Happy Feet tells the tale of a penguin world where singing is the most important thing in life because that’s how you find your soulmate. The story follow a little penguin named Mumble (played by Elijah Wood) who can’t sing. But the kid can dance up a storm, tap dance to be exact. It stars Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Elijha Wood, Brittany Murphy and the late Steve Erwin.
The movie starts off well enough. The animation is out of this world, the songs are fun, my feet were tapping. And the first act sets up a cute penguin puppy love story.
Unfortunately after the first half hour passes the plot becomes a mess and it just gets worse from there. This movie doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a political statement on the environment? Is it a buddy adventure with the cool, little penguins that befriend Mumble after he is shunned by his flock? Or is it a movie about embracing what makes you unique? Well it tries to be all of those things and it does not do a very good job at any.
There are also parts of the movie that had the children sitting next to me crying with fright because of a terrifying seal. No wonder the studio didn’t want to put this in 3D, it would have made kids pee in their seats.
There are some redeeming qualities. One is the hip, Hispanic sounding little penguins, Robin Williams does Ramón the leader of that crew. Williams actually does my other favorite character as well, the super hip, Lovelace, a little penguin ladies man with garbage hanging from his neck. The other characters do well at singing, amazing actually. Brittney Murphy has one hell of a talent for singing.
Overall though Happy Feet falls though the ice and once it goes under the surface it doesn’t come back up for air. On a scale of one to ten I give this movie a five, for a no go or routh, it’s a no.
