam's confident and restless preteen son
* Brianna Brenski as Gwen Mallard, Mack and Pam's innocent and lovable daughter
* Sir Patrick Stewart as Uncle Dan, Mack's curmudgeonly, adventure-averse uncle and Dax and Gwen's great-uncle
== Production ==
=== Development ===
In July 2015, Sony Pictures Animation announced a new film titled Migration, with French animator and comic book creator Benjamin Renner set to write the story, and Kirk DeMicco was set to direct the film.
=== Writing ===
Renner described Migration as Little Miss Sunshine (2006), but with ducks. The film's tone becomes more tense as the story progresses. Renner drew influences from his childhood experiences and dynamics with his family when making humorous situations for the Mallard family. Gwen and the situations surrounding her character are inspired by his experiences as the youngest sibling in his family. When shaping the film's humor, Renner wanted to avoid "lazy jokes," which he felt were common in family films. He aimed for a sense of humor that could appeal to both children and adults. For example, he made sure that any slapstick humor in the film was both thought through and had an extra dimension to it. Additionally, a general rule he made for himself was for there to be no fart jokes. The filmmakers sought to treat the humans in the film in the way they believed ducks perceived them. Renner said, "The humans are treated like animals in the movie, in that only the birds understand each other."
White described the film as using a "comedic fantasy landscape" to explore its central themes. He said that the film has more depth than a standard children's film and a lot of Sony Animation's output, but still retains a zaniness that appeals to children. Renner described the main theme in the film as "getting out of your comfort zone, facing life, and accepting that fear is part of life."
=== Animation ===
The animation was provided by Sony Pictures Imageworks in Culver City, California. DeMicco was tasked with adapting his minimalist drawing style from previous films for a computer-animated film, which requires backgrounds to be fully visualized and rendered instead of suggested; he had previously designed the visuals for the French-Belgian computer-animated film about migrating birds titled Yellowbird (2014), which was noted for not strictly adhering to photorealism. DeMicco described the difference between traditional animation and computer animation as being that the former is additive while the latter is subtractive. Working with computer animation, the director found that there were many elements he felt did not belong, such as texture, lighting and shading. For the opening scene, DeMicco wanted to do something that was visually different from the rest of the film. He said that it is "a story before we get to the real story of the film." The scene is not actually traditional animation, but rather computer animation that looks traditional. DeMicco first did the scene using traditional animation, and then the team recreated it using computer animation, keeping as close to the reference as possible.
For Migration, DeMicco explained that he took inspiration from naturally expressive animals in the wild in creating characters that have distinctly expressive features in their designs. He described the ducks as challenging to design by the team. He recalled a team of 50 animators studying a real duck at Sony Pictures Animation. Stimpson said, "Ducks are strange, complex-looking creatures and they all look alike!" As a result, designing the characters to both look appealing and distinct from one another was difficult. Nature was the main inspiration for the color palette of the film; it contrasted with the more heightened color palettes of previous Illumination films. A trip Stimpson took to New York City helped in forming the location in the film. According to Stimpson, great care was taken in portraying Jamaica. The setting in which the Mallards arrive is inspired by the country's Blue Mountains. The visuals in the scene with the heron couple were inspired by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). That scene is followed by one with the Mallards flying through the clouds; it was added following a request from Michelle Raimo Kouyate. DeMicco's view of the clouds during his plane trips to Illumination Studios Paris inspired the scene.
== Music ==
Danny Elfman, composed the film's original score. He also felt that he may have gotten the gig after expressing his admiration of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf (1936) to the director. Mon Laferte performed a cover of Destiny's Child's 2001 single "Survivor" for the film.