Who was this film made for? A real disappointment.

Rating: 3/10 (19 May 2007)

Just watched this with my wife, my 5 yr old & my 4 yr old for our regular Saturday night film night. We didn't make it to the end ... we all disliked it.
It's almost as if they couldn't decide who they were making the film for ... but one thing is for certain, it wasn't for children. Here's a few reasons for not watching it as a family film:
1) Way too much sexual overtone ... not the occasional clever innuendo that they often put in for the benefit of the adults, just plain sexual insinuations in songs, behaviour and speech.
2) The scary stuff was way too scary for little ones.
3) The story line was way too complex. The religious allegories, the alien allegories ... just too incomprehensible for children but too patronising for adults.
4) Full of the usual clichéd plot elements which seems more intent on making it's moral point than simply telling a story.
5) Too long.
Redeeming features that raise the score to 3 instead of 1 are the excellent graphics and excellent music ... but you can get those by buying a good music video compilation.
There seems to be a mindset now in some studios that as long as something is animated, it's a children's/family film. It's not. The best family entertainment films are those that are made explicitly with younger children in mind ... and then you weave in a few more subtle "adult" elements for the benefit of the grown ups. Those that seem to try and please everyone from the outset fall between two stools and fail miserably. Happy Feet is one of those. If they'd made a more simplistic, child appropriate film from the outset then I'm sure they could have weaved in a couple of elements for the grown-ups. As it is, it pleases no-one. A real disappointment.