HAPPY FEET

2006, Warner Bros.

Animated

Rating: PG

Approx. 108 mins.

THE STORY:

Mumble (Elijah Wood) is a young Emperor Penguin who just doesn’t fit in with his strictly exclusionist community. While all his friends are learning their “heart songs,” the songs that will find them their perfect mates, Mumble can’t sing a note. Instead, his musical talents express themselves through tap dance. 

Largely shunned by his own kind, Mumble ventures out to find a place for himself. He stumbles upon the “Amigos,” a band of Adelie Penguins led by the irrepressible Ramon (Robin Williams). When the group returns to Mumble’s home, the Calvinistic Emperor penguin elders seize on the outsiders and their different ways as the cause for the lack of fish the community has been facing.  

Once again rejected by his own, Mumble sets off to find the “aliens” he is convinced are responsible for the disruption to their food chain. Along the way he encounters both natural and human threats before being caught and placed in a zoo-like facility. Eventually, it is the dancing that isolated him from his own community that saves him from complete mental collapse and allows him to save his family and friends from starvation.

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• Stupid

VIOLENCE:

• Some threatening action scenes, but no real violence

TEACHING POINTS:

• Strong environmental messages about over-fishing, animals in captivity, etc.
• Being different is not bad

THE UPSHOT:

I like this movie in theory more than I do in practice. The animation is great, most of the voices are wonderful—Robin Williams in his dual roles is a predictable stand out—but it just lacks something. The story drags and repeats such that the movie seems longer than it is. Elijah Wood gets a bit whiny by the end, and the messaging is delivered with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

In short, not my favourite film, but my 4 year-old loves it.

4/5