Review of Happy Feet (2006) by Keaton B — 16 Nov 2011

Happy Feet ends on an upbeat note with singing and dancing, but the weaknesses that precede it deflate the euphoria. A moderately adorable, musically wacky, ecologically activist CG family comedy. While compromised by the uplift and affirmation that mainstream animation regurgitates like a mommy penguin, it also shows a remarkable persistence of vision. Even in a story about singing-and-dancing fat and feather, Mr. Miller can't help but go dark and deep. The essence of this inventive though erratic animated feature is joyous music and eye-popping motion. Unfortunately, once the "be yourself" story line is resolved (singing and dancing go together, who would have guessed?), the film is only half over. Overall, however, for a children's film, it hits all the major notes. Keep it musical, keep it lively, keep it cute and, you know, if you can, slip in a moral.

VERDICT: "Matinée" - (Mixed reaction). These kinds of movies are usually movies that had some good things, but some bad things kept it from being amazing. This rating says to pay matinée prices to see at a theatre, buy an ex-rental or a cheap price of the DVD to own.