Happy Feet (2006)

I really appreciated that this movie was as adorable as it was. If you are looking for a movie that will make you want to laugh and cry, and will definitely have you thinking (about taking dance lessons & about the world as it is now) then this is the movie for you. While the movie has some dark turns, it tackles the environmental issues that the whole world is being confronted with in a way that is neither overbearing, nor too old for children. Not only did this movie make me want a penguin of my own, but it made me want to help our world stop over producing, and start preserving. More importantly, if you want to take kids to see this movie, its perfect. There's a good chance they will be waddling like a penguin for a week!

Fmovies: Happy Feet' is a delightfully cheerful little movie about an emperor penguin who has an unappreciated gift of tap dancing and his inability to sing causes others to look down upon him. While the penguins suffer from food shortage, he aims to rescue the fish that serves as their daily meal. The animation is excellent. Very few such CGI animated films have looked so real to me but in 'Happy Feet' it is almost hard to tell. The characters are fun (though a little out of place and unnecessary at times). The voice-casting is great with Robin Williams and the Hispanic adelaides stealing the show. Nicole Kidman lends her beautiful voice as the loving mother while Hugh Jackman's dad character is a little clichéd. Elijah Wood and Brittany Murphy are annoying but you get used to it. The story could have been better developed as there are a few plot holes now and then and the ending is a little too optimistic, too unrealistic and too abrupt. 'Happy Feet' is meant to be a family film but it could have been a stronger movie and at the same time remains enjoyable to the family had the story been given a little more focus. There are a range of songs, most of which are popular numbers. Even though the visualizations were fun to watch, they were at times distracting and deviating from the main plot. Yet, 'Happy Feet' was still an entertaining flick and it had that adventurous feel. There was not one boring moment and the viewers wonder how Mumble will rescue the fish from being stolen (I just wished that the conclusion was done differently).

Animated comedies have become what Mike Tyson was to the boxing scene in the 1980's: a safe bet. This begs an upsurge in quality for the market and the otherwise forgettable family fluff films have begun to interweave deeper, more salient issues in their stories. Political messages about environmental problems was perhaps the last thing I expected to find rotating around in a happy, tappy romp like 'Happy Feet' but the fact is they are there, and they are superbly handled, as is much of the film.

Advertising the film as a propaganda vehicle would have been grossly unwise, which is why the simple template story rings true to most people. All that has been put forward in trailers and synopses is the lonely journey of the Emperor Penguin Mumble (Elijah Wood), who is an outcast owing to his poor singing voice and tapalicious feet. The rest of the tight-knit, conformist community all rely on special heartsongs to appeal to mates, and not being able to carry a tune is a fatal misstep for Mumble. When he finally finds friends in Ramon's (Robin Williams) foreign group of Adelie penguins, it becomes clear that there are more things threatening the penguin society on Antarctica – the most prominent of which being human overfishing.

One third into 'Happy Feet', I found myself drifting ever so slightly into indifference as the sprawling surge of R'n'B on the ice wore off. The emperor penguins all sing tunes you have heard before and it is not until Mumble encounters the eccentric party group of Adelies that Happy Feet receives a well-deserved kickstart and starts tapping into good fun. Thankfully, and admirably, it manages to avoid pratfalls, slapstick, pee- and fart jokes and instead the finely-tuned humour rests on the wealth of meticulous animation, juxtaposition, absurdist situations and snaptastic one-liners from Ramon's crew as they take Mumble in and introduce him to their kooky, fun-loving society and social guru, "Lovelace". This is seen in stark contrast from the emperor penguins' community on the humour side of the tapestry, and the funniest gag in the latter is Kidman returning from the long fishing journey and telling her baby Mumble lovingly that she "has got something for him", and proceeds to vomit into his mouth. Priceless.

Happy Feet is an ambitious animated comedy. It's ambitious in its scope; there are epic aerial shots of the vast icy glacier, even from outer spaces, it treats salient issues like the effects of overfishing, it takes well-deserved jabs at organized religion, in which the elder emperor penguins represent the archaic values and traditions that they mindlessly adhere to. It features a star-studded cast, it sees seamless intercutting of live action footage and stars (I spotted an uncredited Ewan McGregor cameo, look out), and it is dedicated to Steve Irwin. Certainly 'Happy Feet' carries all of its ambitions quite well, some becoming accolades like the effective punch at conformity in which all the penguins literally look identical except for the fuzzy, fluffy Mumble, while others fall flat thanks to its shortcoming cast.

It should only be so hard to provide voicework for an animated character, and Elijah Wood does it effortlessly as the fumbling, bumbling toddler-like misfit Mumble, who even looks like him with bright baby blue eyes. Nicole Kidman stars as Mumble's mother, with a ridiculously over-the-top voice, and she tips over into overacting at a few points. In the beginning we are given the well-

Happy Feet fmovies. This is the kind of movie that conceals deeper depths and vividly exhilarating emotion overall.

First interpretation: "Ok, it's a movie about a penguin that dances and has trouble finding a mate. How profound can this movie be?" Then the movie revealed themes I never thought they would accomplish such as Religious fanaticism and Human's destruction of the environment.

It reminded me of 6th Sense because it was so twisted yet taught a very important moral lesson.

Robin Williams is the highlight of the movie, his 2 characters are both well portrayed and well voiced.

Highly recommended. It made me want to go out and save the penguins.

This movie set the bar at a new level for animation. This is a great companion piece to "March of the Penguins". (In fact, you should see "March of the Penguins" before seeing this one.) While the stock animated movie script still seems be 'cute-yet-quirky animals on quest', this one pulls it off better than most.

Arguably, the film makers tried to cram too many songs into the soundtrack. And the story didn't need to be as long as it was but the overall environmental message was good.

In the end, you'll look how the choices of our 'modern' lifestyles affect the rest of the world.

This movie is definitely worth the watch -- and a discussion with your kids afterward.

Rarely do I enjoy animated films these days: I find the animation (mostly computer generated) to be colorful but banal, and the action angles are selected by the programmer's eye, not the way a natural observer would have seen the shot (like we saw in classic cell animation of years past). "Happy Feet" is different. The combination of rotoscoping (now advanced motion capture), intense attention to detail and organic POV make this film extraordinarily enjoyable to watch. The sound quality was top-notch, and the music loads of fun for anyone with a pulse. The character voices from Robin Williams, Elijah Wood, Hugh Jackman, and others was perfectly matched to their characterizations. Savion Glover's performance as Mumble's ecstatic feet was not only good as a an animated fanciful Emperor Penguin, but also valid as a fine, skilled tap dancer; one of the finest. The continuity was good, impressive editing, and the message clear: celebrate our differences, adapt to change when necessary, and don't be afraid to take on challenges, even when they seems insurmountable. That's a great message for anyone at any age.