Problem is they tried to take a potentially cute story about a girl raising some abandoned goslings and tack it onto the TRUE story of an eccentric adult MAN who taught some Canada geese how to fly along with his ultralight plane.
I remember the story on 60 minutes, and the magical photography as the plane moved along at the same speed as the geese by its side. I believe there is a book about the real events. No child was involved! Who in their right mind would permit a child to do this?
In the 90s, there was a tragic story about a real little girl whose idiot parents let her pilot an airplane, and the whole family perished when she crashed.
But my real objection to the film (and yes, Anna Pacquin was very charming): Canada geese are not rare. I live in Northern Ohio on Lake Erie, which is just a few clicks south of Ontario where this was filmed. Canada geese are as common as squirrels. They are everywhere, to the degree they are pests.
Furthermore, they have adapted to modern life and now spend ALL WINTER UP NORTH. Only a few go south anymore. They will not die if they stay in the North. They are hardy birds who can easily withstand winter temperatures.
On top of that: they never have 17 eggs in a clutch! That would be the most fertile goose in history. More like 6-7 eggs.
If that isn't enough, they can learn to fly and survive even if they lose their mother (and father -- they are raised by both normally, as geese mate for life).
I just saw the end of this silly film, which is chockfull of nonsense like this -- the girl flies into the nature preserve in NORTH CAROLINA, while a song plays "10,000 miles", even though NC is like maybe 750 miles from Ontario. The geese immediately know to land, and splash down in the water. Gee golly, they have learned how to SWIM without Anna Pacquin and how to do amazing landings in WATER without Anna Pacquin -- but they couldn't figure out how to migrate by observing the MILLIONS of other Canada geese all over Ontario?
If you ever went to Ontario, there is like one Canada goose per square foot.
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astockton_uk
9 years ago
The movie is not really about the geese. The real story is the developing bond between a father and daughter who are virtual strangers to each other.
No, Canada geese aren't an endangered species. But Amy's geese are pets to whom she feels a motherly attachment which is more poignant because she's lost her own mother forever.
Thomas doesn't sell his most valuable possession (the lunar lander replica), build two planes, teach Amy to fly, and lead the geese all the way from Ontario to North Carolina because he mistakenly thinks they're as rare as whooping cranes. He does all that because it's important to his daughter and she's important to him.
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harliquin83
9 years ago
The movie is not really about the geese.
haven't seen the movie in a while but i seem to recall a few lines about if we can do this with geese what is stopping us from doing it with really endangered birds. 🐦
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Sandol70
8 years ago
"The movie is not really about the geese."
Of course is it. As much as (or even more than) it's about the human developing bond side story.
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Urmelita
8 years ago
Oh, isn't it cute when peeps try to look smart and in the process show just how ignorant they really are?
I've read the true story, and while i don't remember the name of the guy, in it he stated that the real driving force behind it all was his niece, who came to stay with him while her parents worked through their divorce. Though I guess since she was a year or two older than Anna Paquin's character in the movie, saying there was no child involved might be true.
The eligibility for a private pilot's training license is 12 years of age (or at least was at the time the movie was made). There are restrictions on it, like weather conditions and no passengers unless they are rated for the aircraft in question (in which case they are listed as instructor pilot in the flight log).
So this part is actually realistic.
On a side note: for every private pilot who crashes a plane, there are hundreds of professional pilots with thousands of flight hours who crash airliners full of passengers.
No, Canada Geese ain't rare. The guy prolly started out with them so he could learn how to do it, without putting half the remaining population of a species into jeopardy.
They got 16 birds in the movie (although in some shots all of them are following the plane while the story says one of the birds is tucked in aboard).
Now while that might be a bit much for one nest, we can safely assume that the construction crews wrecked more than one.
As for the song "Ten Thousand Miles", despite the the slight exaggeration, it fits better than, say, an adaption of the Proclaimer's "500 miles" ("And.I.would.fly.five.hundred.miles.and.I.would.fly.five.hundred.more.just.to be.the man, who flies a thousand miles to drop the geese at your do-ho-ho-ho-hor.")
Geese (and other waterfowl) don't need to learn how to swim, they're able to do that right after hatching.
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