Who's the audience?

Rating: 5/10 (10 November 2006)

I had the opportunity to see it last night in San Francisco. The graphics are well done (the elephant seals are phenomenal!) but the distinguishing features of the main character "Mumbles" are his blue eyes and his continuing down. All of the other characters have brown eyes, so distinguishing his "girlfriend" Gloria from any other penguin (male or female) is impossible without the sound.
The music (and there were ~45 songs - or at least snippets of songs) were aimed at the adults. Some had very adult themes, as did the Barry White-like penguin "Lovelace" and Mumble's father is a penguin Elvis (the Pelvis) impersonator. Contrast the highly sexual overtones of the music and characters to the minimal, childlike plot and I was confused as to who the audience was supposed to be.
Oh, and let's not forget the stereotypes. The small Latin girl-chasing (but otherwise lazy) penguins , the Barry White penguin with a bevy of females, etc. These are not things I'd want my children to watch or imitate.
Were the animation not so darn good, I'd have given it a lower score. The computer graphic artists did an excellent job on many details. The short "environment" message doesn't begin to make itself clear until the last ten minutes. I'd guess they thought putting a simple plot together with adult-themed overtones would bring in both audiences. In my opinion, it fails on both counts - I'd prefer seeing "March of the Penguins".