Fly Away Home

Fly Away Home (aka Flying Wild and Flying Wild, Father Goose) is a 1996 family drama film directed by Carroll Ballard. The film stars Anna Paquin, Jeff Daniels and Dana Delany. Fly Away Home was released on September 13, 1996,/October 5 2001 by Columbia Pictures.

Fly Away Home dramatizes the actual experiences of Bill Lishman who, in 1986, started training geese to follow his ultralight and succeeded in leading their migration in 1993.

Plot

After her mother dies in a car accident, 13-year-old Amy Alden (Anna Paquin) is brought from New Zealand to Ontario, Canada, by her estranged father Thomas Alden (Jeff Daniels), a sculptor and inventor, to live with him and his girlfriend Susan (Dana Delany).

When a construction crew destroys a small wilderness area near the Alden home, Amy finds a nest of goose eggs. Without Thomas, Susan, or her uncle David (Terry Kinney) knowing, she takes the eggs and keeps them in a dresser in her father’s old barn to incubate. When the eggs have hatched, she is allowed to keep the goslings as pets. Thomas asks for help from local game warden Glen Seifert (Jeremy Ratchford) 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 all domestic geese must have their wings pinioned (clipped) to render them flightless, 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.