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Taken from Wikipedia:

Happy Feet is a 2006 Australian-produced computer-animated comedy-drama film, directed by George Miller. Released in the U.S. on November 17, 2006, it was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros and Village Roadshow Pictures. It is the first animated feature film produced by Kennedy Miller in association with Animal Logic.

The film is dedicated to Steve Irwin.

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Happy Feet Trailer

If you liked that one, the Warner Brother’s website has got all the other trailers.

Mumble’s a weird kind of penguin. Every penguin can sing, and they all have a heartsong with which to attract their mate. Unfortunately, due to a little freak accident during the incubation period, Mumble was born unable to sing. But he could tap dance. He goes through a journey of accepting himself, getting others to accept him, and in turn, saving his entire colony. (Bravo…)

Happy Feet is definitely an animation made for children - a fun soundtrack, a stellar cast of voice actors (Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman, Nichole Kidman, Hugo Weaving), a whole bunch of dancing and singing penguins. You’d think TBP would give it her 2 thumbs up.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

I found the story a bit strange, and I couldn’t put my finger to it, so I went to read what others said. Robert W. Butler of The Kansas City Star made some pretty good observations that reflected what I was feeling:

Happy Feet” isn’t nearly happy enough.

Yes, yes, I know. Penguins are just about the cutest critters in creation, and a movie with thousands of the waddling birds should charm the pants off us.

But despite a great look and some nifty action sequences, this computer-animated effort doesn’t click. It piles lots of contemporary issues on what should be a simple children’s fable and becomes an overlong, emotionally muted and tiresome epic.

“Happy Feet” is so intent on delivering an ecological lesson and promoting tolerance that its drama suffers.

I think that pretty much sums it up. Either that, or I’ve outgrown animations.

TBP Rating: For the kids… Just for the kids…

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 16th, 2006 at 11:56 am and is filed under Movies, Photos, Websites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.