Happy Feet: Review By Bawnian©-Dexeus

Happy Feet is a 2006 animated family comedy film.

Directed by: George Miller.

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman, Brittany Murphy and Hugo Weaving.

In the world of the emperor penguin, a simple song can mean the difference between a lifetime of happiness and an eternity of loneliness. When a penguin named Mumble is born without the ability to sing the romantic song that will attract his soul mate, he'll have to resort to some fancy footwork by tap dancing his way into the heart of the one he loves.

After I saw this beautiful film back in 06, it dawned on me that Pixar wasn't the only studio to create breathtaking animations. The thing about nature that is true, no matter how you see it, a picture, video clip, painting, or in this case, animated, it deserves a thousand words. Remember that first teaser trailer? The one with Robin Williams's small fry character Ramón singing in his sexy Spanish? I do. Won't forget it either, since I saw it with my dad and we both could not stop laughing. We could tell it was Robin Williams from the start and had decided in a split second what we were both going to see in November 2006. The result? Quite satisfying.

If I'm not mistaken, the year before, March of the Penguins won an Academy Award for best doc*mentary. The walking tuxedos return animated with a touch of Step Up. We have all seen how Penguins mate, but Happy Feet takes the nature channels thus creating courtship with beautiful music and natural signing vocals by the actors. Hugh Jackman takes on the role of Memphis as the Elvis version of all penguins, and Nicole Kidman who to me, always reminded me of a Marylyn Monroe. But like I said, up until the point Mumble is born, the film introduces the story like March of the Penguins and the hard process it takes to hatch a youngling.

In enters Mumble, the star of film, where he is incapable of singing but what he lacks through his vocals, he makes up for greatly with his tap dancing abilities. But his gift leads him to become an outcast. And it even disturbs the elder penguins accusing his dancing as the reason to why there's a mass shortage of fish. This forces the main character to be exiled and inspires him to find the cause as to why there's little food for his family. In his journey he meets a funny hispanic bung, including Robin William's Ramon, the funniest character of the flock. Them, and William's alter ego, who's wisdom also inspires Mumble to soar farther than any other penguin. He accepts his talents to be natural and not a sickness towards his kind.

The movie does its job in sending the message that one doesn't have to be ashamed with their gifts. It also sends second message at the very end of the movie, where it basically goes green and shows us that we humans are the main cause to some rapid decline in penguins and the whole mercury issue. But, when I saw it tit didn't concern me at all. Harsh, I know, but why let a crisis like that affect my movie?

Happy Feet prevails with it's musical numbers and the sound effects from tap dancing in the snow was soothing to the ears. Let's not forget Danny Glover's son provided Mumbles main dance moves.

The Actors:

In general, all the singing was not fabricated by professional singers, for they came from our favorite actors, where even on the dvd and on the web there's a clip of the late Britney Murphy sining Somebody to Love with her natural voice. Such a talented person. Hugh Jackman's Elvis style was fun to listen to and Robin William's natural charismatic humor never a waste and always hilarious.

The Visuals:

All images and clips are crisp, cool and beautiful. All looked so realistic you would think of being right there with the characters. The best nature sequence had to be the penguins escaping the Orcas. The motion capture to relay the penguin dances were amazing and fun for the eyes. The sky cool lights or however you call them were majestic in the night son through Gloria's classic number.

Overall:

I saw back in 2006 that any studio can make an amazing animated movie, but also how fun penguins can be as they tap dance and sing their hearts out. To this day, it is still a fun movie to watch.

Written by: Bawnian©-Dexeus.

-In Memory of Brittany Murphy-