Just as the latest original family feature from animation hitmaker studio Illumination (Despicable Me, Sing) has flapped to new heights at the box office, Animation Magazine is chuffed to debut a first-look at one of the behind-the-scenes featurettes coming home with Migration this week! Hear from key creatives who worked on the avian comedy-adventure about how the studio’s many departments flew in formation to create the movie’s visual expression.
Introduced by Illumination Founder & CEO Chris Meledandri, p.g.a., The clip features director Benjamin Renner (Ernest & Celestine, The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales), co-director Guylo Homsy (layout lead, Despicable Me 2; layout dept. supe, Sing), production designer Colin Stimpson, editor Christian Gazal, supervising animator Fabrice Senia, compositing supervisor Céline Allègre, CG supervisor François Boudaille, layout cinematography supervisor Damien Bapst and lighting supervisor Thierry Noblet.
Available on Digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD on February 27, Migration: Collector’s Edition over an hour of never-before-seen exclusive content as well as three all-new mini movies. The film follows the Mallard family, as they embark 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.
Migration features an all-star cast, including Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), Elizabeth Banks (Pitch Perfect), Keegan-Michael Key (The Super Mario Bros. Movie), Awkwafina (The Little Mermaid) and Danny DeVito (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia).
As of Sunday, Migration is the fourth-highest-grossing animated feature released in 2023, reaching $120.4 million on the domestic and worldwide charts after 66 days of release. The pic has pulled ahead of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem ($180.5M worldwide / $118.6M domestic), Trolls Band Together ($207.3M / $102.97M) and Wish ($249.7M / $63.9M) and comes in behind Elemental ($496.4M / $154.5M), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($690.6M / $381.3M) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.36 billion / $574.9M). The Mallards have a shot at the Top 20 domestic films of 2023 if they can wing past Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ($433.7M).
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment also released a fun themed activity pack with fans and families can download here.
Bonus Features:
- Fly Hard (Mini-Movie) – Chump sheds her tough-as-nails attitude, risking her life to fly through a blizzard and the harrowing streets of New York to return a prized possession to a kind woman from the park.
- Mooned (Mini-Movie) – Following the events of Despicable Me, Vector and a lost Minion are stranded on the moon, and struggle to get back to Earth.
- Midnight Mission (Mini-Movie) – The Minions will try anything to help Agnes overcome her fear of the dark, even if it involves going into outer space.
- Microphone Madness – A fun look behind-the-scenes as the cast record some of their silliest lines.
- Meet the Cast – In this series of behind-the-scenes pieces, we learn more about our favorite characters and the legendary comedic voices behind them.
- Kumail Nanjiani: Mack
- Elizabeth Banks: Pam
- Keegan-Michael Key: Delroy
- Awkwafina: Chump
- Danny Devito: Uncle Dan
- Carol Kane: Erin
- Caspar Jennings: Dax & Tresi Gazal: Gwen
- Taking Flight: The Making Of – Migration is an original script so brand-new characters and locations had to be developed, designed and animated from scratch! Here, filmmakers and crew break down their process to show us what gives this film an entirely new look and feel.
- The Art of Flight – Using a series of production phases from storyboards to pre-viz, we peel back the feathers and reveal just what goes in to creating the avian heroes of the film.
- The Sound of Flight – Take a closer look at the music of Migration as composer John Powell walks us through his scoring journey.
- How to Draw:
- Mack
- Delroy
- Chump
- Gwen
- Build Your Own Pop-Up Book – Daddy duck, Mack, likes to tell his two little ducklings some … overly imaginative bedtime stories. In this fun “How To” we’ll show you how to create a pop-up book so you can tell your very own bedtime stories!
- Calling All Birds – They may not have cellphones, but you can call your web-footed friends anytime you want! In this fun How To, we’ll teach you how to create and customize your very own set of colorful bird whistles.
- The Mack Quack
- The Heron Honk
- The Chump Chirp
- Best Nests – You don’t have to fly south –or anywhere –to find a perfect paradise for your feathered friends. Here we’ll teach you how to make the best nest for your pet ducks, or anyone flying by, including a water feeder to keep them hydrated!
- Nests
- Water Feeder
