Odd mix ends up being decent movie

Rating: 6/10 (5 January 2007)

Happy Feet is a good movie and plenty entertaining, but misses the boat on several points.
Cons: The movie begins great, with lots of sing and dance, giving great entertainment value to the start. After that however the movie slowly seems to dwindle down, instead of building up to a climactic ending. The problem with that lies in the matter of combining the two major story lines: Mumble's and Gloria's relationship and the food shortage. The two end up having nothing to do with each other at all, leaving the viewer essentially switching back and forth between unrelated story lines. This greatly disturbs the flow of the movie, making it difficult for the viewer to really get 'into' the movie. The result is that at the end of the movie, when both story lines come to a conclusion, neither is really satisfactory. Both story lines really end with a 'deus ex machina' effect, rather than the main character resolving things, it just more or less 'happens'.
Something I personally found quite disturbing was the whole notion that Mumble's unique ability came forth from what is suggested to be a 'birth defect', which is a great shame. Even though the movie ends up touching upon the subject, it doesn't positively get resolved and leaves the viewer with idea that mumble is truly 'wrong', rather than just different.
Pros: Great humor, great animation, great singing. The entire idea of 'alien abduction' of birds by humans holds up a philosophical funny-mirror that puts the "real" alien abduction stories in an interesting perspective. I suppose people these days are also a lot more sensitive to the ecological theme, especially in a day and age where 'global warming' is now more and more becoming a fact supported by news stories, rather than a doomsday scenario portrayed by scientist.
Conclusion: In a sense this movie seems a lost opportunity, animated movies are usually just laughs and a romantic story. Happy Feet tries to change that, but ends up being somewhat of a hybrid, having a bit of each, accomplishing only a mediocre result.
Overall, a 6/10, well worth watching, but definitely lacking.