Disappointing to say the least

Rating: 4/10 (19 November 2006)

I was really disappointed when I left the movie, but I thought maybe I was just missing something. After reading these comments, I realized I wasn't.
I had high hopes for this movie. My 7-year-old daughter had been looking forward to it for months...I got absolutely sick of seeing and hearing the trailer of the baby Mumbles dancing to Stevie Wonder on our "March of the Penguins" DVD.
Where do I begin? The Good: The animation was nothing short of spectacular. I'm continually amazed at what is happening in computer animation. The scenery was beautiful.
I found the protagonists generally likable; I've always been a fan of Robin Williams and he did not disappoint.
However.....
The Bad: Some scenes were way too intense. After the attack by the leopard seal, my daughter (the same one that had been bugging me for months) was so scared that she wanted to leave.
The sexual innuendo was not subtle. I know that a lot of animated movies throw something in "for the adults" and it usually flies safely over the heads of the kids. Not here.
Anti-religious undercurrent. The characters in the movie that displayed any sort of religious belief were portrayed as either hateful (like the Elders), or phony (like the penguin with the 6-pack ring around his neck). It's not that there's no truth there. I'm certainly no fan of religious fundamentalism but it bothered me that the ONLY depictions of religion were negative.
Environmentalist propaganda. If I want to pay $20+ dollars (with snacks) to get preached at, I'll go see "An Inconvenient Truth". Add to that the fact that it was completely unnecessary; they could have made a wonderful movie about respecting others' differences without tacking on some story about evil humans destroying the planet. Also, I didn't appreciate how it was the United Nations that heroically made the evil fishing boats go away. Remember, these are the same people who enriched Saddam Hussein through Oil-For-Food and failed to intervene in several African genocides in recent years. Yep, they do a bang-up job there at the UN, don't they? During the big debate montage, did anyone else notice that the only distinctive voices arguing against helping the penguins had American accents? Give me a break. I resent being charged money to swallow leftist propaganda disguised as a kids' movie.
Misleading marketing...what looked in the trailer like a fun movie was often dark, scary, full of propaganda, and had none-too-subtle sexual innuendo.