Quackerz | Film review - Animated adventure fails to fly

(Image credit: Signature Enteratainment)

They'll quack you up.

Feathers fly when a skein of mallards mistakenly invades a remote Chinese island of Mandarin ducks. But two young members of the rival flocks manage to overcome their differences in a bid to thwart a wicked witch and her plot to extinguish the sun.

Oddball computer-animated adventure Quackerz is a Russian-American-Chinese co-production. So no wonder the resulting concoction is a bit of a hodgepodge. Still, cross-cultural confusion is one of the movie’s themes (the mallards’ deludedly gung-ho leader refuses to believe they haven’t arrived in Hawaii), and Alanna Ubach does a nice line in haughty villainy as the voice of the witch.

Certificate PG.Runtime 81 mins. Director Victor Luckysov

Available on DVD & Digital from Signature Entertainment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_3mwAwlU2s

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.