Not So Happy Feet

Rating: 1/10 (19 November 2006)

This movie had potential.
Unfortunately it turned into a story with too many stereotypes, clichés, and messages to count. It lost focus.
I'm not sure what I expected from the previews other than a sweet story and a few laugh out loud moments.(I got to laugh out loud, but for the wrong reasons.)
The setting was Antartica, right? So why was the Penguin leader Scottish? And why did we have the country bumpkin Penguin and the LATINO Penguins? And when I say it was full of stereotypes--trust me. You don't want to see the leader slap the Latino Penguin and tell him to go back to his side of the world where he came from.
Not to mention Mumble (Happy Feet) being told not to do his dance thing because he's different. "It's just not penguin." Different is bad. Different isn't welcome here. But Mumble says he can't change and asks them to accept him the way he was born. So the dad blames himself for making him different. And I never felt that was truly resolved to a point a kid would understand.
This movie is anti-any-religion but Christian as well. The tall Penguins worship their god "The Great Wind" and the Latino Penguins have Lovelace. Both are proved to be "false gods" when Mumbles returns to his home. And what is the first structure then Penguins see when they get to the human side of the world? A Church. Yup.
And if anyone can sit through the traumatic scene of watching Lovelace tossed about between two Orcas by the six-pack plastic rings around his neck without wincing, then I'm amazed. Every adult knows that penguin would've been dead. Of course, he lived...but that was honestly the worst thing I've watched in animation before.
And lets not forget how dark and disturbing this movie is. There were several kids under the age of 6 that were terrified in some spots. And bored in others. It's wildly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 7.
One last comment before I get off my soap box. This movie had a good message to deliver, if it would've just delivered it. It could've been a great "anti-polution" movie and global warming educator. Instead, it was a depressing (yes, depressing)and preachy. The only lesson I learned was how not to do an animated film. If you want to show your children a good anti-pollution story--see Ferngully.