Neither happy nor kid-oriented

Rating: 5/10 (8 January 2007)

The first half of the movie was fine. It was happy-go-lucky with cute, fluffy, singing penguins, just like what the previews promised. Then, it got intense. Sure, some kid-movies can get pretty intense (The Incredibles, for example), but Happy Feet just got one intense episode after another, and soon you have no idea where the plot is going. At first I thought it was about Mumble trying to be accepted in spite of the fact that he can't sing. But then he goes on this wild and impossible goose chase trying find out why there's no more fish for his fellow penguins, in which he ends up in a zoo tapping dancing for delighted zoo-goers (frankly, if a penguin started tap dancing to me, I'd have a seizure). I really don't know what this movie is about.
In addition to the confusing plot, Happy Feet has some not-so-happy-nor-subtle innuendos for the little kiddies to eat up and then ask their mortified parents about.
It's also got an environmentalist agenda. I must, however, disagree with other reviewers. People are NOT portrayed as evil in this people. People are portrayed as ignorant and self-centered, but in the end, it's also people who return Mumble to his home, learn to understand his colony, and eventually rectify the fish problem. As for the pollution... well, it IS true that what we dump in the oceans affect wildlife, there's no way around that. Nonetheless, the political statements should be saved for other films or other plot lines (if they wanted to make a cartoon about penguins getting choked by litter, then they shouldn't call it "Happy Feet").
This movie is better off as a fluffy kid's story about accepting differences in other people/penguins.