Moulin Rouge, only upbeat, and with penguins!

Rating: 9/10 (11 April 2007)

A wonderful, and wonderfully animated musical. A singing, dancing antarctic epic. A strong cast, excellent voice work. Visually stunning.
The plot is fairly predictable. Can the main character goes from zero to hero? Well, nothing new there. But his path is entertaining, and far more interesting and substantial than say, a number of Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers vehicles, and those are enjoyable classics. The only other mild annoyance is the director's continually forcing the little tuxedo'ed critters to the top of some nameless frozen promontory in order to do the obligatory motion sequence. In other words - there's a lot of falling in this movie.
As a dad, there are two things I want to make special note of. A lot of movies that are considered children's classics involve families that have suffered at least one tragic loss. This is a long standing cliché, and our kids are quick to point it out: "Bambi", dead mom story. "Cinderella", dead dad story. "Snow White", dead mom AND dad, etc. It is a relief that "Happy Feet" is none of these.
Secondly, I like the fact that Mumble, the main character, deals with his "different" qualities with the same attitude that Popeye is famous for, namely, "I yam what I yam!" He's comfortable with who he is. He just has to convince about a zillion other penguins, too. And to see if, or how, he manages to do this, well, go see the picture.