Happy Feet

Happy Feet (2006)

HBO Broadcast, Seattle, WA

October 23, 2007

** / ****

Along with shoot ‘em up action films children’s movies are surely the most consistently predictable genre in film. The animated Happy Feet, the latest big screen cartoon from Warner Brothers, certainly has its share of children’s film hallmarks but it is also one of the strangest and most complicated kid’s movies I have seen in a long time. Beautiful to look at, head scratching in its execution (both good and bad), and capable of breaking into song at any moment Happy Feet is a good time gone way out of control.

Like three or four movies sandwiched into one, Happy Feet is the story of a group of Antarctic penguins experiencing a fish shortage, a musical about singing and tap dancing penguins, a cautionary tale of humans wrecking the environment, and a comedy of stereotypes aimed at children. Woah. It is also cute, endearing, annoying, and more mish mash than streamlined with precision thrown out the window in favor of appeasing four writers, a director, and two co-directors (even though some of these positions overlap).

The good in Happy Feet starts with the typical penguin cutesiness. Everyone loves the tuxedoed little ice dwellers and Warner Brothers does a great job in giving us all manner of their adorable little posturing. Likewise, Elijah Wood keeps things cute with his voice portrayal of Mumble, a penguin who prefers dancing to singing much to the chagrin of the penguin elders. Their society is one based on singing and when Mumble finds the beat in his feet instead of his voice he becomes the outcast of the Antarctic. Enter a group of Hispanic jiving penguins led by Robin Williams. The short stature posse befriends Mumble and the next thing we know the movie has turned into a cross between Homer’s The Odyssey and a television documentary about human actions affecting the natural life cycle; Heavy stuff for kids just wanting to be entertained by chubby birds who can’t fly. Throw in a few song and dance numbers, some close calls with life and death hanging in the balance, a strange jaunt in the human world that should be seen to be believed, and the requisite happy ending and you’ve got a movie that stretches much further than it can effectively reach.

Perhaps the biggest misstep in the film is the musical interludes. Using numerous pop songs of the last thirty years (generally the ones most often heard on wedding dance floors) and blending them into mash-ups the tunes never take flight. Rather, they serve as silly American Idol style covers that consistently leave you thinking, “why?” Maybe some prefer their cartoon films American Idol style but I certainly do not. The amazing computer graphics take your mind away from some of the film’s lesser moments, but they are never enough to fully cancel out a hodge-podge of cinematic casualties left in the wake of the overworked script.

In sum, Happy Feet has its moments but between its cluttered screenplay, poor musical sequences, and fairly uninteresting story it is a pretty average movie in all respects.