Happy Feet
My companion summed up this odd little movie best, though I would change the recipe slightly: “Part March of the Penguins, part Grease, and part Apocalypse Now…[one section] was like, all Apocalypse Now.” I would substitute Newsies for Grease, but that’s being particular. Newsies is more about a group united in effort, with dancing, and Grease is more about making the girl give up her personality to get the guy. I don’t want to say what part is Apocalypse Now, but I think you will know.
Happy Feet starts out with a kooky courtship – well, it starts out kind of emulating the beginning of the movie Contact – between main character Mumble’s parents, and then a little March of the Penguins refresher course and then your standard “he’s different and needs to find himself” movie begins. You could have gathered that plot from the rapturous previews. In the course of this ugly duckling tale, the plot veers alarmingly into exile and an epic quest (interrupted occasionally by frustrated romance). Casting Frodo/Elijah Wood as Mumble could not have been an accident. Then the quest gets all One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and drops vertiginously into the Newsies finale. It’s weird.
Folks are raving about this movie, but I came out kind of apathetic about it. The pop songs are fun arrangements; the dance numbers (choreographed by Kelley Abbey and Savion Glover) are exciting, modern, and infectious. You can’t help but respond positively to a catchy beat and Mumble’s joyous expression of his inner soul. The comedy is sporadic but funny (Robin Williams does most of the heavy lifting here, channeling the Robin we loved best), and the story is chock full of morals (tolerance, self-expression, follow your heart, don’t irreversibly destroy major links in the global food chain, the usual). It’s a romp, longer than you would expect, but pretty well-paced. The animation is top of the line, water and ice and snow and feathers and other intense rendering challenges. The voice acting is sometimes weird, with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman inexplicably emulating Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. Brittany Murphy makes a surprise nightingale out of her Emperor penguin in an impressive turn. Elijah Wood brings his entire doe-eyed career to bear as Mumble – but he’s definitely the straight man here. A group of Crested penguins, The Amigos, are sweet and funny in a moderate fashion.
It was all very competently done, but the overall effect was underwhelming and a little awkward. The whole movie is a little off, a little disjointed, feeling like the story was written around the concept of a penguin who cannot sing, only dance. When the story is not king, generally the big picture suffers, and Happy Feet reaffirms that adage. Its intentions are honorable and its messages are great, but the result…well, wait for video.
MPAA Rating PG
Release date 11/17/06
Time in minutes 100
Director George Miller, Judy Morris, Warren Coleman
Studio Warner Brothers
