Migration - Turbine Collector's Series 3D Blu-ray (German Import)

As someone who loves movies of all forms, I really love animation. Whether by hand, cardboard, clay, or computers, it’s such a versatile medium that so many wild and adventurous stories can come to life. There was a time when I briefly entertained going into the field in school. Now, the sad part of animation is that so much of the commercial output is geared toward kids, and as a large early-forties white lumox, it’s essentially impossible for me to just go to the latest Illumination animated feature in the theater. I have my son and he’d be a great excuse to go, but since he really didn’t want to see Migration I had to wait for video. 

Our fowl little story centers around a family of mallards living year-round in a serene forested New England pond. Mack Mallard (Kumail Nanjiani) is deathly afraid of the outside world and refuses to migrate no matter how terrible the weather. His wife Pam (Elizabeth Banks) tries her best to expand his horizons but not even the kids can get their father to leave the pond. But with a little prodding from his son Dax (Casper Jennings) and Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito), the family takes flight for the first time. But when they think they’ve found paradise with a whole flock of ducks, Mack and his family soon discover flying south isn’t very easy when humans have Duck à l’Orange on their menus!

Like most Illumination animated films, Migration is just fun. It’s not complicated, it doesn’t try to plumb the depths of the soul, it’s entertainment. Sure, there might be some relatable life lessons about facing fears or what have you, but the Illumination output isn’t on a Pixar scale. Secret Life of Pets was a silly hoot, and I enjoyed Mario but you’re not going to catch me willfully putting time into Boss Baby. The way I look at their films is if my kid is into it and wants to watch it, great, no problem, but I’m not going to expend too much effort to keep up with all of the Minions and Despicable Me films. So that’s where I was rather happy that my kid was into Migration. He likes silly animals and this one was just up his street and I had a fun time watching it with him.

And watching it again now in 3D is a testament to why the format endures. Live-action post-conversions can be something of a hit-or-miss affair, but 3D always seems to thrive in animation. With all of the foliage work, swooping in and through the New York streets, and the gaggles of geese and flocks of ducks, there’s an amazing array of three-dimensional gags to enjoy. Until I can get my boy to sit still with the glasses on I’m probably not likely to roll this disc too often, but I enjoyed the hell out of the experience and what it brought to the show. At 83-minutes the film moves fast without lingering too long but not so quickly that you feel cheated or shortchanged of a "complete experience." It's silly, so slip on the glasses and go have some 3D fun.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Universal and Illumination Studios’ Migration makes the journey to Blu-ray 3D with a single-disc release from Germany’s Turbine. The Fifth entry in the Turbine Collector’s Series, Migration is pressed on a Region Free BD50 disc, housed in a clear case with alternate reversible insert artwork. The disc automatically triggers 3D output on your display loading to an animated main menu with simple navigation options. 

Once again a great 3D experience thrives on disc with the help of Turbine’s excellent encode. As I briefly discussed in my main review, the film’s visuals tie in perfectly with a three-dimensional viewing experience. From the trees to the bustling city streets to the incredible overhead views of the birds flying, the sense of depth is quite dizzyingly effective! The Z-axis depth for the 2.39:1 framed image is excellent with plenty of foreground, middle ground, and deep background objects. While not a primary focus, there are also plenty of “pop-out” effects and objects to ensure the image isn’t stuck as a “window” experience. Left Eye/Right Eye bitrate is nice and high, and I didn’t have any ghosting or dodgy parallax issues.  All around another excellent animated 3D experience gets the love it deserves on disc.

Keeping with their penchant for the best A/V experience possible, Turbine doesn’t skimp on the audio but maintains the film’s excellent Dolby Atmos track. Doing the disc flippies with the 4K disc, I didn’t notice any severe differences or presentation issues. My only qualm with the usage of Atmos for this film is that it’s not the most dynamic or omnipresent. It’s a bit more sporadic and purposefully used. When a big story or action beat happens it rears up nicely punching plenty of sonic splendor through the surround and into the height channels. But when it’s docile and conversational, it’s like the height channels go quite and the surround elements only slightly break away from the Front/Center channels. Not a terrible mix at all, just not one that’s going to produce a 100% demo-worthy wall-to-wall immersive effect for those so equipped. 

As a single disc release bent on the best possible A/V experience, there are no extra features. 

As is the case with so many films in the Illumination oeuvre, Migration is just a nice fun, incredibly entertaining film. It’s not overly complicated, it’s not bogged down by being overly ambitious with its story. It’s simplicity at its best without being tedious or so obnoxious that Mom and Dad can’t enjoy it with the kiddos. With a great voice cast, the film was a worthwhile run, and as it happens, makes for an exciting 3D experience too! Thanks to Turbine, fans of three-dimensional at-home cinema can add this title to the collection. The visuals offer plenty of 3D thrills while the solid Atmos audio mix does its best work when it counts most. Sure, not one I’ll pull off the shelf often without my kid, but all the same I have to call it Recommended