Fly Away Home

The Protagonist
Amy Alden
She is the main protagonist of the story. She is involved in a car accident with her mother, which results in her mother’s death. Due to her mother’s death, she now lives with her father who is an inventor. She finds it difficult to adjust with her father’s traits. She is considered as an imprint mother of a group of baby geese.

Thomas Alden
He is the second protagonist of the story. After the death of Amy’s mother, he is the one taking care of her. He is also an inventor and an artist. He invented all kinds of objects including the ultralight glider they used in the story. He proposed the plan to guide the bird’s migration route to the bird sanctuary. He is the wingman of her daughter, guiding her to the route going to it.

Susan Barnes
She is the third protagonist of the story. She is considered as an encourager and step-mother of Amy. She is very protective about her and her safety. She thinks that Thomas’ proposal to help Amy lead the flock of geese to their sanctuary is absurd. She is also considered their eyes on both the ground and sky. She tells them where to go and what is ahead of them

David Alden
He is Thomas’ brother and assistant. He is the fourth protagonist of the story. He assists him in making his inventions. After helping him finish make his glider. He helps Susan in plotting the routes in Thomas’ and Amy’s travel.

Antagonist
Glen Seifert
He is the main and the only antagonist in the story. Thomas came to Glen to get some advice about the goslings. He explains all the information about their imprinting to Amy. He pinioned the birds in attempt to render them flightless according to the law. He was forcefully kicked out of the Alden’s house. He even threatened to confiscate the geese if they start flying.

The Settings of the Story

The Car
The first setting is the car where Amy Alden crashed. This is the most important part because this explains the theme of the whole movie because it is all about a troubled little girl who used to be happy but with the help of friends, family and her pet geese, she reverted back.

The House
This is where she is starting a whole new life. Because of her mother’s death, too much unfamiliarities came to her life, mentioning about her weird father. This is also where she is starting to accept her father and his friends to be part of her life. This is also where the fantasy of the geese imprinting her to be their mother took place. Raising them and teaching them how to fly became a challenge to her and her father.

The Field and Barn
When the eggs hatch, she needs to take care of them. The house is not a suitable place to live in because her father keeps complaining about little fur balls running around. The field and the barn is the right place to train and raise them. It is also where her father built a makeshift portable plane to lead the geese into their migration route.

The Bird Sanctuary
This is their final destination of their migration route. This is where the geese are going to stay until the winter is over. Property developers threatened to destroy this place once they have not reach this place before the due date. It will almost be destroyed but because of the protesters and Amy’s supporters it was cancelled.

The Story
Introduction
The movie starts with Amy Alden and her mother riding a car. They were having a happy conversation, which can never be heard. Everything was fine until her mother avoids a trailer truck crashing on an on-going repair construction road. Amy survived the crash but her mother died. The next day, when she woke up, her father, Thomas Alden, proclaiming that she will stay with her. After the crash, she became an intrapersonal child. She wants to be left alone and does not want to talk to anyone. After a few days, she found a group of geese eggs. She hatched them and raised them up properly. Thomas managed to invent a portable aircraft for him and his daughter. While teaching the geese how to fly, she hit one of them and fell. They arranged a search party to search the injured one.

The Climax
While they are finding the injured goose, Glen Seifert, the game warden and the Alden family’s rival, secretly confiscated all of the geese. The family found the geese but on their way home they found out that all of their geese were gone. Thomas sent David Alden, his brother, and Barry Stickland, his friend, to patrol the warden’s yard. While they are patrolling, Thomas and Amy are ready to take-off. As the father and daughter are en route, David distracts the warden and Barry break the geese free as Amy and Thomas passes by. Now the geese are free and they are flying, they have no more problems. At night, they are both running out of fuel and they are forced to land to an airfield, unknown to them that it is an Air Force Base. At first they are considered as hostile but they are welcomed once the General knew their true purpose. The press came and they became a media sensation. They passed by on many states and towns but near an open field Thomas’ aircraft crashed. Amy panicked probably remembering her mother’s death, she managed to locate him.

The Ending
Injured and unable to fly, he gave to Amy the route of where to go to her destination. After many nautical miles, she managed to reach to her destination. She was being greeted by her family, including many people who are very impressed and inspired at her work. In the post credit, it was mentioned that at spring all 17 geese including the injured one managed to return home.

The Problem, Character Conflicts and the resolution

The Problem
Amy discovered a group of goose eggs and raised them up properly but the problem is they don’t have a proper migration route. Without a migration route, they could easily get lost and possibly not able to survive the winter. Additional to the problem is the confiscation of the geese. They must get back them before they will head to their migration route. The third problem is that when the birds did not come in time in the sanctuary, they will destroy the place and convert it into an industrial place

The Character Conflict
Thomas had a conflict with Glen Seifert. Glen threatened to clip the geese’s’ wings to render them flightless. He also threatened to confiscate the birds, which he actually did, when they were taught how to fly. Retrieving the geese became very hard but they managed to do so. Secondly, Thomas’ plane crashes in the open field leaving Amy clueless about the migration route.

Resolution
Thomas had a hard time to lead the geese into their migration route because he is not their imprinted mother. They solved this by bringing Amy along with Him. Glen confiscated them. Because of this, the Alden family is behind schedule in the take-off. They solved this conflict by distracting the warden and release them while they are flying. Lastly, because their attempt to migrate the birds became a sensational and been known around the world. The people managed to run a protest that hinders the construction plan from going on.

The Lesson Learned
Amy is considered a simple girl living happily in her ordinary world with her mother. Having an automobile accident that killed her mom is not the kind of adventure she always wanted. She became depressed and she did not talk to anyone. She is challenged to a situation where she would accept his father to be a part of her life. She is very dreadful about her mother’s death. She starts feeling a great loss of the love of her life. Her mother is only the person who gives meaning to her life. When she came to her father’s house, she does not want to talk to anyone and wants to be left alone. Accepting the love of her family and friend must be needed to cope from the loss she had. After a few days, she was encouraged by Susan to listen to the lessons and advices they give to her. This lifts up her spirit and accept all the loss and troubles she encountered. When Thomas’ found Amy sleeping in the barn with the geese, Amy made a request to let her keep this geese and he agrees. This is where he accepts him to be his father and be part of his life and decide to be happy again. There is also the crash that injured his father. This leaves her clueless about where to go and land and most of all how far is she from her destination. This is the part where she is confident enough to leave her comfort zone and face her fears, being alone. Passing through grief and accept her mother’s death while retaining a positive outlook in life, coming out of her comfort zone when her father is injured , achieving a great feat with her geese and most of all accepting a friends love and care means she is crossing the age of maturity. The greatest challenge any of us will ever face is how to regain the ability to reach for joy after the loss of a loved one. Especially, when that loss is abrupt and occurs at an age before one has developed the capacities to manage it but if you know how to accept someone in your life especially your friends and family, it would be very easy to get over it.