This is an archived post from Wishes on Eyelashes, a previous incarnation of this site.
Okay so it’s cute and cuddly, but in all honesty it’s not a patch on a Pixar film.
While Warner Bros have tried their best to enter the prosperous animation market, something about Happy Feet doesn’t quite add up. Yes the main character, Mumble is insantly lovable. Yes, it has all the right character voices, from Hugh Jackman’s concerning father figure to Britanny Murphy’s dominant female lead and love interest. And yes, it looks good. In places.
You see here is the start of the problem. It is almost as if Warner Bros management collective sat down and someone said “You know what would be awesome – penguins dancing. Like, proper disco dancing. Hundred’s of them. We could have songs, yes songs, lots of them, fine swooping lights and animation. It’ll be brilliant.” “Great”, says someone else, “How do we see the storyline going?” “Let’s not worry about that”, says the first man, “We’ll worry about that later”.
And I bet that’s not a million miles from the truth.
The simple fact is that while Happy Feet has some of the finest scenes in amination history, the entire plot, scenarios and narrative of film is utterly ridiculous and lacking in any direction. And let’s be honest. This simply wouldn’t have happened in a Pixar film.
The most ridiculous of all are the Mexican penguins, led by an excellent Robin Williams – who only just about saved the whole premise with his outstanding vocal performance. If I point out that Williams’ other character is a mystic physic-guru penguiun, you might see where it starts to get stupid.
There’s no doubting that young kids will love Happy Feet,; they are sure to let the story wash over there heads and look at the cute animation, and for that purpose the film is brilliant. But in this modern era, the bar has been set much higher and animation needs to appeal to a much wider – and largerly adult – audience.
While Happy Feet is pleasant enough it is more likely to have you gently toe-tapping than testing out the tango.