Most of the reviews for "Happy Feet" were positive. There were a few who were vicious in their attack of the children's highly acclaimed film. I attached a copy of my personal review of "Happy Feet" as shown on Amazon.com
By Laurie Foston
July 7, 2007
Congratulations George Miller and Warren Coleman!
This film not only was a tremendous success for environmentalists; you hit about eleven various issues that were long overdue to be addressed in a film for young audiences.
Naturally, you are going to be met with opposition when you do that in any movie.
First, let me say that I have researched the time that it takes to make a film like this...the ludicrous comments that "you stole the storyline from "March of the Penguins" should be stopped right here and now. From the information I have researched, this movie was in the making before the Iraqi war.
I believe the first time this Penguin issue was brought before the public eye through film making was in 1922. And it's a very poor tactic to accuse a film maker of stealing a storyline that is based on a non-fiction documentary dating all the way back to 1922; especially since any nature documentary is good material for animated movies for children. I don't know of any other animated Penguin movies for children except the one coming out next year.
Somewhere in the theatre audiences, there are many Mumbles and Glorias who will come forth in the future and step outside the box because this film impressed them on one or more of those 11 issues that were address in the film. You have succeeded and I congratulate you on this effort!
The color was fantastic and the penguins' facial expressions said more than the lines that they spoke. My hat is off to the artists and choreographers! Robin Williams made a perfect "Lovelace" and Hugh Jackman played "Memphis" in a very special way.
This was entertainment for children at its best with the history, art,music and educational subject matter and there was never a five minute stretch that was not moving the plot along.
The premise was a young penguin who could not sing but could dance. Since their breed of penguins sang to attract a mate, this put Mumble at a disadvantage.
The hardship that the penguins had to overcome as a group was starvation. Penguins are basically starving in real life. (This part is not fictional.)
Mumble meets another race of penguins who actually have rhythm in their movements and he blends in with them, but he can't find a true mate among them as the breed is different, and he would like to have Gloria.( a penguin who was born in his tribe of penguins the same winter he was)
Mumble decides that his social issues are not as important as the shortage of food for the penguins to eat and he seeks out to find some answers on why they don't have enough fish for food. He spots a penguin called "Lovelace" who has a plastic six pack holder hanging about his neck. This shows the audience another issue of repercussions of tossing wastes into the Antarctic have adverse effects on the nature there. Lovelace swam through the water and it looped around his neck while he was small but as he grew older the plastic began to slowly strangle him. (another issue)
Mumble helps Lovelace solve the plastic choker problem, then resumes his quest to solve the food shortage, sacrificing Gloria in the process. He persuades her that he is no longer interested in her and wants to go out in the world on his own because he is afraid she will get hurt if she stays with him. (leadership values are played out by this little penguin star throughout the show)
In this attempt, to make contact with the humans (he refers to as aliens) he is captured and during his capture, he starts to dance for a little girl while he is in the zoo. This brings some attention to him from a lot of people. It is only then that the people decide to find out where he originated from, so they can study the other penguins.
Mumble is tagged with a monitor and released so that wildlife specialists can follow him back to his tribe of penguins. The others see Mumble and Mumble warns them that he has been a captive of aliens who were eating all of their fish. He convinces the others to dance for the aliens when they arrive. The behavior of the penguins appears strange to the world leaders and and they figure out that the penguins are trying to tell them they they are not worthless and they need to be able to stay alive like other creatures.
The story is not subtle about what man is doing to the Antarctic and finally at the end it comes right out and says "Stop fishing there."
At one point the scene jumps from Earth to a focal point far from the Earth to show how insignificant we may appear to aliens ourselves, and how would or should we react when they ignore us as we have the penguins.(another thought provoking issue here)
Many people took offense at this point of view, because some of the religious leaders first wanted to say the great Penguin in the sky would supply the food and not do anything to try to locate the food; but they did turn back toward a true fact and worked things out with everyone else. We all know that there are some people who misunderstand religion that way; but others do not. Mature people understand what is implied here and should not take offense as some reviewers wanted to harp on that.
My point of view is this: The producers had only one shot at it to make their point and this movie NAILED IT. Perhaps this review will help me feel like I have taken a least one small step in the right direction to promote a better cause for humanity by first opening a discussion about the creatures that live among us.
I appreciate all the actors who made this movie a success, and commend the producers for going through with something that they knew was going to cause great controversy and took a chance on being misunderstood. (many people took advantage of that).
