Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great movie that looks amazing in HD!, March 31, 2007
First of all, this is simply a great movie. The narrative is brought to life with humor, action, important life lessons, and conservational commentary. The voice actors all give 5-star performances and the animation is incredible.
But, this being the Blu-ray disc, I'm going to focus on the picture and sound.
The animation by itself is simply breath-taking; easily one of, if not the best looking CGI feature to date. But in HD, it's brought to life even further. Every feather on the penguins is apparent, every flake of snow falling through the air and I'd almost go so far as to say every molecule of water! This is the best looking animated feature you can get on Blu-ray now. It's definitely the show-off piece when people ask "How much better does HD look?". The leopard seal was particularly mind-blowing to me.
Another hook is the sound. While I wouldn't say this is the best sounding movie on Blu-ray, it definitely puts sound to good use and ranks pretty high. All five channels are used when appropriate, but Happy Feet does not utilize them as much as other films. Still, crank up the sound and the action scenes will blow you away.
All in all, this is an excellent movie made even better on Blu-ray. At this time, this is the Blu-ray disc to own for giving people lessons about HD.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful To Look At, And Not Heavy-Handed On Messages, March 27, 2007
When I saw this movie, I was struck by two things - how it looked and how it felt.
It sounds obvious, but I couldn't help but be struck by the artistry of the film's animation. "Happy Feet" had the appearance of a nature documentary, and I mean it in a good way. The filmmakers made a conscious effort to study penguin movement (maybe by watching "March of the Penguins?") as well as how the enviornment interacts with them. Simple backgrounds work as well, as they are able to capture the splendid vistas of an admittedly minimalist natural environment.
Now, it also was meant to be a "message" film, and those can always be tricky. I'm not a big fan of them because, when moviemakers attempt one, I get the feeling they assume the watchers are too stupid to get what they're saying without clobbering us about the head with them. It's worse when it's done with a "children's" film. There are two here - taking care of the environment and not casting out those that are different - and yet they're handled in a truly cool way. Yes, the uberconservatives may get in a bit of a snit when they see the forces against Mumbles are cast to appear like mean-spirited religious zealots, however this IS a great plotpoint. Outcasts (I speak from experience here) sometimes feel just that way - beat on and thrown out simply because we're running against the popular tide. And the environmental point is handled, I truly believe, in a way non-humans would look upon it. Humans really ARE "aliens" in this world, and they aren't being necessarily "mean" in how they act toward animals. They may be just clueless to the harm they're doing.
A top-notch voice cast helps bring this off. Elijah Wood may yet be one of the most overlooked actors in Hollywood because he's able to bring off a tender, desperate Mumbles with only his voice (although the animators also gave him Wood's piercing blue eyes). We don't get to see often enough Hugh Jackman's verstility with accents, and here we are hearing him do a cross between Curly from "Oklahoma" (I strongly suggest anyone who hasn't yet see the filmed Royal Shakespeare version with him in it to do so) and Elvis without it seeming forced or artificial. There are really too many performances to list, and they're all first rate.
The tapdancing too is great. We only see a cartoonish replication of Savion Glover's moves, but he really sends off on sound as well. A carryover from his days on "Stomp."
The final verdict is an enthusiastic "buy it." Unless you don't happen to like penguins.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
29 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Happy Feet ROCKS!, December 10, 2006
I'm 38 year old man, and all I have to say is that this movie spoke to me. Warner brothers is likely to get my money at least a couple more times before it leaves the theater and then again when it comes to DVD. I'm not going to expose plot points or anything like that you can read other reviews for that stuff. I'm more putting this here for the folks that are reading their own ideas into what they saw when they saw this movie. if your looking for certain things and then interpret those things a certain way, you're going to find them, good and bad. there's nothing wrong with and environmental message. we as humans are the top of the food chain, so to speak, but we sure don't act that way most of time. it is our responsibility to conserve, save and share this planet, be it with penguins or otherwise. we share this earth with a million other beautiful creatures. it's not just ours, it's theirs too, they live here too, they're not alien beings taking up our space, they were put here same as you and me, earthlings. as far as folks reading in religious, racial, sexual etc., stereotypes and otherwise, go ahead and check any of the latest pixar(no knock to pixar, just an example) and you'll find the same. as far it not all being for kids, go ahead and check out some old tom and jerry, there's about 20 times more violence in one 3 minute cartoon than in Happy Feet. Yes there are some scary moments but that's where the movie gives you a dose of reality as any one of you who have seen march of the penguins knows. If you think they're (WB) going to let a silly thing getting eaten get in the way of our hero saving the day, then you might as well walk out. Sure there are few sad moments too, but any of you seen Bambi and Finding Nemo? Hey man I'm a big cry baby myself. the biggest message I found in Happy Feet was that there's nothing wrong with being different and pursuing your own thing, that one thing just might end up saving the world one day, maybe not the whole world, but maybe your world. That's another cool thing about this movie, in spite of all the hard times Mumble is handed for being different, he doesn't back down for a second, misfit or not, he stays true to what he feels inside, if that's not being cool, then I don't know what is. So for all of you knocking this great movie with a great message, let's just calm down a bit and take it for what it is, some great family entertainment. if you take your kids and choose to explain certain items about the movie a certain way, that's on you, not Warner brothers. remember, if you look for bad, you're going to find bad. I find most movies to be up for ones own interpretation anyway and not all are going to walk away with the same experience. if you must go ahead and ask the folks at WB if they were actually tryting to get a certain point across that you found objectionable about Happy Feet. The music is great, the dancing is great, and the baby penguins couldn't more adorable. HAPPY FEET ROCKS!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
