Directed by George Miller
Staring Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy and Hugo Weaving
Released 2006

Okay, so I’m breaking my faith with the old again and posting something more contemporary. Can’t help it and you were kind of warned in the opening posts that I’d be writing about this when it came out on DVD… which Sloane was very smart to bring home with him when he came home. I’m surprised he didn’t hold it before him like a shield and was even more surprised he understood the “Mumble” text message I sent him midway through the day. Given my love of penguins this was a must see when it hit the theater last November and I got lucky… got to see it in the IMAX with a large group of the Austin NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, more on that in November) Penguins.

This movie is harmless fun with lots of music and not so sugar coated messages about the environment and the risk of fishing out the oceans as well as trying to teach a tolerance and adjustment to accept those who are different than you. The messages are great for children, but with Robin Williams voicing two characters I would have hesitated to take them to see it. Rated PG for crude humor (and according to IMDB “mild peril”).

So, what is this all about? It’s about a colony of Emperor Penguins who find their mates through song and a baby penguin named Mumble (Wood) who implements his “heartsong” though his feet. Mumble’s parents Norma Jean (Kidman) and Memphis (Jackman) are split on how to think of the kid. To Memphis, Mumbles dancing just “isn’t penguin”, but Norma Jean simply doesn’t care and accepts her son as he is. Gloria (Murphy) is one of the first penguins Mumble meets when he hatches and they’re close friends until penguin graduation.

After graduation Mumbles meets the Amigos, which are lead by Ramon (Williams) who introduce him to Lovelace (also Williams) to answer some questions that Mumble has. Returning to his colony he winds up being exiled by Noah (Weaving) and leaves with the Amigos to find his own answers.

And that’s all I’m telling you. Anything else will completely spoil the story and it’s definitely one to add to the collection. The voice cast is amazing and includes the talents of the late Steve Irwin. But I think, other than just enjoying the story, my favorite thing about Happy Feet is trying to identify all the snippets of music the penguins sing; Prince, Boys 2 Men, Mr. Mister, Salt N Pepa, and Elvis. And the important thing here is that they chose actors who could sing, so everything is done by the vocal cast instead of old recordings.

Oh, yes… two things before I forget. Brittany Murphy does a very good rendition of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” and Savion Glover (he apprenticed to Gregory Hines) provided all the dancing for Mumble.  The film earned its Best Animated Feature Oscar.

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