Thursday, December 14, 2006

Movie Review: Happy Feet

Happy Feet is a fun animated film that reminds you of March of the Penguins. In fact, having scene that movie helps explain some of the hardships in a penguin's life that this movie just assumes. There are a bunch of musical numbers with many many penguins and they are a lot of fun. It's also a story of someone not fitting in and finding their way. There's actually a little more depth to the story than I expected. Oh and did I mention the penguins are really really cute?

Still the story takes kinda of an odd turn towards the end. It works but I found it unexpected and I'm not sure I liked it. Something else bothered me too. In the film emperor penguins all sing to express themselves but our star dances instead of singing. The other penguins find his dancing bizarre and ostracize him. But in the big musical numbers they all seem to be dancing. Another thing that bothered me was that the camera was constantly moving, sometimes very fast. I'm ok with this occasionally, but not constantly. Now I did see it in IMAX so sometimes the motion made for some good effects, but it was still a bit too much.

Anyway, the music makes up for most things and the penguins be so damn cute makes up for the rest. This is a fun film, well worth seeing. If you have small kids I don't think it's as scary as Finding Nemo. There are a couple of scenes reminiscent of the sharks in Nemo but they aren't quite as scary perhaps because they are seals and killer whales.

No comments: