Review of Happy Feet Two (2011) by Ryan G — 22 Mar 2012

It goes without saying that the baby penguins are adorable. Bo is so cute with her little English accent-- and I had no idea it was a girl until her mother said so. Erik is precious, especially in the beginning. But his singing voice? Oh my gosh, it was so weird. When he burst out singing to the elephant seal it sounded absolutely nothing like you would expect. I know that most of the time they use different voices for singing and speaking but dang, man, they couldn't find anyone who sounded remotely like Talking Erik? Weird singing voice aside, the movie was okay but mostly it just felt kind of pointless. It isn't like the first in that it started off very promising and tail-spun out in the third act. It mainly just stays in one place the whole time (mediocre) and it didn't feel like there was a whole lot of singing in this one. Maybe because the the songs were so spaced out. There's less Ramon this time around, and even less of his crew. I kind of fell in love with The Mighty Sven, the quirky charlatan puffin who's convinced everyone he's just a penguin who can fly because of enlightenment. I found him launching into that "Nooma" song and the "Thriller" dance to be the funniest moment in the entire movie.

While both movies are geared towards kids, I think this one is more suitable than the first. It doesn't delve very deeply in environmentalism and deep religious messages like its predecessor. There's also more kids throughout (Erik, Bo, and Atticus), which will probably keep their interest better. Also, the animation is GORGEOUS. Probably the best I've seen in a very long time. It would've been awesome to watch this movie in 3D.