Gorgeous animation, but the movie could have been stronger in more than one way

Rating: 6/10 (20 November 2010)

After finally watching "Surf's Up" earlier this week, I decided I would soon watch "Happy Feet" after that. Both are computer-animated family movies about penguins, and I heard of both of them long before finally seeing them. This one was the first of the two, and shortly before I watched it, I knew that George Miller, a filmmaker who was behind the "Mad Max" trilogy and "Babe", was also heavily involved in the making of this CGI effort. This is not one of the most popular films of its type from recent years, but it clearly does have a following, and knowing that, I wasn't expecting it to be great, but probably still pretty good. There are things I can praise the movie for, but to me, it could have turned out slightly better than it did.
In Antarctica, all Emperor Penguins must come up with a heartsong in order to get a mate. Norma Jean and Memphis attract each other with their heartsongs and soon have themselves an egg. While the female penguins are out fishing, leaving the males with the eggs for the winter, Memphis accidentally drops his egg during a harsh Antarctic storm! When the time comes for the eggs to hatch, it doesn't look like Memphis and Norma Jean's egg will at first, but it does. The two penguins now have a son named Mumble, but unlike the other penguins, he can't sing, which means it would be difficult for him to find a heartsong! He is a very talented tap dancer, something no penguin has seen before, but others do not find this acceptable, so Mumble is widely looked down on by the other penguins. When he grows up, he still has a horrible singing voice and is still stuck with his down feathers from birth, unlike everybody else. He still has a hard time trying to fit in with his peers. Can his tap dancing talent ever make a difference?
The animation in this particular CGI film is absolutely amazing! The penguins look very realistic, and the backgrounds are gorgeous with the snow and blue sky! However, apart from the animation, I don't think there's anything about "Happy Feet" which I could describe as amazing. I didn't care much for the musical numbers in general, and the film may not have the most outstanding characters, even if some of them are likable, including the protagonist. Also, the film is supposed to be partially a comedy, and some parts made me laugh a little, but nothing here made me laugh that hard. The story is not a bad one, but some of it certainly could be better. It features at least some mild excitement, and certainly didn't make me want to turn of the film before it was over, but for some reason, I found a lot of it to be maybe just a LITTLE dull. Some parts certainly could have been better written, including the way Mumble's relationship with Gloria begins, and the two of them talking to each other underwater.
I know this particular CGI penguin movie came before "Surf's Up", but now that I've seen them both, I have to admit that I think the latter is far superior. I noticed that the animation in the 2007 Sony Pictures Animation effort isn't always perfect, but I still thought that it was mostly great, and the film has a lot more than the animation to keep it entertaining. "Happy Feet" may have slightly superior animation (I couldn't find ANY flaws in this movie's animation), but "Surf's Up" is basically better in every other department. I may have expected the two of them to be about equal in quality before I watched them, but it didn't quite turn out that way. I certainly didn't find this 2006 release bad enough for me to be confused by its popularity, but overall, I would say it's only just above average, even if most of those who have seen it would disagree.