''Fly Away Home'' ( ''Flying Wild'' and ''Father Goose'') is a 1996

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Carroll Ballard Carroll Ballard (born October 14, 1937) is an American filmmaker. Originally a Documentary film, documentarian, he became known for directing sweeping, visually striking films with Nature, natural and ecological themes. His body of work include ...

. The film stars

Anna Paquin Anna Helene Paquin ( ; born 24 July 1982) is a New Zealand actress. Born in Winnipeg and raised in Wellington, she made her acting debut in the romantic drama film ''The Piano'' (1993), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Act ...

Jeff Daniels Jeffrey Warren Daniels (born February 19, 1955) is an American actor. He is known for his work on stage and screen playing diverse characters switching between comedy and drama. He is the recipient of several accolades, including two Primetime ...

, and

Dana Delany Dana Delany (born March 13, 1956) is an American actress. After appearing in small roles early in her career, Delany received her breakthrough role as Colleen McMurphy on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television drama ''China Beach'' (1 ...

. ''Fly Away Home'' was released on September 13, 1996, by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

. ''Fly Away Home'' dramatizes the actual experiences of

Bill Lishman William Lishman (February 12, 1939 – December 30, 2017) was a Canadian sculptor, filmmaker, inventor, naturalist and public speaker, president of William Lishman & Associates Limited, Vice President of Paula Lishman Limited and Chair Emeritu ...

who, in 1986, started training

Canada geese The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), sometimes called Canadian goose, is a large species of goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North ...

to follow his ultralight aircraft, and succeeded in leading their migration in 1993 through his program "Operation Migration". The film is also based on the experience of Dr. William J. L. Sladen, a British-born zoologist and adventurer, who aided Lishman with the migration.

Plot

After surviving a car accident, in which her mother Aliane dies swerving out the way of an oncoming truck, 13-year-old Amy Alden is brought from

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada, by her estranged father Thomas Alden, a sculptor and inventor, to live with him and his girlfriend Susan. When a construction crew destroys a small wilderness area near the Alden home, Amy finds an abandoned nest of 16

goose A goose (: geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (grey geese and white geese) and '' Branta'' (black geese). Some members of the Tadorninae subfamily (e.g., Egy ...

eggs. Without Thomas, Susan, or her uncle David knowing, she takes the eggs and keeps them in a dresser in her father's old barn to incubate. When the eggs hatch, she is allowed to keep the goslings as pets. Thomas asks for help from local Animal Regulation officer Glen Seifert on how to care for the geese. Seifert comes over to the Alden house, and explains that the geese have imprinted on Amy as their mother. He explains that geese learn everything from their parents including migratory routes, but also warns Thomas that a private ordinance dictates that all

domestic Domestic may refer to: In the home * Anything relating to the human home or family ** A domestic animal, one that has undergone domestication ** A domestic appliance, or home appliance ** A domestic partnership ** Domestic science, sometimes cal ...

geese must have their wings pinioned (clipped) to render them flightless. He promptly tries to demonstrate the process with one of the goslings, which upsets Amy. Thomas throws Seifert off his property, only for Seifert to threaten the Aldens that if the birds start flying, he will have to confiscate them. Thomas decides to use an

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

aircraft he had been constructing to teach the birds to fly and show them their migratory routes, but quickly realizes the birds will only follow Amy. Aided by his friend Barry, Thomas teaches Amy how to fly an ultralight aircraft of her own. David knows someone running a

bird sanctuary An animal sanctuary is a facility where animals are brought to live and to be protected for the rest of their lives. In addition, sanctuaries are an experimental staging ground for transformative human–animal relations. There are five types of ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, and arranges for the geese to go to the sanctuary. The birds have to arrive before November 1, or the sanctuary will be torn down by developers who plan to turn it into a coastal housing development. Amy and Thomas practice flying the aircraft, but Igor, the weakest of the geese, who has a limp, accidentally hits the front of Amy's aircraft and lands in an isolated forest. While the group goes off to search for the bird, Seifert returns to the Alden farm and confiscates the other geese. The next day, the Aldens free the geese, and Amy leads them on their migration to North Carolina, keeping Igor strapped in her cockpit as he is unable to fly in his current condition. Making an emergency landing at

Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station (Niagara Falls Air Force Base -1971) is an Air Force Reserve Command military installation operationally gained by Air Mobility Command. It is located adjacent to Niagara Falls International Airport, New York, ...

in western New York on the south shore of Lake Ontario, Amy and Thomas almost get arrested. They become national news, with residents cheering them on. Thomas and Amy meet an old woman with a vendetta against goose shooting, and she invites them to stay the night at her house. That night Amy asks Thomas why he rarely visited her and her mother. From her mother, she knows that her parents were artists, who tend to be selfish, and that her mother left for both of their sakes. Thomas tells her that he was afraid and angry at himself for letting them leave, so he spent the next ten years buried in his work. He apologizes to Amy. Thirty miles before reaching the bird sanctuary, Thomas's aircraft suffers a structural failure and crashes in a cornfield; having suffered a dislocated shoulder he tells Amy to finish the journey by herself. Thomas hitchhikes to the bird sanctuary. While waiting for the geese, Thomas, Susan, David, Barry, and many animal enthusiasts stand up to developers who are waiting to start the excavation of the site. Amy eventually appears with the geese, much to the joy of the townspeople and Amy's family, and to the dismay of the developers. The townspeople and the Aldens celebrate their victory. During the end credits, a note reveals that all 16 geese - including a fully recovered Igor - returned to the Aldens' farm on their own in the following spring.

Cast

as Thomas Alden *

as Amy Alden *

as Susan Barnes *

Terry Kinney Terry Kinney (born January 29, 1954) is an American actor and theater director, and a founding member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry. Kinney is best known for his role as Tim McManus on HBO's prison drama ...

as David Alden *

Holter Graham Holter Ford Graham (born February 11, 1972) is an American actor and voice actor and the son of historian Hugh Davis Graham. He appeared in his first film, Stephen King’s ''Maximum Overdrive'', at age thirteen. He is best known for his film ...

as Barry Stickland *

Jeremy Ratchford Jeremy Ratchford (born August 6, 1965) is a Canadian actor. He starred as Nick Vera on the TV series ''Cold Case''. Early life Ratchford was born in Kitchener, Ontario, on August 6, 1965. He studied acting at Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and ...

as Glen Seifert * Deborah Verginella as Aliane Alden * Michael J. Reynolds as General Hatfield *

David Hemblen David Hemblen (16 September 1941 – 16 November 2020) was an English–Canadian actor who frequently worked in Canadian film, television and theatre. He was born in London, England, and grew up in Toronto, Ontario. He is known for his role as ...

as Dr. Killian * Ken James as Developer * Nora Ballard as Jackie * Sarena Paton as Laura * Chris Benson as Farmer *

Gladys O'Connor Gladys O'Connor (28 November 1903 – 21 February 2012) was a British-born Canadian character actress. Born in London, O'Connor moved with her family to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1912, eventually settling in Toronto. After several decades a ...

as Farm Woman

Music

The film features the song "

10,000 Miles ''10,000 Miles'' is a 2016 Taiwanese sports film, sports drama film directed by Simon Hung and starring Sean Huang, Megan Lai, and Darren Wang. The film is executive produced by Jay Chou and ultramarathon runner Kevin Lin. Cast * Sean Huang as ...

" performed by

Mary Chapin Carpenter Mary Chapin Carpenter (born February 21, 1958) is an American country and folk music singer-songwriter. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C.-area clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records. Carpenter's firs ...

. "Wherever You Are", also performed by Carpenter, appears during the end credits, though it is not present in the Special Edition DVD version.

Production

Two farms near Lindsay in southeastern Ontario were used to recreate the Alden home.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

took place in 1995. The blacksmith shop constructed onsite for the filming of '' The Last Buffalo'' at Purple Hill, Ontario, was reused as part of the Alden homestead.

Caleb Deschanel Joseph Caleb Deschanel (born September 21, 1944) is an American cinematographer and director of film and television. He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography six times. He is a member of the National Film Preservati ...

, who had previously collaborated with director Carroll Ballard on the films ''

The Black Stallion The Black Stallion is the name of a bestselling series of books by Walter Farley, and also the name of the first book in the series (from 1941), and the title character, an Arab stallion also known as the Black or Shêtân. The series chroni ...

'' and '' Never Cry Wolf'', returned as director of photography for ''Fly Away Home''. Two gliders were featured in the film: The UFM Easy Riser and the Cosmos Trike. The Easy Riser first appears as a foot-launched biplane hang glider. True to Lishman's real-life saga, modifications were made to improve the design including the addition of a motor and seat. Anna Paquin's character meanwhile flies an A-frame Cosmos Trike with a mock goose head mounted to the noseplate of the airframe and a fabric wing covering painted to resemble feathers (features Lishman wanted to add to his own Trike, but never did due to time). The Cosmos Trike was reportedly chosen for its safety, superior engine power, and increased wing size (a feature that was needed to fly slow enough for the birds). The four-day trip home for the geese that would take them to Lake Ontario, over the Appalachians to Pennsylvania, Maryland, finally settling on the North Carolina Shores, had principal photography actually filmed nearly entirely at

Port Perry Port Perry is a community located in Scugog, Ontario, Canada. The town is located northeast of central Toronto, north of Oshawa, and east of Whitby, Ontario, Whitby. Port Perry has a population of 9,553 as of 2021. Port Perry serves as the admi ...

and Sandbanks Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Additional location shots were the city-fly-through in Toronto, Ontario, standing in for Baltimore, Maryland (CGI aircraft). At the conclusion of the production, Lishman led the 60 imprinted "actor-geese" in migration, to winter at the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center off the coast of

Georgetown, South Carolina Georgetown is the third oldest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County, South Carolina, Georgetown County, in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census ...

. While in production, the film was at first titled ''Flying Wild'', but was changed to ''Fly Away Home'' just weeks before its release in movie theaters. The original trailer has the title ''Flying Wild'', and can be found on certain VHS copies of ''

Jumanji ''Jumanji'' is a 1995 American fantasy adventure film directed by Joe Johnston from a screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh, Greg Taylor, and Jim Strain, based on the 1981 children's picture book by Chris Van Allsburg. The film is the first ins ...

'' from Columbia TriStar Home Video; the French version title (''L'Envolée sauvage'') is the translated version of this title.

Reception

Box office

''Fly Away Home'' returned US$25 million in the U.S. box office and US$11 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $36.5 million.

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100 based on 28 critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. In a review that awarded 3 and 1/2 stars out of 4,

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

noted: "There are individual shots here almost worth the price of admission... ncludinga stunning shot in which the towers of Baltimore materialize from the mist, and office workers see the little girl and her geese flying past their windows."

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, who served as a film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1977 to 1999, serving as chief critic for the last six years, and then a literary critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, M ...

from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' was similarly effusive, writing "Mr. Ballard turns a potentially treacly children's film into an exhilarating 90's fable." Gene Shalit on the ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

'' called the film "a must see movie". Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of ''Spirituality & Practice'' stated, "The movie adds excitement and emotion, turning into a celebration of the creative ways human beings and animals can serve, assist, and love one another."

Impact

The first production of investigative theater group The Civilians, ''Canard, Canard, Goose?,'' was inspired by rumors of animal mistreatment on ''Fly Away Home'''s set.

Awards

Home media

''Fly Away Home'' was more successful on

home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...

than in theaters. The studio sold an estimated $32 million on video, receiving 75% of the revenue. The film was originally released to VHS in December 1996. A DVD release in August 2001 included the exclusive featurette by Bill Lishman, ''Operation Migration: Birds of a Feather'', along with two documentaries: ''The Ultra Geese'' and the HBO special ''Leading the Flock''. The DVD also provided a link to Lishman's "Operation Migration" website. A companion CD audio recording of the music featured in the soundtrack was released in 1996. A

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

edition of ''Fly Away Home'' was released on April 7, 2009.

References

External links

* * * {{Carroll Ballard 1990s coming-of-age drama films 1990s teen drama films 1996 drama films 1996 films 1996 children's films American aviation films American coming-of-age drama films American teen drama films Canadian aviation films Canadian coming-of-age drama films Columbia Pictures films Coming-of-age drama films based on actual events Films set on farms Films about geese Films about families Films about friendship Films based on biographies Films directed by Carroll Ballard Films scored by Mark Isham Films set in New Zealand Films set in Ontario Films set in New York (state) Films set in Pennsylvania Films set in Baltimore Films set in Virginia Films set in North Carolina Films shot in New Zealand Films shot in Toronto New Zealand coming-of-age drama films Films about father–daughter relationships 1990s English-language films 1990s American films 1990s Canadian films Films with screenplays by Robert Rodat