True Toe-Tapping Fun!

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2006)

Singing and dancing penguin cultures collide in this snowy antarctic adventure that delivers about as much toe-tapping fun as any dancing or music fiend could hope for, with catchy tunes that'll have your feet uncontrollably tip-tapping along on the floor with the happy dancing penguins. Featuring an all-star voice cast, the most realistic computer animation this side of Shrek, and an intelligent and thoughtful storyline that soars above the mediocre heads of all the recently released CGI movies, Happy Feet is a fun and thought-provoking film that not only can little kids enjoy, but adults will find plenty to munch on as well.
We are introduced to a couple of penguins in love, in the middle of a mating ritual, which involves the woman penguin waltzing around singing until she finds the perfect man penguin to sing for her. Soon the two have an egg, which, due to a brief uncontrollable toe-tapping from Dad (dancing is forbidden in this penguin society), slides away into the blizzard. He quickly retrieves it, but later on their baby, Mumble, voiced by Elijah Wood, is born, and not only can he not sing worth a darn, his toe-tapping skills are amazing. Rejected by his peers and by most of the colony, Mumble, eventually finds his way to a neighboring penguin colony where he is accepted. From there, he must continue on, using his dancing skills to figure out why the fish are disappearing from the ocean. (Hint: They're aliens with large scary machines.) Happy Feet is a movie that starts off innocently enough. You have a few fun dance numbers, some cool duets and solos, including a rendition of Queen's "Somebody to Love." The music is exquisite, the dance numbers are creative and extremely fun. There is one part, involving a chase with a sea lion, that some young ones may find scary, but it's nothing too bad, and it's exquisitely and breath-takingly done. The movie is rated PG, people, and with "mild peril" for a reason. It's not a movie for very little kids.
Then the movie takes a turn that many have argued is for the worse, but which I believe puts it head and shoulders above the competition. After awhile, I wondered what the heck was going to happen with Mumble's dancing talents. It seemed the movie was going nowhere with them, but he eventually uses them, in a very creative way.
This movie gets kind of dark, and, many would argue, environmentally preachy, but I'm glad it took this route. I was afraid I'd get a sappy, gag on my puke, clichÃ© storyline, but instead of going with the tried-and-true formula, Happy Feet took a risk, a risk that has well payed off, it seems, as it received 79% on rottentomatoes, and has topped the box-office two weeks in a row, despite tough competition from Casino Royale. Happy Feet is not a movie content to stay inside its prescribed boundaries. It takes chances with the storyline, it does something new, different, fresh, and daring, and it has a lot of people upset. Many people take their little kids to this and are horrified that they were not given the everything is happy and free kiddie flick the previews promised them. The Lion King had a very dramatic death, though, one that caused controversy back in the day, and yet it was a very good movie.
Happy Feet may have toyed with its audiences a little too much. It could have been more honest with the previews, and I found the conclusion to the film a little odd and it did seem kind of incongruous with what had come before. I applaud their risk-taking, though. The controversial plot aside, though, character development is stellar, the storyline is endearing and fun, the CGI is so real in places you may swear that you're watching actual penguins waddle along the ice. Each of the characters is fun, too - Robin Williams in the dual role as Ramon/Lovelace, especially. I was afraid he would just be annoying and try to steal the show with his shtick, but it fit perfectly into the storyline. And, of course, with a movie about dancing, if the music sucked, the movie would not be much to speak of. And fortunately, the music is awesome, dancing, happy feet music. It's just a movie that makes me want to get up and dance right along with Mumble and the whole penguin colony. It really makes me happy when a movie raises the bar, especially an animated one, because of how crappy animated movies are these days. Happy Feet does have a few flaws, but they are negligible. And besides, who are we kidding? It's all about the dancing penguins.