"Happy Feet" my foot

Rating: 5/10 (18 November 2006)

"Happy Feet" may just be the most original cgi film of the year along with "Monster House". I have always anticipated a film that would break the slew of conventional children's entertainment. Even though this film appears to be my dream come true at first glance, impressive weirdness is not the only ingredient that makes an excellent film, and the film was flawed to the point that it settled into mediocrity with it's conventional predecessors.
The story was noticeably weak, but I don't think this film was created to have a good story, however. It was intended as an aesthetic animal fable, another story of the accomplishments of one individual a la "Babe". The universal consensus of this film is that it has spectacular animation. Although I question if this is a "triumph" in animation. The Warner Brothers' "The Polar Express" sported similar realism last year give or take a few artistic appliances, and the animation in "Happy Feet", I believe, is over hyped due to what was being animated and how it was being animated. It still worked though and was beautiful to look at. The point of cgi isn't to create photo-realism though. Its' focus on realism would mean the story would have to compensate for the lack of creativity in the character designs, and wellthe story was weak. "Toy Story" succeeds with its clever writing and wit. "Happy Feet" does not ("I like big tails and I cannot lie"case closed). The main message itself is typical. The "underlying messages" are questionable. To Happy Feet's advantage, the cinematography is superb (George Miller can certainly direct).
One can see the thought process involved with this movie. The creators formed the characters and said 'uh oh' when they realized that Mumble resembled all the other birds way too much, so they added a layer of baby down to his slick feathers incorporating that into the idea that his egg being temporarily unprotected altered his nature. This tiny touch, among other things, gave me the impression that this film was thrown together with the objective to create a penguin film using motion capture techniques. Different themes, religious, social, whatever, are thrown in at will and pop up in confusing areas.
Any film that attempts to connect serious themes with singing penguins must do so delicately and with craftsmanship. Unfortunately this film suffers from bothersome transitions and tone shifts. There are questionable turns in the plot that don't seem to flow properly. You feel as though the writer smacks you down by luring you in with cute euphoria then changing the feel of the film into a grating preach fest about this and that. It is unpleasant and irksome, by technical film standards also. The last moments of the film are sloppily written and ill conceived.
The constant push of making Mumble's "amigos" persuasively Latino was unnecessary and at times a tad bit racist. My concerns have nothing to do with agreeing or disagreeing with the blatant 'propaganda' in the film (I for the most part happen to agree); I just question why those themes needed to be there, or more, they were inserted inappropriately. The George Miller's earlier produced flick "Babe" could have been slanted toward promoting meat-consuming abstinence. It was however subtle enough so that you may not be bothered by it, as you enjoyed the terrific story. This isn't the case with "Happy Feet". I must empathize something. The film directly shoots itself in the foot when attempting to portray all zoos in a bad light. It's extremely ridiculous for a film trying to force a green message upon it's viewers when zoos do indeed aid in penguin conservation. It makes me wonder about the credibility of the creators. This may end up being one of the most destructive films for wildlife since "Finding Nemo". Oh the horrendous irony.
This film is a sign that producers are trying new ideas, and I encourage that. They are on the right road to creating film that can entertain and be spectacular all the same. It's unfortunate that in this case, it didn't quite reach that mark and succeeds only as a film to marvel in regard to the animation. The film undoubtedly warrants discussion with young children.