Directors; Benjamin Renner, Guylo Homey (USA, France, Canada). Year of Release: 2023
A piece of water where a father duck is telling bedtime stories to his 2 kids. The story is exciting and scary – all about predatory herons who end up eating the heroes. Suddenly, mum enters the scene and recognises the fear in her children’s eyes. She reassures them that their father has misremembered and that the story ends safely, with the young ducks saved by their caring parents. This is probably not the first time this parental conflict has happened.
Reading some reviews of the film, you just worry about the home life of some critics. Apparently, ducks are not like this, and the family structure of 2 parents, 2 kids (one of each) and a wayward uncle is more suited to a human nuclear family. Well, no shit, Sherlock. Next you’ll be telling us that this cartoon is not about the Mallard family at all, but an allegory aimed at a mainly young audience (instead of adverts, the film was preceded by a sponsored Minions short film).
Let me introduce you to the cast, anyway. There’s Mack Mallard, who for all his bluster is unadventurously conservative, and his more curious wife Pam. Their son Dax takes after his mum, whereas daughter Gwen is her father’s daughter inasmuch as she’s too young to have too much ambition. Then there’s Mack’s uncle Dan, who in the US-American version is played by Danny DeVito, but as I saw it all in German, this is a nuance which I missed.
The Mallards are hanging around in the pond, when a group of other birds touch down for a rest break. One of them, a young girl bird with whom Dax is clearly smitten, explains that they’re flying South, on the way to Jamaica. This sounds way more exciting than staying at home, so Dax and Gwen (with a little help from their clearly frustrated mother) bang on at their father and great-uncle to let them join the trip. The men at first prevaricate, then give in to the constant pleading.
It is not all easy sailing. The Mallards hit a storm and end up seeking sanctuary in another riverbank. They are taken in by a scary heron Erin, and it is never clear whether Erin is being a good host or preparing the Mallards as an unexpected breakfast. She offers them somewhere to sleep – but as this is a frying pan that’s not so reassuring. When they try to flee, she stands in their way. There’s quite a bit of fun in determining whether the Mallards are paranoid or really in danger.
After escaping the herons, the Mallards find their way to Manhattan where they come across a pigeon street gang led by Chump. Chump puts them in touch with Delroy, a parrot who would love to take them to his home country of Jamaica if they can only release him from the cage of a pretentious celebrity chef. Later, they land in a duck theme park which appears to be paradise, but is in reality a place where ducks are fattened up before being sent out to be eaten.
Is Raus aus dem Tisch Any Good? Well, that depends on what you’re after. I want under the slight hope that the English title meant that there would be a meaningful engagement with the current discussion about refugee rights, but seeing as my presence seriously upped the average age of the people in the cinema, this was never going to be likely. This is a kid’s film and, although I’m not really in a position to say whether it works for the target audience, it superceded my expectations.
Maybe a better comparison would be with other animations out recently. Last week, I went to see The Boy and the Heron, but never found the time to write a review. I did notice a certain snootiness of reviews saying that Raus aus dem Tisch is ok for Chav kids, but doesn’t have the elegance or sophistication of the Gibli film by the Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki This is a valid point of view, but I must say that I found this to be the film where I had more fun.
I’m sure there are subtle nuances in The Boy and the Heron which went over the head of a stupid prole like me, but it just failed to engage me. This film, by contrast, was fun. It didn’t have much profound to say (though I think you could say the same about Miyazaki’s film), and you roughly knew what was going to happen from the start, but that wasn’t the point, We needed a film which got us from A to B, and this is what we were given.
I guess part of this reception is to do with expectation. I went to the cinema this afternoon mainly because I had a free ticket, I’d seen most other films on offer, and it best met my schedule. I wasn’t looking for anything profound. On this count, the film delivered in spades, but profundity is an over-rated virtue. Sometimes we just want to have fun and see some cartoon ducks dicking about. And if that’s what you want, this is the film for you.
CinePhil 