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January 03, 2007

Happy Feet

I finally made it to the cinema again, and it's so long since the last time I can't quite remember what I saw - probably a kids film though. And it was a kids film I saw this time too, Happy Feet.

This is a story of a little penguin called Mumble, who struggles to be accepted by his community. On the Antarctic ice shelf where he lives, penguins use singing from birth in order to find their true love. They have singing lessons, and all have a natural ability. As with the musical Moulin Rouge, we get to hear a lot of familiar songs, mixed together and remixed to sound very different sometimes from their originals.

But Mumble cannot sing, in fact, his singing is so bad it's painful to listen to. This makes him an embarassment to his family, and gives him no chance of being with Gloria, who he believes is is true soul mate. However, even though he cannot sing, can can tap dance, and loves doing it, losing himself in the beat. He believes that this will once day lead to acceptance by Gloria and the rest of the penguins.

So there is a love story, and some fantastic singing, what else would the movie need? How about some moral lessons on global warming, pollution, cruelty to zoo animals, and over-fishing of the oceans? Yes, we get all that too. Surprisingly though, it's handles quite sensitively, and resists too much sermonising.

Being a modern computer generated animated movie, we have come to expect high standards, and we are not disappointed here. The penguins look real; the flying through space to zoom in on the ice is amazing; the young penguins doing synchronised swimming in the ocean is mesmerising, and the avalanche fall is quite possibly the most exciting cinematic sequence I've ever witnessed.

Add this all together, with a heart warming ending which has masses of tap dancing, and what you get is a movie that is really very good indeed.

Posted by se71 at January 3, 2007 05:03 PM

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