Migration

Fresh off the massive success that the Super Mario Bros. Movie turned out to be, Illumination is back with their standard family fare in the form of Migration. This offering promises to follow the travels—and travails—of a family of ducks, heading south for winter (Jamaica, in particular).

The trailer opts for just one licensed track, but one can assume it barely fit the budget—Taylor Swift’s “Out Of The Woods” (from the 2014 album 1989, very recently re-recorded and reissued )under Swift’s control). The lyrics included in the trailer are spare, but pertinent: “Looking at it now / it all seems so simple”, Swift opines, as we see the father of the duck family attempt to find directions.

The chorus—repeating “Are we out of the woods?”—works well against an action montage as we see the family navigate both neon cityscapes and nature alike. Around 1:06, we hear a small embellishment of epic percussion on an arrangement that’s otherwise pretty much true to the original. However, it also serves to emphasize and synch with the on-screen action as the father duck bounces around buildings, perhaps calling to mind Spiderman’s exploits.

At 1:08 the music is cut with an audiovisual blackout, leading to a one-liner by the child duck. The soundtrack lays out with a bare rhythmic instrumental for the scene where we’re introduced to one of the film’s villains—a chef specializing in duck à l’orange. The sound of a sharpened knife coincides with music stopping for a darkly comedic one-liner (“it’s you… with l’orange on top”).

This doesn’t last, however. Though some sense of stakes is established, it’s only enough to serve a family-friendly Illumination film. Before we get a proper chance to ponder cooked duck, we’re thrown right back into “Out of The Woods”, with its cheerful backing vocals and energetic beat. Arguably, some background lyrics are a bit out of place at times (“Remember when you hit the brakes too soon? Twenty stitches in a hospital room”)—but most hit the right notes, as the family does encounter a number of real dangers in their trek to Jamaica. One more one-liner at 2:08 (“or am I?”), with an accompanying duck call in the background, leads us out to the title card and the final action sequence.

Overall, it’s a fairly repetitive yet serviceable comedic trailer with light dramatic stakes that knows exactly what it’s meant to do and does so without hesitation. Surely, the absence of tiresome franchise characters—we never do learn the ducks’ names, after all—and the inclusion of a track by one of the world’s biggest pop stars ought to do much to help the film’s prospects. Between that and Illumination’s reputation, at least you know what you’re getting—for better or worse.

Migration hits theatres December 25th.

— Curtis Perry