Happy Feet... See it at the Imax, Where It's a Little Larger Than Life

Happy feet. I've got those Happy Feet! Give them a low down beat, and they will start dancing.... oh wait - that's Kermit's song!

Well even though Kermit's not in this movie, Happy Feet sure follows the song because it's all about Dancing! We start in the cold cold winter place where all the penguins are singing, which turns out to be the way they pick their mate. Memphis and Norma Jean fall in deep deep penguin love and create an egg. To make a long story short, Mumble is born! This young bird pops out of his egg with his feet moving a little crazy because he's happy and his feet are happy too! His dad thinks it's just a phase he will get over. Mumble's tapping ways don't go away however, and the community really starts to think he's strange. On top of that, Mumble thinks he'll never find a soul mate since he can't sing at all.

That is just the start of what will be a long life of problems for Mumble. This penguin will start to grow up, but still be the oddball out. I'm not going to tell you anything else though! Don't want to ruin it for you.

My Thoughts
I saw this at the Imax when it came out in 2006 because I thought it would be in 3D. It wasn't, but it was still very cute and was good to see on this big screen. You will see right away that the scenery was very well done. So much so that when it snowed, I felt cold! You wouldn't think they could put so much detail and life into a snowy tundra, but they managed to do a great job with it. The penguins themselves were great, with the female penguins having just a bit of detail so you could kind of tell they were girls. Mumble stood out as the fuzzball who didn't quite look, or act, like the rest so he really was the odd one out. But is that such a bad thing, really?

Elijah Wood voiced this oddball and he did a great job at it, especially when he had to sing! Ahh! That was horrible! Brittany Murphy was the voice of Gloria, Mumble's crush since basically birth. She could sing, and she was at the top of the class, doesn't sound like Mumble could ever get a girl like her. The best characters in this movie were 5 Latin penguins Mumble meets, with Robin Williams being one of the main voices. You just know that was funny already.

Raul: What you huggin me for?
Ramon: He told me to.
Raul: Get away.
Ramon: No, you like it!

Those 5 penguins with their Spanish songs and one-liners were just hilarious. That turned out to be one of the major sources of humor in the film. The second source was supposed to be from the songs. Since this is a singing group of penguins, you will hear them singing a lot of popular music, with a little bird twist on it! Although I found some of these songs funny, I felt some of the performances dragged on too long, to the point of boring. Plus, a lot of the songs they choose were hard to recognize at first, and not many people may have understood the references. I'm sure I missed a few!

Besides the Latin penguins, and the songs, the movie had little other humor. Instead, it turned out to be more of a drama, or an Epic Journey. It's best related to Finding Nemo because it's a long journey where Mumble will go through a lot of hard times, various unexpected drama, and all this in an effort to find himself and be himself. I did expect this to be just a comedy, and was surprised to find out there was much more too it than just a dancing penguin. The journey is a long one too, so don't bring kids who get bored easily. There are a lot of twists, and just when you think it's over... it's not! Which is the same thing I said for finding Nemo. The only reason this is 4 stars out of 5, and Nemo is 5 stars, is because there were some jokes and songs that dragged on too long. It just got dull at certain points, especially in the first half hour or so. But once Mumble meets those Latin Penguins, I basically enjoyed the rest.

This was enjoyable for adults as well as older kids (it's rated PG). The rude humor that IMDB mentions is true, and if you are worried your kids will be scarred for life by some jokes than you may not want them to see this. I really think most of the adultish humor would go right over the kids heads, so you probably don't have to worry too much.

At 108 minutes, Happy Feet was an enjoyable film. I'm glad I saw it at the Imax because it did look really cool on the big screen (even though it wasn't in 3D). If they bring it back to the Imax this Christmas, go out and take your kids today! I suggest going to the earliest show possible. Ours was packed about 3/4 full at 10 AM, but the next show had so many people in the lobby we couldn't even walk out. If they don't bring it back to the Imax this year, there's always DVD, just make sure you watch it on a big screen to really experience the effects. Enjoy.