Duck Duck Goose Review
By: Nik S
Director: Chris Jenkins
Producers: Penney Finkelman Cox, Sandra Rabins
Starring: Jim Gaffigan, Zendaya, Lance Lim, Greg Proops, Natasha Leggero, Stephen Fry
Production Companies: Original Force Animation, Wanda Media Co., Jiangsu Yuandongli
Distributors: Netflix (NA), GEM Entertainment (International), Open Roads Films
Movies targeted towards children can often be rather hit and miss. Writers know that they not only have to write for a specific age demographic but appease the adults that are being forced to suffer through an hour-long film. Very few studios have done this well, like Disney and DreamWorks, so some hopes are expected to be raised when a few veterans of the art get together to an international co-production with the United States and China.
Duck Duck Goose was released first in China back in March and was intended for a North American theatrical release a month later. Open Road Films decided to silently pull it from its release schedule, and somewhere along the way it was picked up by Netflix to be released July 2018. The film did well in China to gross $5.87 million in one month. Through its release in other countries and territories, it earned $9.4 million, grossing $15 million worldwide.
The movie takes place in the Chinese wilderness, sometime around autumn. The geese are reviewing their migratory patterns to head towards some hot springs for the winter. Bing (Bader) is the gander in charge and is being pestered by a misfit goose who follows his own rules, Peng (Gaffigan). Peng seems to only care for himself and has a bit of an ego to the point he tries to show off to Bing's daughter Jinjing (Leggero). The goose mentality is that they need to fly together in a V shape, which Bing and Jinjing believe to the fullest, but the self-proclaimed best flyer Peng wants to fly solo to get there faster.
After a crash landing, he saves some ducklings (Zendaya and Lim) from a large wild cat (Proops) with a Gollum/Smeagol complex (having two personalities that talk to each other). Peng, after crash landing and saving the ducklings, wakes up the next morning to find that he's late for migration day and breaks his wing by flying into a gong. He teams up with the two young ducklings, as opposed to his slow turtle friend Larry (Reiner). He plans on getting the ducklings back to their flock, and himself to the springs, but will encounter numerous obstacles.
The plot isn't exactly original as it follows the "loner-type goes on a journey with people he finds annoying, becomes friends with them and finds themselves along the way". There are plenty of movies that have done it far better, like Shrek and Wreck-It Ralph, and this one just can't get the formula right. The two things that the film does have going for it is the voice acting and the graphics.
The acting is done well and seems to have genuine emotion to it at times, though it can get cheesy at times. There's not any memorable, or quotable, dialogue as most of the "laughs" come from slapstick, loud screaming, puking, and fart jokes. For an example, in the first quarter of the movie Lim's character Chao gets hungry and starts demanding food. As he's screaming and whining, Peng scours the area to find a bug which he tosses into the young duckling's mouth. The bug doesn't sit well with him and proceeds to vomit all over Peng's body. Shortly after they jump into a truck carrying pigs and Peng gets his face farted on a few times.
The graphics are really well done, especially the backgrounds. The whole thing does look theatrical ready, which is rather surprising as it's a "Netflix Original". Every plant seems to have small details in it to make every forest scene look beautiful. The animation is very fluid and never once looks clunky or awkward. You can tell the movie was certainly handled with care when it came to the visuals.
The beautiful visuals just are not enough to save this film from being a generic kid's movie. The plot seems so familiar that it can easily get lost in the crowd of bargain bin flicks. The voice acting, while decent enough, just seems hit-and-miss every other scene. The story tries to do a million things at once and just seems to get caught up in its own mess. Parents are better off avoiding this, unless their kids are just really into slapstick and gross out humor.
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