Fly Away Home
Encyclopedia
Fly Away Home is a 1996
1996 in film
Major releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...

 drama
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 and comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 film directed by Carroll Ballard
Carroll Ballard
-Biography:Carroll Ballard started out making documentaries for the U.S. Information Agency, Beyond This Winter's Wheat and Harvest ; the latter was nominated for an Academy Award...

, the director of The Black Stallion
The Black Stallion (film)
The Black Stallion is a 1979 American film based on the 1941 classic children's novel The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. It tells the story of Alec Ramsey, who is shipwrecked on a desert island, together with a wild Arabian stallion whom he befriends...

(1979). The film stars Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin
Anna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...

, Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...

 and Dana Delany
Dana Delany
Dana Welles Delany is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, host and health activist.After various roles in the early career, Delany garnered her first leading role in 1987 in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender and achieved wider fame in 1988–1991 as Colleen McMurphy...

. The story follows a young girl from New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 who survives a car crash that results in the death of her mother. The young girl is sent to live with her father on an Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 farm, where she adopts a brood of baby Canada geese. When the birds are imprinted
Imprinting (psychology)
Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior...

 with her as their Mother Goose, she realizes that unless she and her father can teach the birds a migration
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

 route from Ontario to North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

, the birds will not be able to survive the winter. The solution comes in the form of ultralight aircraft that is used to guide the birds to sanctuary.

The film has mostly positive critical reviews, receiving an 85% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.

The film was loosely based on the real-life experiences of Bill Lishman
Bill Lishman
Bill Lishman is a Canadian inventor, artist, and ultralight aircraft enthusiast.-Gliders and ultralights:Lishman started out by flying a motorized ultralight fixed-wing glider called the UFM Easy Riser, a bi-wing craft designed in California by Larry Mauro as a hang glider...

, a Canadian inventor, artist, and ultralight aircraft hobbyist. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lishman openly wondered whether geese and similar birds could be taught new migration
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

 patterns by following ultralight aircraft onto which they had been imprinted
Imprinting (psychology)
Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior...

. In 1993, after several years of logistical and bureaucratic setbacks, Lishman successfully led a flock of Canada Geese on a winter migration from Ontario, Canada to Northern Virginia, United States.

Plot

In New Zealand, 13-year-old Amy Alden (Anna Paquin) is involved in a car accident with her mother, which results in her mother’s death. Amy is taken back to her new home in Ontario by her inventor father Thomas Alden (Jeff Daniels), who later introduces her to his girlfriend, Susan (Dana Delany). While Amy is initially hostile towards her dad and Susan, she eventually grows fond of both.

After a construction crew destroys a small wilderness area of birds in the Alden family’s backyard, Amy decides to check out the scene only to find a bunch of eggs left behind by their parents. Without Thomas, Susan or her uncle David (Terry Kinney) knowing, she takes the eggs and sticks them in a dresser located in her father’s old barn to incubate
Avian incubation
Incubation refers to the process by which certain oviparous animals hatch their eggs, and to the development of the embryo within the egg. The most vital factor of incubation is the constant temperature required for its development over a specific period. Especially in domestic fowl, the act of...

 them. When she comes back from school, she discovers that the eggs have hatched and Thomas allows her to keep the birds.

After asking for help from a local game warden (Jeremy Ratchford) on how to help care for the geese, the warden comes over to the Alden house where he says all domestic geese must have their wings pinioned
Pinioning
Pinioning is the act of surgically removing the pinion joint, the joint of a bird's wing farthest from the body, to prevent flight. Pinioning is often done to waterfowl and poultry. It is not typically done to companion bird species such as parrots....

 (clipped) in order to render them flightless. When the game warden attempts this on one of the geese, it upsets Amy. Thomas throws the game warden off his property where the warden threatens that if the birds start flying, he will have to confiscate them.

Thomas begins doing research and learns that if the birds aren’t taught to fly properly , they will fly off on their own and get lost. He enacts a plan to use a homemade aircraft to teach the birds to fly. When the birds fail to follow him, he comes up with the following plan: teach Amy to fly and the birds will follow her because they already do the same thing on land due to Amy being imprinted
Imprinting (psychology)
Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior...

 as their mother. Susan is disgusted at hearing the news as, the previous day, Amy had hopped in one of Thomas’s aircraft and almost killed herself when the aircraft crashed.
Thomas, Susan, David and Thomas’s friend Barry (Holter Graham) attempt to teach the birds to fly, with success. David travels down to North Carolina to talk to a friend who owns a bird sanctuary about the plan, who initially finds the plan both ludicrous and impossible but also mentions that if no birds reach the sanctuary by November 1, it will be torn down by developers who plan to turn it into a housing development.

Amy and Thomas practice flying the aircraft, but Igor (the weakest and slowest goose of the bunch) accidentally hits the wing of Amy’s aircraft, both injuring the bird and denting the aircraft's wing, and lands in a forest. While the gang goes off to search for the bird, the game warden, keeping his promise to confiscate the birds and who witnessed the Aldens practicing for the big flight, comes to the Alden barn and seizes the geese. The next day, after having found Igor and getting back the geese, the gang sets off on their quest to migrate the geese.

After making an emergency landing at a U.S. Air Force base on Lake Ontario and almost getting arrested, Amy and Thomas become national news with the U.S. cheering them on and residents giving the Aldens a place to stay at night at each of their stops. Thirty miles before reaching the bird sanctuary, Thomas’s aircraft crashes in a grassy field and he commands Amy to finish the journey by herself. After Amy takes off and begins to head toward the sanctuary, Thomas hitchhikes a ride with a local group of hippies who take him to the bird sanctuary. While waiting for Amy, Thomas, Susan, Barry and many hippies, tree huggers, townspeople and animal enthusiasts stand up to the large crowd of 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, but to the dismay of the developers. The townspeople and the Aldens celebrate their victory.

Before the credits roll, it is revealed that all 16 geese, including Igor, returned the next spring safely and all on their own.

Cast

As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified, Listed in order of screen credits:)
Actor Role
Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...

 
Thomas "Tom" Alden
Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin
Anna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...

 
Amy Alden
Dana Delany
Dana Delany
Dana Welles Delany is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, host and health activist.After various roles in the early career, Delany garnered her first leading role in 1987 in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender and achieved wider fame in 1988–1991 as Colleen McMurphy...

 
Susan Barnes
Terry Kinney
Terry Kinney
Terry Kinney is an American actor and theatre director, and is a founding member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry.-Early life:...

 
David Alden
Holter Graham
Holter Graham
Holter Ford Graham is an American actor and labor union leader. He made his feature film debut at the age of 13 in the 1986 comedy-horror film Maximum Overdrive...

 
Barry Stickland
Jeremy Ratchford
Jeremy Ratchford
Jeremy Ratchford is a Canadian actor. He starred as Nick Vera on the TV series Cold Case.While in Canada, Ratchford played Marvel Comic book character Banshee in a live action version of Generation X TV movie...

 
Glen Seifert
Deborah Verginella  Amy's Mother
Michael J. Reynolds
Michael J. Reynolds
Michael J. Reynolds , Garda Síochána 17673G and recipient of the Scott Medal, 1945-1975.-Incident at St. Anne's Park:A native of Kilconnell, Ballinasloe, Reynolds was one of a number of Gardaí who responded to an armed robbery at the Bank of Ireland, Killester, Dublin, on the afternoon of 11...

 
General
David Hemblen
David Hemblen
David Hemblen is an English-born actor who frequently works in Canadian film, television and theater. He was a mainstay on the television series Earth: Final Conflict, playing Jonathan Doors, and played recurring roles in A Nero Wolfe Mystery and La Femme Nikita . He voiced Magneto on the popular...

 
Dr. Killian
Ken James
Ken James
Ken James may refer to:* Ken James , played Tony Wild in The Box and later played Mike O'Brien in Sons and Daughters...

 
Developer
Nora Ballard  Jackie
Sarena Paton  Laura
Carmen Lishman  Older Girl
Christi Hill  Older Girl
Judith Orban  Teacher
Jeff Braunstein  Chairman
John Friesen  Smalltown Businessman
Chris Benson  Farmer
Kevin Jubinville
Kevin Jubinville
Kevin Jubinville is a Canadian actor, best known for playing The Shep in Degrassi: The Next Generation and Bob Venton in Rabbit Fall.- Filmography :- External links :...

 
M.P.
Philip Akin
Philip Akin
Philip Akin is a Canadian actor who has been active for over thirty years in stage, film, and television. He has had featured roles in major American films such as The Sum of All Fears, S.W.A.T., and Get Rich or Die Tryin’...

 
Air Force Reporter
Gladys O'Connor  Farm Woman
Geoff McBride  Clerk


Production

To recreate the Alden home, principal photography took place in 1995 at two farms near Lindsay, Ontario
Lindsay, Ontario
Lindsay is a community of 19,361 people on the Scugog River in the Kawartha Lakes region of south-eastern Ontario, Canada. It is approximately west of Peterborough...

 in southeastern Ontario. The township had also been the setting for A Christmas Story
A Christmas Story
A Christmas Story is a 1983 American Christmas comedy film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, including material from his books In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories. It was directed by Bob Clark...

(1983), and later A Cool Dry Place (1998). The blacksmith shop constructed onsite for the filming of The Last Buffalo at Purple Hill, Ontario was re-used as part of the Alden homestead.

The imprinting project was called Operation Migration and was documented in Lishman's book, Father Goose: One Man, a Gaggle of Geese, and Their Real Life Incredible Journey South. Although the movie was only loosely based on real life events, Lishman acted as both a technical consultant, a sculptor, and one of the stunt pilots, ensuring a measure of authenticity. His daughter Carman took on a secondary acting role. Flying sequences had Lishman and David Woodhouse standing in for Jeff Daniels, while Jack Sanderson and Joseph Duff doubled Anna Paquin. Hang glider pilot Michael Robertson also flew in the film.

Two gliders were featured in the film: The UFM Easy Riser
UFM Easy Riser
-See also:-External links:*...

 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 instead 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. 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 Virginia Shores, had principal photography actually filmed nearly entirely at Port Perry and Sandbanks Provincial Park
Sandbanks Provincial Park
Sandbanks Provincial Park is a provincial park located on Lake Ontario in Prince Edward County near Picton, Ontario, Canada. It is noted for its picturesque sand dunes and beaches. It also has the world's largest fresh water sand bar and dune system.Sandbanks is run...

, 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 on the coast of South Carolina.

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 the Columbia Tri-Star Jumanji
Jumanji (film)
Jumanji is a 1995 American fantasy-comedy film about a supernatural board game that makes wild animals and other jungle hazards materialize upon each player's move. It was directed by Joe Johnston and is based on Chris Van Allsburg's popular 1981 picture book of the same name...

VHS Tape.

Director Carroll Ballard and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel previously collaborated on The Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf with Fly Away Home being their third family film. Anna Paquin, who plays daughter to Jeff Daniels in Fly Away Home, would later play a love interest in The Squid and the Whale
The Squid and the Whale
The Squid and the Whale is a 2005 American drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach and produced by Wes Anderson. It tells the semi-autobiographical story of two boys in Brooklyn dealing with their parents' divorce in the 1980s. The film is named after a giant squid and sperm whale diorama...

(2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...

). Upon the release of the Squid and the Whale, Jeff Daniels said that having had the previous experience made the filming a bit awkward for both of them.

Reception

For a modest budget, Fly Away Home returned US$25 million in the U.S. box office and US$31 million internationally. Audiences enjoyed the evocative family oriented film which also received critical acclaim. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 noted:"There are individual shots here almost worth the price of admission...[including] a 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 Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...

from The New York Times was similarly effusive, "Mr. Ballard turns a potentially treacly children's film into an exhilarating 90's fable." The uplifting theme of the film was often cited; Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat extolled: "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."

The movie holds an 85% approval rating on the movie site Rotten Tomatoes indicating positive reviews from critics, and most notably it holds a 100% approval rating from notable critics effectively indicating universal acclaim.

Awards

Caleb Deschanel's visuals received notice and resulted in nominations for the 1997 Academy Awards and American Society of Cinematographers, USA. Although unsuccessful in both competitions, Fly Away Home went on to win the 1997 Broadcast Film Critics Association Critics Choice Award as the Best Family Film, the 1997 Christopher Award (for family films), 1997 Young Artist Award in the category of Best Family Feature - Drama, and the 1997 Genesis Award for Feature Films. Anna Paquin was also nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress (the film was also nominated as Best Family Feature - Drama) and the 1997 YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama Film.

Home media release

Along with the VHS release of Fly Away Home in 1997, a later 2001 DVD Special Edition 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 recoding of the music featured in the soundtrack was released in 1996.
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