Netflix
Very quietly, Duck Duck Goose was pulled from a wide release in theaters but was made available on Netflix this weekend. Right off the bat, that doesn’t sound promising to me. Movies that either get a different release date or get pulled off the schedule altogether, most of the time end up being disappointing. Sitting down with my daughter to watch this new animated movie, I wasn’t sure what to expect since it never saw a theatrical release in North America (it was released in March of this year in China though).
This new Netflix animated movie is directed by Chris Jenkins, who has produced several animated movies throughout the years such as Home and Surf’s Up. Duck Duck Goose follows a goose named Peng who rejects his community of tight-knit geese who are in the process of migration. He wants to live his own life but rescues two young ducklings from a deadly cat. The two ducks latch on Peng and consider him their mother. The trio embarks on a journey to find their respective flocks while at the same time trying to avoid the vicious cat. The voice cast for this animated movie features the talents of Jim Gaffigan, Zendaya, Natasha Leggero, and Carl Reiner. It’s interesting to hear Natasha Leggero’s voice in a kid’s movie.
In Duck Duck Goose’s theatrical run, it made over 15 million dollars, which is not an impressive amount for an animated movie, so maybe it was smart to remove it from theaters because I found this movie to be average. There is nothing terribly wrong with Duck Duck Goose, but it also doesn’t do much to make it stand out either. I think there are two different kinds of animated movies, one being for kids and the other being for families. Most kids animated movies feature cute, friendly characters and usually plug in a fart joke every few minutes. Duck Duck Goose unfortunately falls into that category.
For a lower budget animation film, Duck Duck Goose surprisingly had decent visuals. The animals looked nice and the scenery in China was impressive, which was a surprise. There was a delightful shot of the Great Wall of China that was created faithfully. The visuals were the only thing I found impressive during my viewing of this film. Duck Duck Goose offered a very simple story and it wasn’t trying to be grand or special, it was just aiming to please kids. Young viewers will get a kick out of this film as it offers plenty of fast-paced adventure scenes, fart jokes, and cute little animals.
As an adult, I try not to nit-pick kids movie since I am obviously not the demographic for this film, but I am still left with thoughts about this movie. My main issue with Duck Duck Goose is that the story is stretched out so that nothing really feels important. There are two main plot points for this movie. The first one is the trio trying to find their flocks and the other one being them trying to avoid the ruthless cat. Throughout the movie, the trio is traveling from location to location trying to maintain their safety. The movie surprisingly starts adding characters towards the middle part of the third act, which never feel important. With all these little side trips, the story never feels urgent because the film is focused on creating multiple colorful adventures for viewers to enjoy. The film could have reached an emotional level with the older duck, voiced by Zendaya, and Peng, the selfish goose, but during their attempt, it comes off as forced and weak.
My daughter enjoyed the bright colors of Duck Duck Goose and kept her eyes on the screen for a few minutes of the movie tweet
My daughter enjoyed the bright colors of Duck Duck Goose and kept her eyes on the screen for a few minutes of the movie, she is 8 months old, so I will consider that as a view for her. Younger kids will enjoy this movie for the colorful scenes and the constant fast pace of traveling for this trio. As an adult, I found the story to be thin and the emotional moments were non-existent. One thing I will say about Duck Duck Goose, hopefully all the little duckies made it out of the Chinese restaurant they were being forced to go to!
Duck Duck Goose has a run time of 1 hour 31 minutes and is streaming on Netflix.
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