Disappoints immensely

Rating: 6/10 (5 January 2007)

While the animation in this movie is, at times, outstanding, the whole shebang simply falls incredibly flat due to the lack of any sensible storyline and genuine emotional involvement. It is animation by numbers and has no heart.
Miller, no doubt lulled by the success of Babe and similar tales, seems to equate animals per se with cuteness regardless of how moronic and unlovable they may be. Sadly, however, simply whacking a couple of big human-like eyes in the middle of a penguin's head does not make it cute. From the moment the film starts, I was cringing internally.
The film is schizophrenic too, almost like two badly-conceived movies shredded and stitched back together again. The result is a hideous Frankenstein of a movie; part musical, part drama, part low-level stand-up comedy (anyone in this day and age who thinks funny-talking Mexicans/Latinos are still humorous - even if done by the redoubtable Robin Williams - should think again). Unfortunately Happy Feet fails to hit any of its genre targets.
From the opening scene where we are told (not shown or explained to) that these penguins wander about singing until another penguin recognises their 'heart song' and then they fall in love, until the oddly-forced 'adventure' at the end. Dancing, which is what the hero Mumble does instead of sing, is anathema to penguins apparently even though they ALL dance when they sing anyway. Obviously it is only tap-dancing which is 'banned'. Happy Feet is a dismal drudge to watch - aside from the occasional wonderful animation sequence or two. When I asked my eight-year-old daughter what she thought when we came out of the theatre she said, simply: "It was a bit long". Miller would have done well to test it on kids first instead of the literati who, one feels, still somehow apparently feel obligated to think that this tired old Robin Williams patter (think Aladin etc etc) is actually funny. It's not.
In short, the penguins are not cute. They are unlovable. The scenery is bland and an animation cheat. The story-line is so forced it almost bursts in places and the music is corny and, on the whole, inappropriate too. To make matters worse, what looks, at the end, like it is going to be mind-blowingly brilliant twist, the animation of humans, turns out to be live-action footage instead. What a let-down.
'Long-winded, tired and self-indulgent'. That actuate describes the movie and, sadly, it might also apply to Miller too these days. There is none of the freshness of Babe in this re-hashed mess that owes more to Hollywood vanity than it does to any real desire on the film-maker's part to genuinely touch the viewer's emotions.