Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri revealed the full voice cast of his studio’s upcoming holiday movie Migration during an energetic presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Wednesdays. Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick, Marvel’s Eternals) will voice stressed-out duck dad Mack opposite Elizabeth Banks (Spider-Man, The Hunger Games) as the duck family’s daring and quick-witted matriarch. Also on board are Caspar Jennings (Illumination’s Sing) and newcomer Tresi Gazal as siblings Dax and Gwen.
Rounding out the cast are Awkwafina (Shang-Chi, Disney’s The Little Mermaid) as the leader of a NYC pigeon gang, Carol Kane (Taxi, Hester Street) as the friendly Erin the heron, Keegan-Michael Key (Toy Story 4, The Super Mario Bros. Movie) as a homesick Jamaican parrot, David Mitchell (Peep Show, Upstart Crow) as the yogic leader of a duck farm, and Danny DeVito (Hercules, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as Mack’s adventure-averse Uncle Dan.
Illumination screened some new footage from the movie, which is penned by White Lotus and School of Rock creator Mike White and directed by Benjamin Renner (Ernest and Celestine, The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales) and co-directed by Guylo Homsy. The film centers on a family of ducks, who leave their quiet home at the pond only to find themselves in a noisy metropolis.
“I find ducks so irresistible,” said Meledandri, Illumination founder and CEO and the film’s producer. He noted that the movie’s ducks bring the quirks of a modern-day family to the screen and that the film will feature “Illumination’s signature subversive humor and authentic heart.”
At CinemaCon, Meledandri also thanked theater owns for their support of Illumination’s Super Mario Bros. Movie, which hit the $900 million global mark this week and is expected to reach the $1 billion benchmark this weekend (its fourth weekend in theaters).
“The film is very beautiful and has a painterly quality that is quite different from anything we’ve done at Illumination,” Meledandri told Variety earlier. “The story is told with humor and heart. It’s a remarkably human story with characters who are very relatable and end up wrestling with issues that we all understand, even though they are ducks. And their qualities as ducks are incredibly well executed, from the smallest detail on a feather to their movements and their flight. So it’s a movie that transports you into this world up in the sky, but at the same time it’s very true to who we are.”
Illumination’s Migration opens in theaters December 22nd.
Watch the film’s trailer below:
