It takes a while to figure out the sweet spot that writer Mike White (“School of Rock”?) was going for with “Migration.”

It’s got a lot of funny people doing voices — Kumail Nanjiani, Awkwafina, Keegan-Michael Key going Jamaican “mon,” Danny DeVito and Carol Kane among them. But the it’s not what I’d call quotably funny. The lines aren’t jokes.

The characters, a family of mallards struggling to convince “Why can’t we be satisfied with what we already have?” dad (Nanjiani) into “finally” taking them on a migration, are barely a shadow of the funniest ducks of them all — Daffy and (referenced here) Donald.

But there are plenty of sight gags — Awkwafina, playing a New York streetwise-but-mangled, tough-enough-to-be-named “Chump” pigeon getting smacked by one Metropolitan Transit Authority Bus after another on the edge of Central Park.

And the animated flying footage is spectacular and occasionally jokey.

It’s the first big laugh that gives away White’s game. The tiniest duck in the family, just-past-duckling Gwen (Tresi Gazal) begs her afraid-of-the-big-wide-world Dad, after Mom (Elizabeth Banks) and teen brother Max (Casper Jennings) have failed to talk him into joining passing flocks, and gives it her best shot.

Her eyes give us a Tex Avery bulge, and her plea will be recognizing by every six year-old in North America.

“PLLEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAASE?”

Every parent will turn to his or her child, Every Child will guiltily grin back at said parent. It’s not inherently funny, but it’s so universally recognizable that it can be.

What White has scripted here, with co-director Benjamin Renner also a co-writer, is a “cartoon” that’s not just for kiddies, not really for adults, but plays right into the hands of parents taking their children to see it.

The “family vacation” gags — little Gwen being VERY shy about when and where and with whom she’ll go to the toilet — are simple, but on point. Vacation envy, the migrating teen girl duck who flirts with Max, grumpy Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito) coming along for the flight, fretting over accomodations and food at every stop, we’ve all been there. Most of us, anyway.

Keegan-Michael Key isn’t given a single quotably hilarious line. But as a caged long-tailed red macaw freed by the family in the one of their many quests/escapes on their journey, Key appropriates ALL of Jamaican culture with that most musical of accents in English. And every word he utters is adorable.

“Migration” shares a “fatten them up” captive ducks gag with “Chicken Run 2.” You have to be in a duck or chicken “cult” to fall for that, right?

But the threats are kind of novel here. There’s no Elmer Fudd duck hunter, perhaps because those guys have ceased to be funny. What we have instead are rumors of what duck predators HERONS are (Carol Kane? “Predator?” Don’t be ridic.), and the dread fear of that creature most feared by every sentient duck — tattooed hipster chefs and their passion for Duck a’la Orange.

The mallards free the (unspeaking) chef”s sad macaw, wreck his kitchen in the process, and are pursued to the ends of the Earth — Florida, anyway — by the man with a menu to make out.

Visually, this is a most impressive effort. But it’s not particularly smart or witty or even kiddie profound in its messaging, and in avoiding easy laughs (jokes), it achieves liftoff even if it never quite soars.

“Migration,” like that “Super Mario” blockbuster earlier this year, isn’t one of this animation outfit’s best outings. It’s their “Rio,” pleasantly diverting in the moment, not quite instantly forgotten, but almost.

Rating: PG.

Cast: The voices of Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, Keegan-Michael Key, Danny DeVito, Tresi Gazal, Casper Jennings, Carol Kane and Awkwafina

Credits: Directed by Benjamin Renner and Guylo Homsy, scripted by Mike White and Benjamin Renner. An Illumination/Universal release.

Running time: 1:32