During the Christmas holiday weekend, this movie had its limited theatrical release in Indonesia for two days in a row but only in several cinemas. Yesterday my wife and I decided to see it while we were available. OK, why don't I get to it then.

Brief Story Line

A family of Mallard ducks that consisted of the protective father Mack (Kumail Nanjiani - Eternals, Men in Black: International etc), the more adventurous mother Pam (Elizabeth Banks - Charlie's Angels 2019 version, The Lego Movie 2 etc) and their children Dax (Caspar Jennings) & Gwen (Tresi Gazal) had been living in a small pond safe from the predators outside.

But when a group of ducks migrating to Jamaica came across the family, Mack decided to bring all of them to also migrate. Together with Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito - Haunted Mansion 2023 remake, Dumbo live version etc), they went on a trip for the very first time. During this migration, they would encounter various experience from the good and bad and also met with colorful characters like Chump (Awkwafina - The Little Mermaid live version, Raya and the Last Dragon etc) the New York pigeon leader, a macaw Delroy (Keegan-Michael Key - The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation etc) and few others.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I only ever saw the trailer to this movie two times earlier but it was enough for us to be interested as the voice cast included the very familiar Awkwafina who usually provided lot of humor. Before the movie started, there was a short film from the universe of Despicable Me that was very funny. Yes this movie was indeed from the Illumination studio that brought to us those amazing The Secret Life of Pets, Sing, The Grinch and obviously Minions. So it was quite a guarantee of quality animation movie.

Anyway the main characters of the film felt like people in real life. In fact Mack and Pam seemed a bit like me and my wife where she was the more adventurous while I was more content. Only after some time we finally began our travelling adventure and we could not stop after that, just like the Mallards here. It was one of the reasons we were able to enjoy the movie a lot as we could really relate to them.

The story was actually pretty simple, like a road trip for a ducks family. So we would be shown the happiness and anxiety of first trip away from home, the delightful and even dangerous situation they were in and the many characters they met. Aside from Chump and Delroy, there were also other characters like the blue heron Erin (Carol Kane - Annie Hall, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt TV series etc), the perin Googoo (David Mitchell - Greed, Peep Show TV series etc) and Kim (Isabela Merced - Sweet Girl, Transformers: The Last Knight etc), the duck that Dax had a crush on. The characters in the movie were mainly likable with Gwen the most obvious favorite with her adorable behavior (that face when she said please or the way she teased her older brother, just priceless). Oh uncle Dan was fun as well, though Chump was not having too much screen time but enough to provide us moments of laughter.

The movie's duration was very short of only 83 minutes which I thought was OK, not too long but sufficiently cover the story they wanted to deliver. It was directed by Benjamin Renner (Ernest & Celestine etc) with screenplay from Mike White (writer of School of Rock, Nacho Libre and few others). The closing credits had some interesting photos that you could enjoy but it did not have any post end credit scenes.

Overall this was a fun for family movie that could be enjoyed by all ages. My wife and I like it a lot as we could really relate to Mack and Pam's feeling, particularly the scared feeling of trying to go far for the first time and ended up enjoying ourselves so much that we were a bit addictive to travelling. Plus plenty of hilarious scenes involving Gwen, Chump and the rest. Even though there were some scenes that felt a bit over the top, but in general it was fun and entertaining, quite suitable for family holiday movie. So if you are fans of animated movie of such, then I think you would love this film.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars