Happy Feet is a rare thing – an animated musical. It features a colony of penguins, each one of whom has to find their “heart song”, which will determine who becomes their mate. Unfortunately for one baby penguin who comes to be called “Mumble” (though really his name is “Mambo”, which fits in with the dance theme), something happened in his early development and he is the only penguin there with no singing talent. He does have a unique talent – tap-dancing – but this is not exactly an asset where he lives, so is repressed. Then one day he ends up far from his colony and finds other penguins – penguins who value the ability to dance over everything else. Mumble’s journey is only just beginning though as he is catapulted into a quest to find aliens, stop the fish from being taken away, and win the love of his life…
Perhaps its because we’ve had such a plethora of animated movies this year, but I did find myself slightly disappointed with Happy Feet. That said, I still enjoyed it. The musical scores ingeniously integrated lyrics from several songs at once and were well choreographed, but I found the novelty of the singing and dancing penguins wore off fairly quickly. The rest of the film is pretty good and occasionally very good, but somehow never reaches the “excellent” level. The storyline is woven quite nicely with one or two twists, despite the inevitably obvious and predictable love story and reconciliation between father and son. The visuals are superb and some of the scenes are actually quite breathtaking. There’s plenty of visual humour and spectacular action scenes. The baby penguins, it has to be said, are among the cutest little critters to ever grace the animated screen.
The voice acting, though good generally, does sometimes sound as if the sound of the voice is coming through a public address system with some feedback, which was odd and didn’t help the suspension of belief. Also, much as I like Nicole Kidman, I found her attempt at sounding like Marilyn Monroe in the role of Norma Jean (Mumble’s mother) quite irritating. Among the many stars who voice characters in this movie are Elijah Wood (Mumble), Hugh Jackman (Memphis – Mumble’s dad), Brittany Murphy (Gloria – the love interest), Hugo Weaving (Noah the Elder – doesn’t like Mumble much), and Robin Williams (see below). Apparently Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, and Nicole Kidman all did their own singing. One of the Elephant Seals is voiced by Steve Irwin, and the film is dedicated to him.
From the point of view of the script, there is quite a lot to like about Happy Feet. It is often funny, with Robin Williams being in top form here in the dual role of charismatic (at least in his own mind) Ramon and local guru Lovelace. The penguins that form part of the main story look quite individual and some, especially Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood, who has the perfect sort of voice for this role) had that indefinable quality of looking something like that actor that plays them. (I couldn’t work out what but one of my female colleagues at work, who happened to see the same showing that I did, said it was his eyes. I guess women are more likely to have stared deeply at Elijah’s eyes than me…) The dialogue and little in-jokes mean that Happy Feet is in some ways aimed more at an older movie, though kids will love the slapstick moments which are plentiful.
I did find this movie to be slightly over-long, they could probably have cut out (or cut down) a couple of the dance routines. There is a strong eco-friendly message to the movie, leading to a somewhat unbelievable ending, but if you’ve suspended your belief enough to accept tap-dancing penguins then I’m sure this won’t be a problem! At times I was thinking more in terms of 3 stars than 4, but overall there are enough good points to make it 4, plus it scores for originality. All in all I would recommend Happy Feet to anyone who likes animated movies, but it’s not among the very best.
(Note to parents - there are a couple of bits that young children might find scary - the 8 year-old – thankfully not my own child :-D - sitting next to me seemed a little frightened at times. Even adults will probably find a scene with a penguin chocking due to a plastic 6-pack ring carrier round his neck unsettling. The firm who invented this ring carrier are very upset with the film’s makers as they claim that these are completely photodegradable – that is, they disintegrate completely when exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Their claim is that the ring carrier could only have lasted a few days, not the extreme length of time the film indicates. Inaccurate or not, watching Lovelace choke is pretty upsetting – though I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that there is – eventually - a happy ending to that aspect of the film.)
Other Information
Runtime: 109 minutes (or a minute less in the US, for some reason)
Rating: Rated PG for some mild peril and rude humour. (U in the UK)
Studio: Warner Brothers
Director: George Miller
Official Website: http://www2.warnerbros.com/happyfeet/ (some pretty good stuff in here)
Quotes
An ego even bigger than Carl’s…
Ramón: Just a moment. I hear people wanting something... ME!
I was only following orders…
Ramón: You just got to do exactly what I say!
Mumble: Okay.
Ramón: Did I say "okay"?
Mumble: No.
Ramón: No. What did I say?
Mumble: Do exactly what you say.
Ramón: EXACTLY what I say!
An ego even bigger than Ramon’s…
Lovelace: Ladies, please avert your eyes... 'cause I've been known to hypnotize.
From the mouth of babes…
Memphis: What's going on there? What are you doing?
Baby Mumble: [tap dancing] I'm happy!
Memphis: What's with your feet?
Baby Mumble: They're happy, too!
Penguins can be so cruel…?
Lombardo: What are you gonna do? Subject him to cruel and unusual punishment?
Raul: Unimaginable torture?
Lombardo: Imaginable torture?
Raul: Your singing?
In the great nation of Emperor Penguins, deep in Antarctica, you re nobody unless you can sing - which is unfortunate for Mumble (Elijah Wood), who is...More at Buy.com
Set in the strange and beautiful world first explored in the 2005 documentary MARCH OF THE PENGUINS George Miller's HAPPY FEET tells the story of Mumb...More at Family Video
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