Happy Feet is by far the best children's movie of the year, especially if your children are slightly spoiled suburban tree-huggers like mine are. Be prepared to be astonished.
Happy Feet is so well-done that you almost forget that you have suspended disbelief and are watching a movie with talking penguins. So there are elements in the surprisingly elaborate story that make you stop and say, wait a minute, humans aren't going to... and then you realize that you're taking the penguin point of view. Too late, you're already hooked.
Unlike the enjoyably silly 'Open Season' and the even more hyperactively funny 'The Hedge', humanity hasn't been stereotyped into one ridiculous baddy, or sub-intelligent dorks just waiting to be outsmarted by animals. And while this film shoots for an environmental homerun it does so without offending the sensibilities of an old codger like me who makes his kids figure out what a BTU is when they start mouthing off about pollution. A lot of credit goes for a deft handling of a complicated matter that in the end, didn't stick in my craw. And if you want to know where I'm coming from, read 'State of Fear' again, and ask yourself why you haven't heard of any new Michael Crichton movies lately, as compared with the guys who did 'The Day After Tomorrow'.
Happy Feet makes a good case for heroics, and the burdens assumed by outcasts who have courage. The hero penguin confronts the sages in two penguin economies and through his discoveries brings about change. It's more than just a fish out of water story, it is one of loneliness and triumph. More than that, it's a musical.
So right about now Stevie Wonder, Prince, Queen and Earth Wind and Fire are getting a big payday, because their music is rocking this movie from end to end. There are musical arrangements in this film that are astonishing their beauty. It's something you absolutely don't expect from popular music - in fact, for someone like me there's almost nothing to compare it to. There are no contemporary musicals, and that's what Happy Feet is. I mean with real music, not just Disneyfied syrup. It opens up a huge but almost obvious and completely overlooked genre - which is the business of making voice actors with real singing voices into stars, yeah even though they are penguins. Is that what it takes? Well, I guess so, but yes you will hear some very beautiful singing in this film, not just catchy stuff. It's a full blown musical. Gimme more!
CGI has really gone to the next level. There is one scene in which the intrepid explorers are pushing their way across the snow in a fierce windstorm just as the sun is dipping below the horizon. It is reminescent of the short single scene films in the very beginning of the CGI revolution - back when Spike and Mike were still underground cult figures and we were still freaking out about Luxo Jr. It's the beauty shot of the film which leaves you struck about the wonders of the technology to express emotion.
In the end, love triumphs, good wins over evil, truth over superstition and the hero gets the girl. Yeah that's sappy, but it's also very happy. You will leave the theatre wanting to dance, I guarantee.
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