Quality animation/Average movie - but not for kids under age 7

Rating: 3/10 (16 November 2006)

We have two kids ages 6 & 4. I loved Shrek and all of the Pixar flicks and really wanted to like this one coming in. We left (early in fact) very disappointed.
Quality CGI? Yes, of course. Some hip music? Yes. But the plot just didn't seem to click. I found myself never getting engaged in the story. It was as if the movie's creators said "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we animated March of the Penguins", then another said "Yes, and wouldn't it be really neat if we could show penguins dancing to pop music". Then someone said - "now let's try to wrap it all up in some "coming of age/fish out of water" story + "pro-environment" message. Sure, each individual element sounds OK on paper, but they were asking too much to bring all these elements together. It just didn't click for me.
No doubt about it, the quality of the animation is superb. But beyond that, there wasn't much rewarding about this. The jokes were few and far between - and not that funny. The "Latino" penguins were too stereotypical for my tastes. But most of all, I'm disappointed that this film is mis-marketed as a sweet, cutesy picture about cute dancing penguins suitable for the Nemo audience. In reality, young kids won't get engaged in this plot like they did for the good Pixar flicks and the action sequences (particularly the seal chase) will leave them at risk for nightmares. If you were planning on taking kids 6 or younger, get a second opinion.