Happy Feet

This is going to be short since it's not one for the school paper and I don't have to meet any kind of a word minimum! Happy Feet was an pretty good movie, it had a stellar cast, but like Shark Tale a while back (another animated movie with an unbelievably star studded marquee) it suffers from a bunch of heavy handed soap boxing that winds up bringing the whole thing down to a dull political statement in the end. Be that as it may, it is never dull to look at, and if you ever want to see computer animation at its finest just turn off the sound and watch the images, preferably on the largest screen you can find, and HDDVD or Blue Ray wouldn't hurt a thing, assuming you don't go to the theaters that is. The story is pretty paint by numbers, some penguin named Mumble can't sing and therefore can't find his true love in the traditional penguin way. All of the other penguins can sing and this is one of the movies other strong points besides the visuals. The soundtrack is bursting with Prince, The Beach Boys, Elvis, Pink, and Nicole Kidman, who isn't singer I know, but has had me waiting eagerly since she last sang in one of the greatest film musicals, Moulin Rouge! Anyway, it all goes pretty smoothly for an hour and then the politics start crowding the scenes with the "accept everybody" and "don't let man destroy the earth" stuff. Not that these ideas are all bad, it's just that it's a happy little family movie and all of the sudden I feel like I'm walking through an activists rally. There is also a surprising amount of suggestive and frightening material for a kids movie. Not that any of the material is both suggestive and frightening, but when penguins are doing pelvic thrusts and talking about making eggs I'm thinking wow there are kids in the audience, do they even get this? Then three minutes later some penguin or another is being locked away in a zoo somewhere with enough depression to rival Catcher in the Rye (though no where NEAR enough wit to make up for it!). The point of all this is that it's an enjoyable movie, for the first half, but the state of the art animation carries the boring last half through fairly well. So go if you want, and leave fifteen minutes before the end, or half way, or heck leave after you've seen the new Harry Potter trailer for all I care (I must admit I almost did, I'd got what I really came for!) but you might end up happy you stayed, I was anyway.

B-