A beautifully charming, yet also surprisingly smart animated entertainment.

Rating: 10/10 (8 February 2008)

My Take: Stunning animation and terrific musical numbers worthy of Gene Wilder make for a great time at the movies.
After MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, a movie/documentary about real-life penguins and their Antarctic perilous journeys, which was released just previously, audiences might have already seen enough penguins, even just for this year. But another penguin fairytale is just at hand, with its trailer already out at the time. HAPPY FEET, by the looks of the trailer, may just be a corny animated movie which relies heavily on the cutesy than a proper story and more elaborate creativity. I missed HAPPY FEET on the big-screen, but I was sound surrounded by the fact that it was a hit. Of course, the appeal of famous actors like Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy and a soundtrack of famous pop songs (old and new) performed by the best of computer-animated penguins. If you think as much I did back then, well wrong are we.
I didn't think I was going to hate HAPPY FEET back then, but I didn't expect much from it. But, when I finally saw, the surprise was sudden. Armed with the usually reused charms of talking animals, HAPPY FEET takes some of the things much further, turning it into an actually clever musical adventure, where there are a lot of singing, dancing, but doesn't lack the importance of good characters and a somewhat charming storyline. Sure, the story gets quite corny and silly, sure too much of the singing and dancing will get some of the viewers bogged down. But the penguins never get boring. In fact, viewers might find themselves forgetting that the characters are penguins, due to their much diverse personalities that almost makes them human. Pity on the humans of course, since most of them are reduced to blue-eyed, motion capture drones, but no matter, HAPPY FEET has a place for them just as well.
The success of its genius come from the fact that, on the helm, is director George Miller who, as you might remember produced the highly-acclaimed talking animal movie BABE then directed the sequel called BABE: PIG IN THE CITY, which were the smartest in this somewhat popular sub-genre. Miller, unlike some others who might get the job, gives his "kid's movie" characters with much maturity, giving them more appeal to the old as much to the young. Although the preachy message might have been more improved, there couldn't be much more of a thing to be done with it, so let's leave well enough alone. The voice actors all do well, blending in with their characters and do quite well with a specially hilarious and yet cohesive script.
Does HAPPY FEET change to world, as it might have been described in the movie? Definitely not. But it doesn't have to. It does what it was intended to do, and transforms it into a more remarkable result. For its success (and its penguins), I'm grading this "happy feat" a *****.
Rating: ***** out of 5.