Happy Feet

Happy Feet_360P

I'm sick and tired of going to see a movie for entertainment and being beaten over the head with some political message. Personally I'm all for conservation and cutting back on how bad we're screwing up the environment, but this was NOT the way to go about doing it. This movie had the feeling of a propaganda film SPECIFICALLY designed to try and brainwash the young population. "Hey lets make a politically heavy-handed animated film but don't give any clue in the trailer that its going to be any different then any other animal film for kids! That way when there parents take them to what they think is Nemo with penguins, they'll really be paying to have their kids brainwashed! We can even get a bunch of big name actors who think the general public gives a damn about their opinion, and since its a message film we can get them to work cheap!"

The only reason I gave this movie a star is because that's the least I could give. They missed the children's demographic by numerously threatening the fate of the lead character with unrealistically evil looking whales and seals and making inappropriate innuendo. They missed the casual movie-goers demographic with numerous plot holes and missed both demographics with the nearly absent amount of humor (Robin Williams had a few good lines). The trailers show penguins havin' fun, but the movie shows humans invading and hurting penguins and their homes only to change their minds when the lead character tap dances for visitors and the zoo. This can't be called a movie so much as hippie propaganda. Do not ever see this movie!

What should have been a fun little movie for the kids turned out to be a long, often inappropriate, political statement about saving the environment. I thought at any minute Greenpeace and ACLU representatives were going to start walking down the aisles handing out brochures. For starters, the penguins sing a lot of "heart songs" based on modern pop music. While this should have been a fun way to make the penguins sing - the producers chose songs that you would never let your small kids listen to. For instance, at one point in the movie, the penguins start singing "Let's talk about X baby, let's talk about you and me..." They sang this parody of Salt N Peppa's "Lets talk about sex" while doing some type of suggestive mating dance! It was an uncomfortable moment for me while my 5 year old stared wide-eyed at the screen. There are a lot of sexually charged themes in the movie including the "guru" that sounds like Barry White and mates the females like Tommy Lee. The entire reason for the penguins singing is so they can mate. That's fun to explain to kids, huh?! Then there is the religious aspect of the movie where the producers make it seem like any type of faith-based religion is silly, stuffy and a waste of time. The "bad" penguins in the movie are the religious ones and not loving or accepting of anyone but "their" kind. If you are a believer in any kind of faith-based religion – especially Christianity – you will be very uncomfortable during these parts. Finally there is the environmental protection aspect of the movie. While I am all for protecting the environment - the movie was forced to end abruptly with argument between nations (like you would see at the UN) where folks are arguing to make changes that will help the penguins. The message was deep and hard for kids to understand. There was no explanation really why or how the environment was being harmed other than a 30 second shot of a barge over fishing an area. This theme seemed forced and overbearing. In the end my 5 year old took away that the guru got caught in a plastic beverage holder which made him crazy, the "religious" penguins made the boys parents not love him anymore, and that the humans were coming to get all of the tap dancing penguins to take them to the zoo. Wow – it was a fun ride home for us while I explained what really was happening. In any case -- I would stay far away from the movie. It was a complete waste of time and money!

I saw this with my 5 ear old son, and we walked out about 3/4 way into it. I tried so hard to give it a chance, but the lack of any meaningful story, chaotic music, and substance did me in. I am not saying that children's movies need to have a lot of substance, but how about some kind of story that our children can make sense of, instead of meaningless dancing scenes. I don't understand how anyone (with half a brain) can think this movie is good. There are also so many racial stereotypes - the physically small hispanic flock that the main character visits. This flock evidentially doesn't care about education, as they are content in trying to get in each other's pants. This is a product of marketing, hype, and Hollywood junk. It would be wise not to buy this DVD and rot your child's brain.

This movie is NOT about dancing penguins. This movie is a politically charged brain-washing attempt to persuade young viewers that evil humans are destroying the natural order of the world. There were actually young children in the audience pleading with their parents to take them home before the movie ended. One parent was overheard stating that this movie "was not at all like the previews." There is almost nothing "happy" about this movie. Not one person left the theatre laughing or with a lifted spirit. While the graphics are indeed amazing, the storyline is extremely depressing. The movie continually tries to make light of the thematic elements, but it never seems to work. Very little laughter was heard after the 60 minute mark; truthfully, with not that much before. The film mocked religion and tradition, had a surprising amount of sexual innuendo, and portrayed zoo animals as Zombie-minded creatures tortured by their fake environment. If at some point in the future you want to take your children to the zoo for a day of enjoyment, do not take your children to see this movie. I am warning you, do not see this movie. If you do, your children might start calling you (and all humans) "ugly aliens" as the movie claims we are.

Wow, was I shocked at the overwhelming Left Wing agenda in this film and particularly the anti-Christian bigotry. It's pretty sad when Liberal Hollywood has to stoop to brainwashing little kids' movies to get their bias across. This is about as low as it gets. Hey, all I wanted a funny, cute animated film and I got all this other junk thrown in my face. Every single "religious" reference in this film, and there are a number especially around the one-hour mark when "Mumble" appears before "The Elders." Then, you hear a slew of Biblical words ("brethren," "backsliding," "sin," "pagan," etc.) all used by unlikeable old fuddy-duddies who are portrayed in a very negative light. The idea is obvious: associate anything religious with "bad" or "restrictive" or "mean" and the opposite - secular thought - with "free" and "good" and "happy," on and on. This is brutally heavy-handed propaganda, and its subtle but relentlessly inserted throughout this movie, not just in that one scene. Secularists will have no clue nor an ear to hear this bias, but it's there. If this were as anti-black, or anti-gay as it is anti-religious, you would have heard a huge outcry. The whole movie is so politically correct, it's sickening, yet these Liberal writers are so clueless (a la Don Imus), they stereotype Hispanics something fierce. Many times I thought Al Gore made this movie, with the in-your-face environmental baloney. Did I mention all the sexual innuendos, too, with this "cute little penguin" movie? There should have been an outcry against this hypocritical sick mess. Perhaps even worse than this script is the apathy of the viewers to see this bigotry for what it is. Thankfully, some reviewers here saw it, too. Good for them for speaking out. More people should have been offended at this piece of crap.

I really appreciated that this movie was as adorable as it was. If you are looking for a movie that will make you want to laugh and cry, and will definitely have you thinking (about taking dance lessons & about the world as it is now) then this is the movie for you. While the movie has some dark turns, it tackles the environmental issues that the whole world is being confronted with in a way that is neither overbearing, nor too old for children. Not only did this movie make me want a penguin of my own, but it made me want to help our world stop over producing, and start preserving. More importantly, if you want to take kids to see this movie, its perfect. There's a good chance they will be waddling like a penguin for a week!

I saw this last weekend at a special screening and was suitably impressed. Although I'm a big fan of George Miller's films, I was very hesitant to see this one. I'm not a big fan of animated films, much less musicals. The trailers looked awful and indicated nothing about the story. Until the screening came up, I had no intention of seeing this on the big screen. After the opening musical number, the movie quickly won me over. The way it's made is incredibly cinematic, and, at its heart, tells a great mythic story: an outcast leaves his community and journeys to the edge of the world to find a way to end the famine that's plaguing his species. Along this quest, our hero, Mumble, learns to live with his outsider status (he can't sing) and makes use of his own particular gift (tap dancing). It's a simple story that's told in a very creative way with a lot of heart. The musical numbers, instead of having a disrupting effect and stopping the flow of the story, actually advance the plot because they're integral to the story and this particular type of penguin. Emperor Penguins apparently find their mates by singing. While it all sounds the same to us, they are highly attuned to each others songs. The film cleverly translates that idea to the screen by having these animated penguins sing iconic pop/rock songs. I thought the animation was top notch and the style perfectly suited for the story. This isn't the goofy cartoonish animation seen in this past year's other animal-oriented films. It's very rich and leaning heavily towards realism. The vast icy landscapes seem to be copied straight from documentary footage. Just jaw-droppingly beautiful. There's one shot in the film which really epitomizes how well made it is and made me love it that much more. Mumble, his four friends, and the old wise mentor (Lovelace) are heading to the edge of the world as they know it. They're caught in a snow blizzard. The six penguins are shown in almost a dark silhouette as they struggle to move forward. The fading red light of the sun provides faint illumination. As the penguins are pushed back by the blizzard, they lean into the wind and keep going. It's almost like something out of a Kurosawa movie. And that's all it is. Just one shot of the blizzard. But it's beautifully done. Never seen anything like it in an animated film. By the end of the film, my initial reservations about the film were completely washed away. Disregard the lame trailers and see it for yourself.

This movie set the bar at a new level for animation. This is a great companion piece to "March of the Penguins". (In fact, you should see "March of the Penguins" before seeing this one.) While the stock animated movie script still seems be 'cute-yet-quirky animals on quest', this one pulls it off better than most. Arguably, the film makers tried to cram too many songs into the soundtrack. And the story didn't need to be as long as it was but the overall environmental message was good. In the end, you'll look how the choices of our 'modern' lifestyles affect the rest of the world. This movie is definitely worth the watch -- and a discussion with your kids afterward.

Overall, I was disappointed with "Happy Feet", as were my 6 and 9 year -olds. They thought it was too intense in parts,particularly at the end. I thought it was boring.It was definitely too long for very little ones, as I witnessed in the theater. On the plus side, the computer animation was TOP NOTCH. There were sequences that were so breathtaking, you would swear you were looking at the real thing! Ditto for the music. It was clearly the best part of the movie. Dialogue was hard to hear in parts. The plot was thin, and quite implausible toward the end. It sort of does an "Al Gore" at the end also, which for me was a total turn off.I wanted to be entertained, not spoon-fed more environmentalist propaganda. (This was also what bothered my kids.) And, the biggest disappointment of all, it just wasn't all that funny, or happy!! I thought the title and the trailers, were very misleading. Overall, it was good looking, and good sounding, but preachy and joyless.