Happy Feet Want A Happy Story Too...

Rating: 5/10 (18 December 2006)

I saw this movie at an IMAX theatre, mostly because it had been ages since I saw an IMAX-movie and I simply wanted to see what it was like again. Unfortunately, this movie isn't made for IMAX: this technology requires many grand sweeping overviews, looking over steep cliffs, and the like. There are moments in the movie when you feel the IMAX-magic, but they are far and few between and not really worth the extra price of an admission ticket.
Onto the movie then: the CGI-animation is (of course) well done, with lots of attention being paid to hair and patches of wet fur. Down looks like down in this movie. The tracks the penguins make in the snow are another nice touch. The animation is fluid, although you have to keep in mind that penguins are not the most difficult animals to animate.
Where I found the movie lacking was the story. The idea of penguins needing to have a song of their own, and that one little chick due to the carelessness of his dad when he was still an egg can only 'sing with his feet' is a little contrived, but okay---you need a background anyway, and this is as good as any. Unfortunately, the reason the little penguin is cast out (being different and therefore not one to appease the Great Guin who bestows food on the penguins) is not told very accurately. There's but a few hints that things are amiss, but when he is finally cast out it all of a sudden becomes his sole raison d'être. To that point (one hour into the movie!) the viewer is led to believe that Mumbles will somehow learn the other penguins that dancing is as good a way of singing as is having a good voice, so the shift in storyline is rather abrupt. He even rejects the most desirable girl penguin of his generation in his quest 'to bring back the fish'. Mumbles is captured, put in a zoo, and eventually begins to tap and dance for a little human girl. This allows him to return to the colony where he fulfills his quest by persuading the other penguins to dance, and thus more or less tell the humans that they should stop fishing in the region. And that's the end. Mumbles doesn't get the girl---she took another. The 'priests' amongst the penguins say nothing about their errors in judging Mumbles. None of the penguins is seen to thank the hero of the story. How a penguin who literally swam across the ocean is able to return to his colony as if nothing happened remains a mystery: he should be bored stiff in their world of songs.
I don't like the way this story was told: it leaves me dissatisfied and full of questions. It trails around aimlessly, and when it finally hits on something worth telling, it is more or less hammered into place like a carpet which never seems to fit. There's lots of singing and dancing of course, but there aren't many tunes which get stuck in your head. It just goes to show that even with a team of excellent CGI-animators, you cannot expect things to work out as if by magic if there's no strong story framework to rely upon.
I'm giving this a 5 out of 10: definite potential, but ultimately weak and not very interesting. I recommend you wait until the DVD release, if at all.