Spectacular visuals makes up for a so-so movie

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2009)

After hand-drawn animation was declared dead by most of the Hollywood studios because it wasn't hip enough, CGI features were churn out and they all, more or less, felt as the same movie. Elements as adult-in-jokes, pop references and gags to kids made the audience stand in line to see them theatrically, but in my opinion, few of the features really distinguished themselves. I'm not sure which category I should place Happy Feet. It's a cute and entertaining flick, but yet a schizophrenic one at the same time.
From a visual standpoint, this movie is one of the most gorgeous-looking CGI features to date. The animals have a very authentic and realistic look and some of the background looks almost real. The design of the humans are less detailed, though, but they look far from cartoony as the humans in the Pixar film does. This is certainly one of the most jaw-dropping animated features ever made.
But there's a component which is called a story. To be honest, I never became fond of the plot. For the first, it was a about an outcast. Several animated films (both CGI and hand-drawn) has been about an outsider, so the theme has unfortunately been worn out and feels nothing special or fresh in this film. I also felt the story was overall a little weird, including singing and dancing penguins. But on the positive side, though, while the characters aren't memorable, they're still likable, especially the Adelie Pinguins.
I'm not claiming that this is a overall bad movie, but it has so many balls in the air; there's drama, there's comedy, there's action and there's music numbers. The latter component actually works. And this is a nice family film, with a serious tone in some sequences which will appeal to adults. But in a jungle of CGI animated films, "Happy Feet" doesn't distinguish it self from the rest. The sweet moments are too sugary and the grave moments are... well, grave. Of course there's some humor, but nothing that made me laugh hysterically. And there's the cheesy components. All of these elements are combined into a mixture that seems overall schizophrenic instead of telling a coherent story. But of course there are far worse movies than this. At least the characters and the music makes the movie watchable.
But the visuals is undoubtedly the biggest strength here and the film should be recommended mostly for the visuals.