| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A- |
|
|
| Acting: |
A |
|
|
| Direction: |
B+ |
|
|
| Visuals: |
A+ |
|
|
Wowzers!
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Sep 8, 2007
58
of
98 people found this review helpful
First of all, I'd like to say Happy Feet was one of the best animation films I've seen.
Ok, so the movie wasn't PERFECT, but it rocked most of its 1 hr 48 min slot.
The main evolving themes were that society tends to neglect (or at worst banish) people who are physically disabled. We, as people, tend to bond together and unite to enjoy the fruits of life, but exclude the ones different from us.
There are two parallel stories: a baby penguin named Mumble finally hatches out of his egg, only to disappoint and annoy his fellow penguins because he could not sing. The penguin society excludes Mumble and ends up forcing him to leave when he starts to dance, instead of singing.
The other story reveals why the fish supply in Antartica (is that how you spell it?) is rapidly decreasing. Later, they find out that "aliens" were taking them, not really caring about the penguin population just because they were different and less important.
The two stories all relate to the central team of neglection/abuse because of differences. This is the only aspect of the movie I disliked, mostly because this theme is hackneyed. Tarzan did this, Toy Story did this, and a lot of animated features that I'm too lazy to think of now.
However, it's the execution that matters. The movie started out with an extremely well coordinated scene zooming onto a large flock of penguins (do you call penguins flocks?) and finally into a female penguin and a male penguin mating - by singing.
It was interesting to see Wolverine, Agent Smith, Kevin and Shellie (Sin City), and Man of the Year all as penguins. As for voice-acting, everyone did well. I had no idea Wolverine could sing like that.
Nicole Kidman, as always, sounded extremely sexy, even as a penguin with a tatto on her breast (did anyone catch what the blue tattoo was?). She can sing, but it was very short and I don't even remember anything else she sang.
Brittany Murphy was spectacular! To be honest, I think in the movie, she sang better than anyone we call "musicians" today. Ok, not that well, but it was very good. And she sounded sexier than Nicole Kidman's character.
Elijah Wood (our beloved cannibal from Sin City) was very good at, um, singing ridiculously bad. His voice acting, however, was medicore. He should stick to ripping people open with his fingernails. Or actual non-animation roles.
Robin William did a wonderful job, both for Lovelace the Guru and the Amigo guy. I didn't know he could sing like that either.
The animation was wonderful and humorous. The characters and settings were so detailed and rendered so well that it's easy to forget during close-ups that this is all animation.
The plot was to-the-point and the script was wonderfully written (ironically hilarious at some points). There were a lot of heart-capturing moments and the finale with all the penguins tap-dancing was nicely done.
My favorite scene was the water scene where all the penguins were making cool shapes underwater and stuff. The animation is unbelievable.
Highly recommended. This might hit the top of the box office soon, although Casino Royale will also provide a fierce competition. |
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