![]() He can dance like hell, but he can’t sing, which is too bad because all the other penguins attract their mates through singing. Unlike the rest of the emperor penguins, Mumble can’t sing. This was supposed to be a nice, simple story about an outcast, misfit penguin who shows us that even though we might be different, we’re all special. What’s even worse is that amid all the environmental propaganda, the seemingly obvious moral of “Happy Feet” gets lost. Needless to say, we all left the theater confused and pissed. And the 7-year-old girl sitting next to me begging her mom for a Juicy Juice definitely didn’t get it. Just don’t confuse the message by having Mumble return home with a huge radar gizmo strapped to his back, talking about how great the “alien” humans are, and then have us come swarming back into the same Antarctic habitat we trashed earlier and deserted.Īnd I’m not even sure that humans saved the day - all I know is that we came back to Antarctica, videotaped dancing penguins, put them on the news and got the United Nations all riled up. Even though I think zoos are a great way to teach kids about animals and the importance of conservation and am against making them hate a popular field trip destination, whatever - if that’s the message the producers want to go with, run with it. ![]() Zoos are also bad since they made our little penguin buddy Mumble go insane. In the movie, viewers learn how humans are slowly killing all the penguins in Antarctica by eating their fish, polluting their waters and trashing their home. The sad part is, I’m not even sure what “Happy Feet” was trying to teach us. I’m there to enjoy a movie, not to watch a PETA propaganda film. But keep the message simple and don’t scare and/or confuse me with it. I’m all for saving penguins and teaching kids to be environmentally conscious. What they did was make “Happy Feet” blatantly political, even including digitalized shots of the United Nations and political protests in one of the ending montages, and completely tanked a movie that was spiraling downward from the start. And it sucked because the producers got their heads stuck up their asses and tried to change the world instead of making just a nice, simple, funny children’s movie. There was just no way “Happy Feet” could suck - the set-up was too perfect.īut it did. They’re family-oriented, funny-looking and - as anyone who’s ever seen “March of the Penguins” knows - have migrating and feeding habits that are perfect for teaching lessons about overcoming obstacles.Īnd thanks to Morgan Freeman’s triumphant narration in “March of the Penguins,” every family in America was going to see this movie already knowing and loving penguins. How could the producers blow this movie? In the world of cartoon cinema, this should have been a virtual gimme.įirst of all, you can’t find a more perfect animal than penguins for an animated children’s movie. ![]() From “Monsters, Inc.” to “The Incredibles” to “Finding Nemo,” not one animated children’s comedy has ever left us disappointed.Įxcept “Happy Feet,” which both my mom and I thought sucked. I repeat my favorite dumb jokes, she recites the antics of one of the hilarious side characters, like the crazy squirrels in both “Ice Age” and “Over the Hedge,” and everyone walks away happy. Toss in some pop culture references and you have yourself a movie.Īnd every time my mom and I see one, we leave the theater laughing. The best part about our movie trips is that there’s usually no way we’ll leave the theater disappointed.Įver since “Toy Story,” movie producers have essentially fine-tuned the animated children’s comedy formula to perfection - just lead a mismatched, rag-tag group of talking creatures through a simple, goal-driven plot, littering their journey with stupid characters and sight gags for the kids and witty, more subtle grown-up dialogue for the parents (and their 22-year-old sons). She gets to pretend I’m 8 years old again, and I get to watch funny little cartoon critters on screen without having to explain myself to my bar-aged, meathead friends. Whenever a new animated children’s movie comes out, my mom and I always make a point to see it together. ![]()
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