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Happy Feet (2006)

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4 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Having seen every major computer-animated movie this year, some of them unutterably turgid, this writer’s heart sank at the prospect of a dancing penguin movie. As it turns out, ‘Happy Feet’ is not only the most accomplished animated movie this year, it’s one of the year’s best films, period.

Mumble (voice of Elijah Wood) isn’t fitting in with the rest of his Emperor penguin colony. His father, Memphis (Hugh Jackman), mother Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman) and the commanding elders are bemused by the misfit chick’s propensity for tap dancing when, in fact, he should be breaking into song. But Mumble’s first attempt at singing is a tuneless disaster, and the forlorn penguin is soon ostracised for bringing a curse upon the colony. Seems the penguins’ fish supplies have dwindled alarmingly, and Mumble’s taking the rap. A short adventure later, he chances upon a troupe of rhythmic Adelie penguins, fronted by Robin Williams’ rockhopper, Lovelace. Lovelace has a plastic six-pack ring around his neck which he believes was bestowed on him by aliens. It’s at this juncture the film veers away from its cute, gloriously lighthearted song-and-dance routines – with covers of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, etc – to embrace a much darker tone, where initial intimations about social mores are replaced by an effective, soul-stirring environmental message.

Young kiddies may find a couple of near-death experiences with a sea lion and an orca a little too frightening to bear, but that’s only because the standard of the animation is so outstandingly realistic and so acutely detailed. Director George ‘Babe’ Miller has pulled off a coup with this one; he’s raised the benchmark to a whole new level, both visually and conceptually. Bravo.

Author: Derek Adams

Time Out London Issue 1894: December 6-13 2006

User reviews of this film

sophie said...

Posted on Oct 16 2007 10:22 hello stevie

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sophie said...

Posted on Oct 16 2007 10:19 good

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Alex said...

Posted on Sep 13 2007 17:13 Apologies. When I said "the above post" I was refering to Leona Luk's (Jul. 6th, 2007).

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Alex said...

Posted on Sep 13 2007 17:10 Mostly in reply to the above post, Happy Feet had my friend and me unashamedly dancing out of the cinema! We were the eldest there (at 18 and 19), but after some initial "It'll probably be bad, but, hey, penguins!!" we really got into it (both being musicians).
I won't say that, as university students, we have the cleanest minds on Earth, but I noticed nothing dirty or drug-related about it. Sly inuendo is for keeping adults entertained (and to be sure, I remember chuckling when it went right over the kids' heads) - and without some distinguishing features, how would we tell the penguins apart? They are so remarkably similar in real life, so all credit to the animators for making them so wonderfully individual!
One last thing- although the ending was a little hurried, everyone I know who saw it agreed it was a lovely story and even if it was not your cup of tea, it is worth seeing merely for the stunning animation. This film mixes 'real' film, real people, with animation, and I for one can't tell where the 'real' images start and the animated ones end...

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