Review of Happy Feet (2006) by Md — 27 Nov 2006

Well, I thought it was going to be a cute happy little kids' flick, but little did I know that I was going to have preachy political messages crammed down my throat. It isn't that I necessarily disagree with all of the messages that the movie is trying to preach to us, in fact, I agree with the majority of them.

The problem is HOW they did it. How they did it was actually rather offensive and heavy-handed. I felt like they were forcing ideas on me and overtly trying to manipulate me into thinking a certain way.

As well, they used strange stereotyping that seemed unnecessary and just wrong somehow. Like, why were some of the penguins Mexican? Weird. And how come the leader of the penguins had a strong Irish brogue and all of the rigid penguin leaders seemed kind of like they were penguin Catholic priests? What point were they trying to make by using stereotypes in this way? That religion is bad? That people who are accepting are latino? Strange.

And did you need to use these specific stereotypes to make the point you were trying to make? I felt like I was watching one of the newer Star Wars movies, and expected Jar Jar Binks to show up in one of the scenes.

.. And, frankly, all of these stereotypes and political messages changed the movie from being a movie into being a diatribe. The movie stopped being a cute kids movie about a penguin with special tap-dancing skills who wants to be accepted, and started being a vehicle for the movie-maker's political propaganda.

Tell a story OR share your opinion--when you try to pretend like you are telling a story when really you are shoving your views on others, it is dishonest and irritating. And, for a children's movie, it was awfully sexual.

Yes, I know, much of the movie revolves around mating, but really, some of this stuff was just too adult for children.