Happy Feet [PG] [2006]
Overall movie: *****
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Picture.
EJW content: The undisputed star of the movie, even with some big[ger] names involved. And the animation's good enough that even though we don't physically see Elijah, we still get the benefit of elwoodian acting.
Five stars for an animated kids' movie? I try to judge films by the kind they're meant to be, and this is one of the best animated kids' movies around. It's being spoken of as not only a likely nominee for the best animated film Oscar but as the almost certain winner ("almost" because we don't want to tempt fate). [Note added in 2007: For awhile, it looked like Cars might snatch it away, but Mumble and company came through!]
Like the LotR movies, this one shows practitioners of the art how it should be done and no pains were spared in doing it right. The amazing landscapes were made possible by two expeditions to the Antarctic for the sole purpose of doing research for this film. The soundtrack is incorporated into the story instead of being laid over the top as an afterthought. The animation is, of course, amazing, whether we're talking about thousands of penguins dancing together but with individual style (remember those "Massive" battle scenes in LotR-RotK?) or close-ups of photo-realistic penguins who do manage quite well, thank you, to show emotions without smiling (one of the early quarrels was about whether you could make a movie centered around photo-realistic birds, because "they can't smile"). The special effects almost always serve the story instead of the other way around, and the action is incredible, from water ballet to luge to Savion Glover's motion-captured dancing. Some people were kicking themselves after the LotR-FotR DVD was released, because they'd waited for the DVD instead of seeing it on the wide screen. If you know anyone similarly reluctant to see Happy Feet on the biggest screen possible (in some places, it's showing on IMAX), drag them there if necessary so they don't hate themselves later.
And, somehow, this movie manages to do something the LotR movies did that I didn't expect from an animated kids' movie: it gives the very clear sense that there's more to the film's world than what we're directly shown. In the same way that the LotR movies gave us Númenoreans without talking about Númenoreans and different lineages of Elves without telling us there were different lineages of Elves, Happy Feet gives us a variety of landscapes and penguins without needing to explain them. I read one review that called Lovelace a "wild-feathered" penguin; he's a rock-hopper, for Pete's sake - that's what their feathers look like! As the credits for LotR-RotK listed "Eldarion" instead of "Arwen's son" even though the film didn't tell us his name, the credits for Happy Feet list the penguin characters by species even though we don't hear the names of most of the species during the movie.
The movie's not perfect. After awhile, Mumble being pursued by every known penguin predator gets a little old; it seems to be the "peril" involved in those chases that upped the rating from a G to a PG. And I have to agree with those who accuse it of having a contrived ending (if it would have stopped with the helicopter crew, I could have accepted the entire thing). This didn't bother me as much on second viewing, probably because I knew it would be short - and the credits are worth sitting through the ending for. Perhaps the highest praise I can give the director is that this movie left me wanting more of Robin Williams.
And Elijah? The only reason the movie left me wanting more of Elijah Wood is that it's impossible to have enough of him; he certainly wasn't shortchanged. With this movie, there can't be any disagreements over who the hero is. And by allowing Mumble to be the one non-photo-realistic penguin in the movie (those eyes definitely "just ain't penguin"), the animators let us see a lot more of Elijah Wood than they do of Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Brittaney Murphy - or even Robin Williams. I'm not the first one to note the eyebrow acting without the benefit of actual eyebrows. This isn't a case of Elijah providing the voice for a penguin; it's Elijah playing a penguin. Strange as it might sound, there's real cause to study screencaps of this one.
Yes, fans, we can breathe a sigh of relief. We now have an animated kids' movie starring Elijah Wood that we can be proud of! TAMTSNBN? What's that?* [His next animated film, for which he's already done the voice work, is 9: not a kids' movie.]
Besides the movie itself and the soundtrack, there are books, games, and other toys available:
Happy Feet: Wide-screen DVD
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Happy Feet: Full-screen DVD
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Happy Feet (Original soundtrack)
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Happy Feet: HD DVD and regular DVD combo
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Happy Feet: Blu-ray
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There doesn't seem to be a VHS version available at amazon.com
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Here are the game platforms for the Happy Feet video game listed currently. One really nice thing about the Happy Feet game - IMHO - is that it's rated E.
Happy Feet game (Game Boy Advance):
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Happy Feet game (PS2)
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Happy Feet game (GameCube):
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Happy Feet game (Nintendo DS)
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Happy Feet game (Windows XP):
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Happy Feet game (Nintendo Wii):
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Mumble and Friends
Happy Feet Dancing (and speaking) Mumble
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Happy Feet Dancing and Singing Gloria
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Happy Feet Dancing Ramon
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Baby Mumble Plush Toy
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Books, Stickers, Activities
Fun for Everyone
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Chillin' with Mumble (stickers & fun penguin facts)
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Happy Feet Essential Guide
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Gone Fishin' (activity book)
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Happy Feet Ultimate Sticker Book
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Happy Feet Mad Libs (word game)
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Happy Feet UNO (card game)
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Books for Different Ages
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Playtime for Baby Mumble (10 pp. board book)
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Happy Feet: The Movie Storybook (48 pp. paperback)
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Mumble's Journey (96 pp. junior novelization)
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More Stories from the Movie
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Find Your Heartsong
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Friends Forever
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Meet the Adelies
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*The Animated Movie that Shall Not Be Named - If you don't know what it is, and are brave enough to look, you can read its review.
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