Fly Away Home (1996)
84%RT Audience Score:
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 1 Oscar
5 wins & 7 nominations total
Well-acted and beautifully filmed, Fly Away Home offers heartwarming entertainment for moviegoers of all ages
Fly Away Home is the perfect movie for animal lovers and families alike. The story of a young girl and her father who take in a flock of orphaned geese and teach them to fly is heartwarming and thrilling. While it may not have the budget of other animal films, it more than makes up for it with its strong performances and believable family dynamic. Plus, who doesn’t love a good goose chase scene? This movie is a hidden gem that deserves more recognition.
Production Company(ies)
Caviar Flat 7 Productions, Ward Four
Distributor
Columbia Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Sandbanks Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada
MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG for an opening accident scene and some mild language
Year of Release
1996
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 47m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Sep 13, 1996 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 16, 2004
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Jeff Daniels, Anna Paquin, Dana Delany, Terry Kinney, Holter Graham, Jeremy Ratchford, directed by Carroll Ballard, written by Bill Lishman, Robert Rodat, Vince McKewin, drama, PG, box office performance, $24.6M, reviewed by David Ansen, Lisa Schwarzbaum, Nell Minow, Todd McCarthy, Peter Stack, Susan Stark, Mal Vincent, Rachel Wagner, John A Nesbit, Betsy Bozdech, Rob Vaux, Philip Martin, produced by Stephen Price, animal lovers, family film, heartwarming, Canada, geese, migration, father-daughter relationship, cinematography, adaptation, new place to live, growing up, loneliness, abandoned goose eggs, motherless birds, teaching to fly, winter, inventor, oddball, relationship blooms, beautiful film, forgotten family film, inspirational, hope, adaptation of true story, cheesy feel-good movie, good story, good acting, good cinematography, high-flyer, ducks, geese think Amy is their mom, spoiled geese, friendship with animals, adapting to new people, well-acted, beautifully filmed
Worldwide gross: $25,143,818
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $47,993,150
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,350
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 5,233,713
US/Canada gross: $25,143,818
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $47,993,150
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,091
US/Canada opening weekend: $4,708,044
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $8,986,458
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 985
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $22,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $41,992,401
Production budget ranking: 914
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $22,612,908
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$16,612,160
ROI to date (est.): -26%
ROI ranking: 1,542
Anna Paquin – Amy Alden
Dana Delany – Susan Barnes
Terry Kinney – David Alden
Holter Graham – Barry Stickland
Jeremy Ratchford – DNR Officer
Director(s)
Carroll Ballard
Writer(s)
Bill Lishman, Robert Rodat, Vince McKewin
Producer(s)
Stephen Price
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 Oscar
5 wins & 7 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (48) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (6)
No better children’s film has appeared all year, but my bet is it’ll be the grown-ups, not the kids, who come away with a lump in the throat.
February 27, 2018
David Ansen
Newsweek
TOP CRITIC
September 7, 2011 | Rating: B
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly
TOP CRITIC
Thrilling, touching adventure for animal lovers.
December 24, 2010 | Rating: 5/5
Nell Minow
Common Sense Media
TOP CRITIC
The dynamic between Daniels’ vigorous, if self-involved, artist father and Paquin’s initially sullen, eventually self-discovering teenager is warmly and believably conveyed, with both thesps doing strongly individualistic work.
November 27, 2008
Todd McCarthy
Variety
TOP CRITIC
June 18, 2002 | Rating: 3/4
Peter Stack
San Francisco Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
January 1, 2000 | Rating: 4/4
Susan Stark
Detroit News
TOP CRITIC
Fly Away Home lacks the visual splendor (probably because of budget) of The Black Stallion or the emotional force of Born Free but it is, nonetheless, a welcome addition to the sparse genre.
March 1, 2022 | Rating: 3.5/4
Mal Vincent
The Virginian-Pilot
It feels like a believable family unit.
May 13, 2019 | Rating: 9.5/10
Rachel Wagner
Rachel’s Reviews (YouTube)
February 14, 2008 | Rating: 3/5
John A. Nesbit
Old School Reviews
Fly Away Home is, quite simply, a beautiful movie. Not just because of its cinematography … but because of the strong, subtle performances of Anna Paquin and Jeff Daniels.
October 21, 2006 | Rating: 3/4
Betsy Bozdech
DVDJournal.com
A lovely and unjustly forgotten family film.
December 9, 2005 | Rating: 4/5
Rob Vaux
Flipside Movie Emporium
August 14, 2005 | Rating: 2/5
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette…
Plot
Amy is only 13 years old when her mother is killed in an auto wreck in New Zealand. She goes to Canada to live with her father, an eccentric inventor whom she barely knows. Amy is miserable in her new life…that is until she discovers a nest of goose eggs that were abandoned when developers began tearing up a local forest. The eggs hatch and Amy becomes “Mama Goose”. The young birds must fly south for the winter, but who will lead them there? With a pair of ultralight airplanes, Amy, her dad and their friends must find a way to do it.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
No goofy or funny or odd comments were found in the Fresh Kernels database for Fly Away Home.
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