Happy Feet

Voices of: Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Robin Williams, Hugo Weaving, Jeff Garcia, Anthony LaPaglia
Directed by: George Miller, Judy Morris, Warren Coleman
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Family
2006

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A young pengiun, Mumble (Elijah Wood) is shunned by the other penguins because he can't sing a love song, instead dancing energetically, much to the shock of his parents (Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman) and the penguin elder (Hugo Weaving). When he falls in love with the most talented pengiun (Brittany Murphy), he decides to leave home and search for the source of the fish drought which is plaguing his colony.

Review:

Tim: I have to admit I am bit surprised that Happy Feet pulled off the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature upset over Pixar's Cars (didn't this film know Pixar always wins?). Upon further review, I have to admit my surprise and a bit of disappointment in this film's win. I don't lose sleep over the Best Animated Feature Oscar, but Cars was a far more deserving film. Still, this movie is at least a decent animated feature that does hold some appeal.

I know that this film was really trying to capitalize on the success of March of the Penguins, which isn't a bad move. Who doesn't like penguins? (I know I do). So, it is inherently fun to watch some impressively animated penguins dance around on screen. In many ways, this film is indeed beautiful to look at because of the attention to detail in the animation. But, we don't just look at movies- we watch them, and that is where this film drops the ball a bit.

I like the basic idea of the film- in a colony of penguins who sing to each other to find a mate, one little penguin can't sing... but he can dance. This obviously sets up some interesting themes, about diversity, acceptance, knowing who you are, etc. Luckily, the film doesn't go for the easy solutions, instead telling a more complex tale. However, the longer the film goes on, the stranger it gets. By the time I realized this was a movie about one penguin's quest to save his colony from starvation, I had lost interest. I thought this was a penguin love story, but that storyline nearly disappears as the film inexplicably shifts gears to a wholly different film. I am still confused over this switch, which I felt hurt the movie. Besides the weak story, the characters aren't all that impressive. I liked Mumble well enough, but it was so hard to differentiate the others. His parents were pointless, the love story with Gloria was far too weak and nearly tossed aside. The Hispanic penguins brought humor to the film, but didn't really stand out otherwise. Lovelace was a bit more defined, but still lacking. I just wasn't a huge fan of any of these characters and I have a hard time believing any of them are memorable.

The voice cast was similarly decent, but not great. I thought Elijah Wood did good work as Mumble. He was one of my favorites in the film. Brittany Murphy was likewise good as Gloria. I was less impressed with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman as Mumble's parents. Kidman was decent, but gave us nothing special. Jackman was more bizarre than anything else. I kept asking myself if it was really him. I liked Robin Williams because he brings so much energy and enthusiasm into every role he voices (and does double duty here), but I still couldn't shake the feeling that he is still trying to kidnap some of the magic from his Genie in Aladdin (which is one of the greatest voice performances in any animated film, ever). I felt like Williams tried a bit too hard.

The biggest problem with Happy Feet is that there is not enough substance to the film. The story is weak, the characters are forgettable, and the movie strays between being good and being quite bad. As for the movie, it does throw in a great deal of energy and enthusiasm. Sadly, it doesn't reach the heights of some of the better animated films coming out of Hollywood these days (*cough* Pixar *cough*).

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Cars, March of the Penguins, Shrek, The Ant Bully, Madagascar