We complain a lot about how shallow kids' movies often are, but when something with heft comes along it's labeled as propaganda. If you're seeing anything more sinister than that in Happy Feet, it's because you're going looking for it. Those aren't such bad lessons for kids to learn, I remember getting much the same ideas from Ranger Rick as a lad. Crazy zealotism and environmental irresponsibility bad clear thinking and respect for Mother Nature good. By then you're so wrapped up in the characters, their quest, and the film's breathtaking visual flair that a wild but brief cacophony of exhortative information may go wholly unnoticed. I'm not sure how many people will actually notice the movie's preachy ending.
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I love the way Miller turns such a simple throw-pillow of a plot into a vivid epic, but after doing that the movie should have wound down and gotten back in touch with the smaller moments that he used to build towards that large-scale journey the movie becomes. By its end the movie is a rush of Important Consequences, so much so that the smaller, much more critical (from a character standpoint) reunion and reunification of the relationship between Mumbles and his father Memphis is overshadowed. Because of that the movie has impact it delivers something bigger than the average talking animal flick.īut the messages do get to be a bit much. The human world looks so massive by comparison, for instance a shot out the window of an abandoned shack as Mumbles waddles past hits home how fragile the little guy is.
He sets his camera to give you a real sense of scale. Miller does a stunning job of tying it all together while showing the world from a tiny penguin's viewpoint. It starts out well done, and that first moment where Mumbles steps out of the blinding snow and spots his first sign of human habitation is breathtaking. The film takes an almost manic environmentalist stance, with Mumble's dancing somehow changing the human world and saving his clan from starvation caused by over-fishing. Where some people are taking issue with it, is in the movie's final act.
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Happy Feet has layers, of the kind you're not going to find in most of the bargain bin kiddie movies probably already on top of your TV set. Miller doesn't settle just for large-scale adventure though, the movie is packed with thematic depth and complexity beyond the ken of this relatively short review to describe.
If the first half of the movie is Tatooine then the second half is Mumbles' Death Star run. Epic is really the only way to describe it. The second half takes Mumbles on a massive journey across Antarctica to prove his societal worth. In telling the story of a young penguin named Mumbles, the film celebrates penguin life and fills itself to the brim with breathtaking sequences showing off the world from a birds' eye view. That's not to say Happy Feet is all doom and gloom.
Miller's movie goes way beyond the standard kids' movie lessons of family, friends, and acceptance to tread places most pre-teen targeted movies are afraid to go. They'll be wowed by the animation, but the heart of Happy Feet is something so deep and soulful that at least part of it is aimed squarely at adults.
This thing is borderline as a kids' movie, it tackles some pretty heavy themes and goes places that not all kids will be able to follow. I'm not just talking visuals here, though there's no denying this is absolutely the most stunning computer animated movie ever done by anyone outside of Pixar. He takes what might have been a rather simple story of an outsider finding a way to fit in and turns it into a grand and beautiful work of cinematic art. The movie is the first attempt at animation from Mad Max director George Miller, and he doesn't waste a single frame.
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