Nice Animation And Song, But Sometimes Unfocused And Often Manipulative

Rating: 3/10 (26 November 2011)

The first thing to note, and perhaps the most impressive thing about the entire movie, is that it features absolutely superb animation. The second impressive thing about the movie are the songs - a good selection of popular songs that, when they're being featured along with dancing penguins, adds a good deal of spark and fun to the movie. Unfortunately, those two big positives were really marred by two other things: a lack of any truly interesting storyline (I spent a good chunk of this movie wondering what in the world ti was trying to accomplish) and then also a sense that I was being preached at; that this was trying to use a fun sort of concept to push a very manipulative political message - or, actually, several messages. It's not so much that I disagreed with the messages. I just didn't like the way it was done.
The first obvious political piece was around the whole idea of inclusiveness. Mumble is an out of the ordinary penguin. Most penguins have a song they use to attract a mate. Mumble couldn't sing - but he could dance. He was an outcast, different and looked down upon by everyone else and judged very harshly by the elder penguins, who came across as the stereotypical religious types - dour and mean-looking and unsmiling, determined to make sure that everybody else leads as miserable a life as they do. So we're to celebrate individualism and look down on those who try to enforce conformity. I get it. The second propaganda point was around the environment - and particularly overfishing, which was depleting the food supply of the penguins. I get that too. Both points were - for me at least - a little too in your face.
There are certainly things about this movie that can be enjoyed. It's just that, overall, I didn't find this to be an especially enjoyable movie. (3/10)