Movie Review: Happy Feet

by John P. Meyer

Happy Feet

"Happy Feet" is set deep in Antarctica. Into the land of Emperor Penguins, where each needs a heart song to attract a soul mate, a penguin is born who cannot sing. Our hero Mumble, son of Memphis and Norma Jean, is the worst singer in the world. However, as it happens, he is a brilliant tap dancer!

Source: Cinema Source

• Showtimes and more on Happy Feet

It's been a year since March of the Penguins debuted on cinema screens worldwide and wowed audiences with a glimpse of the real (and incredibly harsh) life of the regal Emperors of the great icy southern continent. For those looking to reconnect with their inner penguins, director George Miller's Happy Feet should fill the bill.

Before viewing Happy Feet (accompanied by my penguin-loving, green-crusading wife), I was not aware that Al Gore had branched out into the screenwriting business. But, while his name does not actually appear in the credits, there's a large dose of his chic "inconvenient truth" philosophy embedded in the film's story line. O.K., there's nothing specifically about global warming in the plot - in fact, as far as cold Antarctic winters experienced by the Emperor penguins go, the one depicted here seem to be as cold as ever. What makes me think that Gore and his eco-chums must have had a hand in the works is the general theme that man is messing up the balance of things in the penguin world - namely, the food supply. And while this may or may not be the case (I believe it probably is), injecting this theme of populist environmentalism into the cartoon events may prove to be unexpected, and perhaps a little off-putting, to some viewers.

I found the movie to be extremely entertaining. And I'm speaking from the point of view of a cynical middle-aged pseudo-intellectual who can count the number of PG-or-milder films viewed per year on one hand. One must, of course, submit to the conventions of animated films and accept that the penguin characters will be anthromorphized versions of their kind; further, they will be "the good guys" in the movie, while the various predators (skuas, leopard seals and killer whales) will be portrayed as villains. Humans are seen as a tribe of large-statured, big-brained dullards who simply do not understand that they're frakking with the livelihood of their sub-polar cousins.

My aforementioned spousal unit, Anne, is something of a penguin expert (she's learned about as much as she can about them without actually visiting their homeland); she tells me that these animated penguin creations are very accurate renditions of the various species - aside from the slightly-enhanced bust lines of the females. She was astounded at how well the filmmakers succeeded in capturing the plumage details of the cute little critters. My own observation is that the animations are amazingly real: even the tremolo employed in the penguins' singing is accurately conveyed in their onscreen facial movements.

Just FYI, singing is a pretty big part of this production - it's practically Dreamgirls on ice. See, the reality posited here is that each penguin is born with a "heartsong" that they nurture through adolescence into adulthood as a means of connecting with their one true love. (In fact, according to my resident expert, Emperor penguins are monogamous only for a season, typically choosing new mates for each breeding cycle - but a cartoon’s adherence of natural history need only go so far.)

Our tale's hero, Mumble (voiced endearingly by Elijah Wood), is born not only without a heartsong, but also without a propensity to sing - setting him up as a social outcast in his community. Unlike everyone else in the rookery (which appears to be more heavily trafficked than a Frisco mall parking lot in mid-December), Mumble expresses his joie de vivre through dancing, which does nothing to impress his fellow Emperors but goes a long way toward making friends when he ventures into a nearby community of Adelies. In particular, a young Adelie named Ramón (Robin Williams) and his band of Hispanic-toned homies take a serious shine to the tap-dancing fluffy fellow. With Mumble as their leader, they become The Six Amigos, tobogganing down ice chutes and questing after solutions to the origin of mysterious artifacts.

Mumble actually does find his soul mate in the "person" of Gloria (Brittany Murphy), who is willing to accept him solely on the basis of his sparkling penguinality. Unfortunately, before they can share a mating season together, the rookery's resident old-guy traditionalist and voice of self-proclaimed wisdom, Noah (Hugo Weaving), brands Mumble and his "unnatural ways" for being the cause of that whole fish-shortage thing. Mumble, not believing this for a moment, undertakes a mission to find out what's really going on.

By a series of mostly far-fetched events (just keep telling yourself: "it's only a cartoon, it's only a cartoon"), this mission lands him eventually in an aquarium somewhere in southern Florida. Before long his tap-dancing antics are noticed by his amazed human captors, and he is released to rejoin his fellows in Antarctica. A human expedition to his homeland follows, and (SPOILER ALERT!) the Broadway-worthy hoofing abilities of the assembled (and hastily-trained) tuxedoed masses are so appreciated by a loving human society that laws are enacted to protect their homeland from further depredations. ("It's only a cartoon; it's only a cartoon...")

Personally, I fear the more likely outcome would be that a money-grubbing entrepreneur of the Carl Denham variety would hold on-site auditions, sign the twelve most talented penguin dancers to usurious representational contracts, and build a live entertainment empire around them back in the 'States.

Man - I hope I'm wrong about that.

FAVORITE QUOTES:

“Wives ho!” – lookout’s announcement of the return of female penguins from their annual pilgrimage to the sea to procure food for their male counterparts (and new babies).

“You did everything penguinely possible.”

This story was submitted by a member of the TexasGigs community.