Duck! Look out for the opulent, animated epic family adventure ‘Migration’

“Migration” - 3.5 stars

I grew up watching generations of Mallard ducks living on a pond outside the front door of my rural route home, one reason why this animated comedy really impressed me with how accurately it captures Mallards and their flat beaks, colors, markings and how they fly, waddle and land on water.

However, none of those ducks actually talked as they do in French filmmaker (and comic book creator) Benjamin Renner’s sometimes edgy and surprisingly warm-hearted, action-packed family adventure “Migration.”

This short and snappy 83-minute feature comes from Illumination, creator of the “Despicable Me” franchise, “Sing” and the abysmal “Secret Life of Pets” (a morally misguided mess that depicts bullying and violence as attractive, acceptable means of problem-solving for kids).

“Migration” flies at the very top of Illumination’s animation library, not only because of Renner’s deft direction, but also because of Mike “School of Rock” White’s comically cogent screenplay, the great John Powell’s sensational, soaring score, and Christian Gazal’s tight and trippy editing.

If you took “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and mashed it up with Homer’s classic poem “The Odyssey,” you’d get something like “Migration.” (The filmmakers actually used 2006’s “Little Miss Sunshine” as inspiration.)

Instead of crossing paths with the Sirens and Cyclops, the Mallards meet up with scarifying Herons and a villainous, blade-wielding master chef who can’t wait to have the ducks over for dinner.

Mack Mallard and wife Pam (amusingly voiced by Kumail Nanjiani and Elizabeth Banks) have raised their kids Dax and Gwen (voiced by Caspar Jennings and Tresi Gazal) in the relative safety of their New England pond.

Inspired by flocks of happy birds migrating to Jamaica for the winter, Pam and the kids finally persuade a nervously reluctant Mack to live a little and take the family south.

“I knew there was some adventure left in you!” a happy Pam says.

Ditto for her movie, because “Migration” becomes a true adventure infused with surprising measures of mystery, suspense and comedy.

Majestic, uplifting flying sequences provide visceral thrills here, rivaling the immersive animated action sequences in James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” (but nearly two hours shorter).

The Mallards’ night arrival at a strange, ominous land called New York City is particularly scary as the ducks – with curmudgeonly Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito) in tow – dodge nightmarish obstacles such as bridges and buildings rising out of the darkness.

Not since Walter Hill’s “The Warriors” has NYC looked so alien and foreboding, but that’s exactly how we see the Big Apple through the Mallards’ birds-eye view.

The Mallards run into all sorts of odd characters whom Alice might find deep down in the rabbit hole: a tough bird gang boss named Chump (voiced by Awkwafina), the spooky, bug-eyed Erin the Heron (Carol Kane) and Delroy, the homesick Jamaican macaw (Keegan-Michael Key) imprisoned in a cage at a restaurant operated by a ruthless chef who’s apparently seen too many mad slasher movies.

Renner hails from the school of hand-drawn animation, and his eye for visuals pays off here with an opulent and fresh animated experience that almost feels like he’s winging it.

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Starring the voice talents of: Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, Awkwafina, Keegan-Michael Key, Danny DeVito, Carol Kane

Directed by: Benjamin Renner

Other: A Universal Pictures theatrical release. Rated PG. 83 minutes