Review of Happy Feet (2006) by Kenneth H — 16 Feb 2014

Let me start off by saying that this movie has really awesome animation - among the best I've ever seen. The animals are all extraordinarily lifelike and it was obvious the animators paid very close attention to biological detail. (Also, let's face it: the penguin chicks are adorable.) I thought it was interesting how the animators were able to seamlessly incorporate live-action footage of humans into an otherwise animated film. Aside from some artistic flourishes (like how damn important singing ability is to "be penguin"), the movie is biologically accurate, except for that one part where, for some reason, a leopard seal is having trouble catching his penguin prey on the ice - leopard seals can move about as fast as penguins on ice.

I thought the story was interesting, and it provides an insightful look at how humans treat animals and the environment, from the perspective of the animals. It also carries a theme of how important it is to be true to oneself and to embrace individual differences.

I did think Gloria and Mumble had a weird on-and-off relationship. We never see her actually forgiving him after he purposefully shunned her while going off on his quest to find humans.

I wasn't really amused by all the tap dancing, and I found all the song-and-dance numbers to be annoying and distracting from the overall flow of the movie. I also thought it was weird how the colony seemed to oscillate between shunning Mumble and adopting his moves, like when the whole colony was dancing just before Mumble's exile. The ending was rather stupid - penguins have to dance en masse in order to get humans to do the right thing and stop overfishing?