Fly Away Home

Rating:
Summary: Five Star Movie; Two Star DVD Release
Review: No argument here as to the fine movie that "Fly Away Home" is, but a HUGE disappointment in Columbia/TriStar's decision to release it in the full screen aspect ratio only. It kept me from buying the Laserdisc, and will so keep me from buying the DVD. It's a pity that such a beautifully cinematic movie is not offered in the original theatric ratio for full viewing pleasure. Sour grapes? I don't think so. One of DVD's intrinsic values is the ability to deliver movies in BOTH formats for viewer choice. Columbia/TriStar apparently believes that it's their decision to make, but my consumer vote says "I don't think so!"

Rating:
Summary: One of the best films ever
Review: I have seen this movie at least 6 times on cable and each time I am moved to tears at the end of the movie. It is a pleasure to watch a movie that is so inspirational and suitable for the whole family. The entire cast seems to work so well together.

Rating:
Summary: one of my all-time favorites
Review: I simply love this movie.The landscapes are beautiful,the actors are awesome(especially Anna). It's a heartwarming movie, but very exciting,too.(Even my brother was fascinated: 'this is a childrens movie-no way!!!'.) Plus real funny bits.

Rating:
Summary: touches every emotion possible, incredible
Review: One of the few movies that can touch something so deep inside of your sole. Great acting, super story and incredible photography. The only thing missing is the outstanding sound track.

Rating:
Summary: What a Suprise!
Review: "Fly Away home" was not a movie I meant to watch...It just happened to be on TV one day. Now being a 20 year old male college student who usually enjoys movies such as "The Rock" I don't think I was in the producers demographics on who they would think would want to watch the movie...but as things turned out I found "Fly Away Home" to be an outstanding and magical movie. Both actors are great in the movie and both are very very likeable. The movie hooked me in from the beginning and kept me completely immersed all the way until the end. Suprisingly after watching the movie I told one of my friends, and apparently he had seen it also and loved it...All in All Fly Away Home is an inspirational heart felt movie for anyone from age 2 on up that you will not forget. END

Rating:
Summary: teach wild geese fly
Review: PURE AFFECTION NOT ONLY GROW UP BETWEEN ANIMALS AND HUMAN , BUT ALSO THE LOVE OF FAMAILY. END

Rating:
Summary: Maybe the best family film in a generation.
Review: This is very possibly the best "family film" in decades, by which I mean this is a film that parents and kids will enjoy watching together. It has an appeal that adults can relate to, and kids simply love it. My family has watched this movie together many times.

The story is about a young girl (Amy, played excellently by Anna Panquin) whose parents have split up; her father (Jeff Daniels) lives in Canada and her mother with whom she lives is in New Zealand. When mom is killed in an auto accident, Amy goes to Canada to live with her downright eccentric dad. She is unhappy and out of place until she adopts a flock of baby geese, and this is where the story really starts. The geese have lost their parents, and do not know how to migrate. Amy and her dad and their friends decide to teach them how. What a great story, and the cinematography of the flight scenes is breathtaking and astounding! This is a funny, touching, and entertaining movie that deserves every one of the five stars that most reviewers have awarded it. The story is out there on the outer edge of plausibility and this gives it a magical quality that sends the message that all things are possible with perserverence, intelligence, and luck. I cannot imagine any family not enjoying this superb film.

Fine performances by Miss Panquin, Jeff Daniels and the supporting cast. This is one of those films where everything came together very well, to make what has become a true classic. The storyline moves along smartly, the acting is consistently good, and the ending is truly touching. By the way, the scene where the baby geese are born in my opinion is one of the finest and most touching scenes ever to grace either DVD or the silver screen. Don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: This movie makes my dad cry
Review: And it's not just him. This movie came up amongst my friends in college and every female in the room said that their father KEPT watching this movie and they ALWAYS cried. Sort of brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "empty nest."

This movie is about Anna, who, after her mother's death in a car crash (Anna was also in the car), is sent to live with her slightly eccentric inventor father in Canada. He means well, but he just makes absolutely no sense to Anna. It is an exagerated case of "my dad is so weird" that any teenager can identify with. Meanwhile, the idea of a teenage girl is so foreign to her dad that the more he tries to bond, the more she stomps away.

Into the story comes a band of orphaned Canadian geese that Anna nurtures. They imprint her as their mother, so she more or less trains them. The only problem is that they must fly south for the winter, and Anna is their only role model. Luckily, she has a dad who builds space shuttles for fun. Suddenly, he has a way to connect with her and she has a reason to trust him.

Though it sounds sort of hokey, this movie that never delves into complete pathos. Instead, it is frequently quite funny and always touching. If you are looking for a father's day present, this is ideal. Just make sure to keep some tissues handy.

Rating:
Summary: This is one you don't want to miss
Review: In the world of DVD, it is quite fashionable to talk about "must-have" DVDs, mostly because of the disks' technological superiority. But the Special Edition DVD of Fly Away Home is a disk that does genuinely belong in every movie lover's collection. The disk is full of extras and is beautifully rendered, but it is the film itself that makes this DVD a true must-have. Fly Away Home tells the kind of story that could oh-so-easily become sentimental or melodramatic. "Young teenage girl loses her mother in a car accident and goes to live with her estranged father. They learn to connect to each other, and to their own hearts, by teaching a flock of orphaned wild geese to fly." But make no mistake: this film is a first-rate family classic. It's the kind of movie that you cannot stop watching. The acting is honest and understated; the cinematography is superb (just about every single shot in this film could be put up on the wall, that's how beautiful the pictures are); the music is spot-on, moving from romantic to quirky moods with grace and ease; and Carroll Ballard's direction is just perfection, simply because you never notice it: he lets the story tell itself in images, in all its simplicity and beauty -- only at the end do you stop to realize that, oh yes, someone must have directed this film. And then there's the geese, the real stars of the film. Every time you see them take to the sky in this film's gloriously beautiful sequences, following Amy in her flying machine, they tell us the simplest and most profound of thuths: that this world is beautiful, and that we must not let it go to waste. In an age when movies seem to be mostly about machines, explosions and violence, Fly Away Home comes as an eloquent reminder of what really matters: that we take good care of the people that we love, and that we must never lose the courage to dream.

Rating:
Summary: Flying Family Jewel
Review: Anyone that enjoys adventure movies with animals like "Alaska" or "The Amazing Panda Adventure" should love this movie. I would just like to thank all those responsible for making the movie. It is a true joy to watch family movies like this at this time when families seem to be struggling to get along let alone work at a common goal. If Walt Disney were still alive he would have loved this movie. Walt produced a number of animal movies in the Sixties that are fun to watch even today. Inspired by a man that actually helped geese migrate you will not be disappointed in this story.

Jeff Daniels as the Father and Anna Paquin as the daughter use Ultralight planes to escort geese on the right migration path. I can see that this movie will be a classic like the other great animal movies. If you enjoy family movies with a good story and aimed at helping animals, you will love this movie. The picture and sound quality are great. The price is extremely reasonable on the Special Edition version (twelve dollars and twenty-six cents), and it is a movie that should get a good deal of replayability for many years. I checked and you can not find it this reasonable anywhere else. I have seen it selling for twenty-two to thirty dollars everywhere else online or in stores.

This is not to mention when you buy it you help support Operation Migration (operationmigration.org). Although the true story of how this all started is a little different, it is still a great one. The Special Edition includes a featurette and documentary that tells not only how they started this migration effort with geese but how they have now helped reintroduce Whooping Cranes to the East coast of the US. Buy it to entertain your family and help support a wonderful non-profit group that values wildlife. Be sure the box says Special Edition. I noticed they put my review at both versions and only one is selling for the price I mentioned above.