Fly Away Home is a 1996 film directed by Carroll Ballard. Inspired by Bill Lishman's autobiography, it was filmed in Canada and the United States.
Fly Away Home - The Cast
- Cast: Anna Paquin, Jeff Daniels, Dana Delany, Terry Kinney, Holter Graham, Jeremy Ratchford
- Director: Carroll Ballard
- Producers: John Veitch, Carol Baum
- Screenplay: Robert Rodat and Vince McKewin
- Cinematography: Caleb Deschanel
- Music: Mark Isham
- U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Fly Away Home - The Plot
Fly away home tells the story of Amy, a 13-year-old girl (played by Anna Paquin) who goes to live with her estranged, eccentric father Thomas (Jeff Daniels) in Canada, following the death of her mother in a car accident near their home in New Zealand. Her father is an inventor and does not have much experience with children and barely knows his own daughter.
Amy spends weeks grieving the tragic death of her mother whilst accepting the fact that she herself survived. She begins school and finds it a daily struggle to integrate with other children and appears to be stuck in her own world that no-one can break into, especially not her father, whom she hasn't seen for several years.
Then one day, whilst roaming aimlessly around the land adjacent to her father's house, Amy discovers an abandoned nest of orphaned goose eggs. She promptly takes them home and helps to hatch them. Consequently she adopts the baby geese and discovers some purpose in her life. After realising that the geese see her as their "mother" she begins to communicate with them and there is some amazingly beautiful and hilarious footage of Amy running around the fields with a line of geese waddling after her!
After discovering that her geese will instinctively try and take to the skies to migrate (without knowing where to fly to) Amy embarks, with her father's help, on an ambitious plan. In the meantime, Thomas' brother David (Terry Kinney) learns of a disused bird sanctuary in North Carolina that will become the property of developers unless birds are shown to be nesting in the area by the first of November that year.
Consequently, Amy and her father learn to pilot ultra-light aircrafts in order to lead the birds on an epic adventure south, on their first migratory journey. There are various challenges on the way, as you would expect and hope for in any good family film, including flying through restricted airspace and crash landing in a corn field. However, the ending (which you will have to find out fully for yourself) is so moving and satisfying, especially when Amy and her father emerge so obviously united with love for one another.
As a family film, Fly Away Home has something for everyone, regardless of their age: adventure, pathos, human drama, birds, machines and gadgetry. This film really epitomises the phrase "to achieve the incredible, you have to attempt the impossible". The film is rated Universal (suitable for all) and contains a few mild profanities and depiction of a car accident at the very start.
Linda Smallwood - Hi my name is Linda Smallwood. I am married with two sons aged 13 and 11 and live in North Wales. After 18 years working for The ...
