Happy Feet - Movie

***SPOILER WARNING***

My wife, son and I watched this movie last night on DVD. I'm not sure what the big deal was with this movie. It wasn't that great. And while I would not say it outright sucked, it was pretty close. I can't believe this movie was given awards instead of Cars, which was a much better animation movie. Thankfully it was only a rental, and it was a better rental than the last one we had (Borat, which was TERRIBLE - not funny and way too crude for our liking - obviously, our son did not watch that one!).

Where to begin with Happy Feet... First, it was way too long, for such a simple storyline (if it can even be called that). This is the first movie that my boy (4) actually asked several times "is it over yet?" He also took the remote and paused it numerous other times and walked out of the room, into the kitchen and drank a glass of milk or ate something, not rushing to get back. He definitely was not glued to his seat, by any means. The fact that he has not done this with any other movie is an indication that this movie didn't really draw him.

The big apparent "draw" of the movie - the music. Lots of music - but it wasn't for kids. Kids did not know the words and frig, why do they have to have stuff like "I'll make love to you, if you want me to" and "I just want your body, baby..." These were all long-gone adult songs. What a terrible selection of music. The only part that I thought was good was when the Latino penguins did Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now", but it was cut short. Also, the female penguin Gloria's singing voice was annoying (speaking of which, when I think Gloria in animation, I still think of Madagascar, which was an awesome movie).

The animation - for the people who thought that the animation of the penguins and the textures of the same were great - you obviously did not watch Over the Hedge. There's a movie where they did an amazing job on the animal fur and skin and eyes and what not. The Happy Feet characters weren't all that cute, actually.

I've never been a fan of Nicole Kidman, but she really blew in this movie. Also, Robin Williams' antics continue to be annoying, even in a new millenium.

The dancing - it was OK for animation and there were several highlights, like when the penguins entered the water and were doing synchronized swimming. Some parts of the dance theme were hard to understand - the humans at the end started dancing with the penguins - why? And the humans stopped fishing because they saw a dancing penguin in the zoo? I thought it was more sensible when they showed the human banter about the problem and one guy said something like, "I don't want to live in a world without penguins". That seemed more of a believeable impetus to stop taking the penguins' food rather than due to a tap-dancing penguin performing. Maybe I just didn't get it.

Adult themes - did they not think adults would not notice Mumble and Gloria come out of the ice, happen to fall into a 69 position, followed by doggie style? Frig...why can't they just make a kids' movie without all this crap. OK, my son had no idea what was going on, but still, why do they need to try to appeal to this to get laughs. Julie and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes several times.

The movie tried to inject political themes, which, for a movie directed at kids, was a bit over the top for me. I am no environmental tree hugger, but in this case, making the zoo/marine centre seem like a uncaring place of desolation does not represent the massive amount of animal lovers who actually work at the zoo.

Scary moments - When that killer seal is chasing Mumble - my son actually covered his eyes - but it was good that in the end, the tension was diffused when he penguins were laughing at the seal moving so slow on land. Also, the predator birds trying to attack Mumble. If this has to be targeted towards a kids' audience, it would have been more appropriate for the 10-and-over crowd.

Annoying characters - the "Lovelace" character, in my opinion, added nothing to the movie. Seemed to be yet another stereotype, one which I won't bother getting into. The best characters, in my opinion, were the Latino penguin gang, but sadly, they were stereotypically portrayed - I'll just leave it at that.

The film did have several positive elements. One, was the whole friendship/belonging theme, and it was prominent right until the end when Mumble's father was shown to be repentant for not siding with his son when pressure by the community elders. The other was the fact that it is OK to be different and have different talents and giftings. And while I thought that the environmental message was a bit too prominent, there is a message in there about how actions can potentially have effects on the food chain. Also, I appreciated that the amount of crude material was kept to a minimum.

Overall, though, this definitely was not something that caught my child's attention. And to me, I could not get it out of my head that the movie seemed like the Penguin version of Footloose or Dirty Dancing. I also could not help but consciously make comparisons to the March of the Penguins documentary (which was much better). For Julie and I watching it as adults, it was a bit too lengthy, had left a lot to be desired, and we didn't exactly feel happy after watching Happy Feet.