Happy Perfection

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2006)

Compelling story and characters, superb animation, toe-tapping soundtrack. Good clean fun. The only flaw I can call out would be Nicole Kidman doing an imitation of Jennifer Tilly as Mumble's mom Norma Jean. I also wanted Mumble to lose more feathers as his character matured. I understand that his character was unique and needed to look different from the other penguins. And I appreciate that he lost most of his newborn feathers by the end of the movie. But I think he matured beyond his peers and the remaining feathers didn't seem in keeping with that. Otherwise, an animated delight that should stand as a classic. At least it will in my book. Impressive work from Animal Logic on all counts -- especially the elephant seals and interaction with non-animated human characters. It's not hard to imagine that the March of the Penguins documentary inspired the screenplay, or certainly assisted in supporting the script with regard to the winter migration of the empire penguins. Both tied to Warner Bros. so not that unlikely.