Great first half is spoiled by a contrived second

Rating: 7/10 (25 November 2006)

What an odd movie.Actually this is two movies, one great and the other just okay.
The first half of this film is the story of Mumbles a penguin who can't sing but can dance. This is the source of most of the promos and its what the studio is pushing as what the film is about.Can the penguin find his heart song if he can't sing? Well thats the first half of the movie. The second half of the movie is an odd left turn thats foreshadowed, but doesn't really belong, and thats Mumbles attempts to find the "aliens" and make them stop taking the fish. Its a weird detour that puts mumbles in a zoo.
I really liked the first half of the film. Its an infectious story about finding your place in the world. Sure its been done to death but the characters and the music push this film from run of the mill into something special. Its a great one hour movie.
The second half of this film is another story. Its not the second half of the film its a second film tacked on to make up the running time.The problem is that once Mumbles ends up in the zoo everything is contrived. What happens is done just to get to the ending. It doesn't work. I went from loving the movie to liking it. Yes I know I'm being vague but to really explain why it doesn't work would require explaining the ending and thats not fair. Lets just say that they should have stopped at an hour.
Story aside this is probably the best animated computer film (technically) I've seen all year. Its amazing. Its simply beautiful to look at and its clear that the animators took great pains to make a visually arresting film. The performances are top notch, with Robin Williams pure joy in two roles. And of course the music is wonderful, with some really nice rearrangements that are so clever it takes you a few minutes to realize what the song is.
I highly recommend the first half of this movie. Its magical. The second part has moments, but mostly its contrived nonsense you'll want to push out of your head (though not the ten thousand penguins dancing to Stevie Wonder).
Worth a trip to the multiplex if you can ignore the second half.
First half is 9 out of 10. The second is 5 out of 10. Split the difference of 7 for IMDb purposes