Migration (Collector’s Edition) [4K Ultra HD]

Director: Benjamin Renner (Co-director Guylo Homsy)

Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, Keegan-Michael Key (VOICES)

Release Date: February 27, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7.5/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:

From the creators of Despicable Me comes an adventure-filled new comedy about overcoming your fears and opening yourself up to the world and its opportunities, filled with Illumination’s signature subversive humor, authentic heart and unforgettable characters. The Mallard family embarks on a journey south for the winter to Jamaica via New York City, only for their well-laid plans to go awry, leading to new friends and unknown horizons. Get ready to take a flight on a hilariously funny, feathered family vacation like no other!

Please Note: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

THE MOVIE/ REVIEW:

‘Migration’ accompanies a family of Mallards that decide to migrate to Jamaica after spending the majority of winters staying in their tree near the local lake they call home. Embarking on a quest with the whole family, they set out on a trip packed with adventure and new sights and end up additionally landing in some troubling situations along the way, including questionable visits with some other birds and a confrontation with a chef who would like nothing more than to cook them all up in his restaurant, but as long as they stick together and watch out for each other, things will be alright; well, probably.

Directed by Benjamin Renner (Ernest & Celestine) and co-directed by Guylo Homsy, from a screenplay written by Mike White (TV’s The White Lotus) and a story by Mike White and Benjamin Renner, Renner (and Homsy) does a nice job at the helm of ‘Migration’ guiding along the heartfelt and humorous adventure with style and care. The film’s star-studded voice cast includes Kumail Nanjiani (TV’s Obi-Wan Kenobi), Elizabeth Banks (The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part), Keegan-Michael Key (The Super Mario Bros. Movie), Awkwafina (The Bad Guys) and Danny DeVito (The Lorax), along with more and the majority each provide capable and fitting performances in their respective roles overall.

‘Migration’ is a funny, touching and enjoyable family adventure that is gorgeously animated throughout. It’s packed with fun, humor and some thrillingly perilous situations that should have audiences of all ages engaged for its duration. The film seems to borrow (or at least be somewhat influenced by) from elements of a few other popular films and it’s hard not to see some clear similarities between this and such classic comedy films as National Lampoon’s Vacation (minus the vulgar and more questionable content naturally) as well as some adventure tales, although it never loses its sense of itself in the process, repeatedly finding clever ways to tweak things along the way and evolve into its own largely rewarding tale that should have something for viewers young and old to appreciate within.

It goes to a few slightly surprising and somewhat dark places as well such as dealing with a vindictive chef and his clear intentions to cook and eat animals and ducks, in addition to some confrontations with other bigger predators that could be slightly scary to very young kids. It never fully delves into the darkness though and tends to keep even the darker subject matter quite light overall, while wisely pulling its punches when it should. It all comes together into a beautifully animated and extremely enjoyable tale that would make a great family movie night selection and is almost refreshingly short with a swiftly moving 82 minute runtime.

OVERALL:

‘Migration’ delivers an entertaining animated adventure for the entire family with plenty of heart, danger and laughs on hand throughout its brief runtime which is all complemented by a stellar list of talented voice actors bringing the characters to life. The story is fairly by the book and may not be anything unique or groundbreaking, but the fun story, engaging characters and plenty of humor help to make it far more impressive than you might think, while the stunning animation on display only improves the tale in its own right. If you’re a fan of Illumination’s animated offerings or just this one in particular (or of course if you have little ones at home that enjoy them) then this should certainly be worth checking out whenever convenient and also justify the price of a rental at the very least.

VIDEO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Migration’ features a full 2160p Ultra High Definition presentation with Dolby Vision and HDR-10, presented in its original 2.39:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks magnificent across the board and delivers a clean, sharp, richly colored and marvelously detailed presentation throughout that never suffers from any troubles to be uncovered along the way. It looks flawless down to each animated line and faithfully showcases the beautiful animation within. Rich detail and clarity is visible on the characters, skies and landscapes, along with everything else appearing onscreen throughout, and the Dolby Vision HDR only improves upon all of it by contributing some vibrant, rich and lifelike colors along with deep, crush-free black levels that really help this fun animated outing to dazzle throughout. Overall, this is a phenomenal Ultra High Definition video presentation that impresses at every turn and should leave fans and first time viewers ecstatic.

AUDIO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release features a Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 channel compatible) soundtrack. Please note that this review pertains solely to the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio presentation. This multichannel soundtrack doesn’t quite reach the level of immersive that many other similar, modern movies tend to, but it doesn’t disappoint by any means either and provides a clean, sharp and often at least mildly aggressive audio presentation throughout. It utilizes all seven available channels throughout on many occasions in order to send the film’s music, along with some nature, flight and action-ish elements popping up throughout the various speakers, while never resulting in any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously becoming distorted or rendered inaudible in the process. Overall, this is a solid Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible) soundtrack that might not blow you away but still does its job quite well and should satisfy fans as well as newcomers.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Migration’ includes a nice helping of bonus content for fans of all ages. Included on the release are ‘3 New Mini-Movies’; they include the ‘Migration’ based mini-movie ‘Fly Hard’ (running 4 minutes in length) and 2 ‘Minions’ mini-movies; ‘Mooned’ (running approximately 9 minutes) and ‘Midnight Mission’ (approximately 5 minutes). We are also treated to some Behind the Scenes Featurettes including ‘Microphone Madness’ (running approximately 3 minutes in length), along with ‘Meet the Cast’ videos highlighting multiple stars of the film (approximately 15 minutes altogether), plus ‘Taking Flight: The Making of’ (5 minutes), ‘The Art of Flight’ (2 minutes) and ‘The Sound of Flight’ (3 minutes). Also featured are various fun How-To videos including ‘How to Draw’ guides for characters in the film (approximately 10 minutes combined), plus ‘Build Your Own Pop-Up Book’ (11 minutes) ‘Calling All Birds’ (5 minutes total) and ‘Best Nests’ (6 minutes altogether).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray disc included in the 4K UHD Combo Pack and resized. They do not represent the quality of the 4K Ultra HD disc itself and will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on the 4K UHD & Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 7.5/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

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‘Migration: Collector’s Edition’ is Now Available to Own on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Illumination & Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

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You can purchase your copy of the ‘Migration’ 4K UHD on Amazon Right Here!

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