Animation for young audiences comes of age

The Lunar New Year holiday is upon us. It's time for that annual pilgrimage to the movies. The usual Cantonese comedies (Table for Six 2) and thrillers (The Moon Thieves) are on their way, but for anyone with very young children to keep entertained, the choices are slimmer. Fortunately, Benjamin Renner's Migration, an adventure about a family of ducks venturing beyond its little pond, could have been much, much worse. Produced by French animation studio Illumination - which is why there's a short Minions film, Mooned, before the main feature - Migration isn't intensely original, but it is colorful, beautifully drawn in 3D, and a blessed 83 minutes long. It knows what it wants to do, and gets the job done with brutal efficiency. You'll be out in time for yum cha.

Somewhere in New England, drake Mack Mallard (Kumail Nanjiani) and his adventurous wife Pam (Elizabeth Banks) are raising their ducklings Dax and Gwen (Caspar Jennings and Tresi Gazal) in an idyllic, if dull, wood. The story starts with Mack telling the children a terrifying story of the big bad world beyond the pond, and how everyone is out to eat them up - which may not be totally untrue. Pam tells Mack off for scaring the kids, and again when he is rude to a friendly passing flock that stops for a rest. When Mack brushes off their invitation to join their migration, Pam has had it. The rest of the family wants to see the world and Mack's shortsightedness is hurting them all. After listening to a cautionary tale from Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito), Mack has a change of heart. Off they go, heading south for the winter.