Fly Away Home Movie Review 1996

Does for geese what "Babe" did for pigs. Young Amy (Paquin) withdraws when she loses her mother in a car crash and is forced to live with her estranged father, Thomas (Daniels), a scruffy sculptor/inventor, in rural Ontario. Still dealing with her own mother's death, Amy suddenly becomes a mother herself to a tiny gaggle of goslings when she happens upon a nest of uprooted eggs. Extraordinary technical achievements make up for some unnecessary melodrama in the second half as the geese head South, led by Amy, in a glider built by her father. Touching but unsentimental, mostly well scripted and acted, and extraordinarily shot. Based on the true story of inventor Bill Lishman, who led domesticated geese on a winter migration from Toronto, Canada to North Carolina, leading the formation in his motor-powered glider.

Distribution

Sony Pictures Home Video, Sony Pictures Plz., 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232, Phone: (310)244-7306, Fax: (310)280-2485, URL: http://www.spe.sony.com, Remarks: Formerly Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 107 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Wild Kingdom, Childhood Visions, Birds, Sculptors, Canada, Airborne

Screenplay

Robert Rodat, Vince McKewin

Cast

Jeff Daniels, Anna Paquin, Dana Delany, Terry Kinney, Jeremy Ratchford

Cinematography

Caleb Deschanel

Director

Carroll Ballard

Music

Mark Isham

Producer

John Patrick Veitch, Carol Baum, Sandy Gallin, Inc. Sandollar Prod., Columbia Pictures