Dance, Penguin, Dance
Happy Feet will get your toes tapping, but don't look for a deep plot
Happy Feet is a charming tale of penguins, fish, and contains many great musical numbers. Just don't look for a rich and rewarding plot.
I can just imagine the brain storming session in Hollywood that led to the current film Happy Feet...We want to make a movie about cute, animated animals. What's the cutest animal? Why, the penguin of course, perhaps inspired by the success of the documentary film March of the Penguins, which featured real life Emperor Penguins living their life of chilly survival above the Arctic Circle. And what if we make them dance? It builds in a feel-good soundtrack just by nature of the plot. And these days Hollywood is all about the soundtrack.
Mumble is a dancing penguin born to a tribe of singing penquins. At first Mumble's dancing is rejected as "different" and not penguin-ish. After Mumble is banished from the tribe by an evil Cotton Mather-like penguin elder, he runs into some wonderful Hispanic rock jumper penguins who admire his dancing and become Mumble's posse. These penguins also provide much of the comic relief and the main rock jumping penguin is played by the voice of Robin Williams.
Mumble sets out a journey to discover why the fish are disappearing so he can return as the conquering food-hero to his tribe. His journey leads him to human civilization and ultimately into a zoo situation where he is lonely and isolated. Mumble begins to dance as a way of getting attention and communicating to his human audience. The immediate reaction to his irresistible cuteness leads to a new awareness of penguin life and society that leads humans to protect the penguin habitat so that by the end of the movie it all ends well and happily.
There are some strange psychological twists in this movie as the filmmakers desperately try to inject too much conflict into this light romp. Mumble's dad harbors feelings of guilt that he caused Mumble's strange dancing deformity by letting the egg drop once during the time that the male penguins care for the eggs while the female penguins go fishing. This is so unnecessary and convoluted and carries a sledge-hammer lesson: Love your child no matter how different they are. If you're looking for a deep message in Happy Feet stay at home. If you're into cute dancing penguins...go for it! Your toes will tap even though your brain has shut down.
